By: Yash Bhake

When and how did you decide to pursue this minor?:

in my 3rd sem, decided based on my interests

Why this Minor?

Interest in data science and ML

Ideal pathway to complete this minor by the 8th semester?

3rd sem- ds203, 4th sem- cs419/ds303, sem 5, 6, 7 one ds basket course each, decently doable given the flexibility and a huge course basket.

Pursued Courses

3rd Semester:

DS203

4th Semester:

CS419

5th Semester:

CS626

6th Semester:

CS726

7th Semester:

CS772

8th Semester:

ASR or speech processing course(planned)

Course Prerequisites?

background in python is really helpful

Was it difficult managing your minor alongside core Mech courses?

DS203- fairly straightforward, CS 419- bit difficult, but projects/assignments even it out. CS 626- exams are particularly tough with negative marking, but assignments and project cover up. CS 726- Difficult, needs very strong foundation of algorithms, automata, and especially probability. IE 501- difficult exams, assignments/project cover up. Suggest taking not more than one minor course in each sem, and as you have 6 sems to do 5 courses, if you feel a sem is heavy/intern season/ por etc. one sem can be omitted.

Were you able to connect this minor to your interests, projects, or career goals?

Yes definitely, I am pursuing research in Audio processing and ML in audio, all of the courses have contributed to my understanding and projects have helped in hands-on implementations, NLP courses are very connected to the work I try to do.

Any specific courses in your minor that stood out (positive or negative)?

Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya- CS 626. CS 772- very poor at teaching, but content is really good, CS 772 has guest lectures- pretty valuable, all the assignments are very important and help in growth, do the projects properly would help a lot. Prof is very very senior, if you catch up well, and get to do something under him, would be great. Grading is fair, you can get a BB with normal effots, doing assignments and projects, for AB+ have to score in the difficult exams CS 726- Prof Sunita Sarawagi- teaches well, but requires all the above mentioned prerequisites, then it shall go smooth. Assignments are very very very important, there’s no project, but these assignments each are almost project level heavy. Grading is low-mid, as course is overall difficult, if you have covered the foundation courses, you would have an edge.

Tips for juniors:

take intro courses before, make sure you know what are the soft and hard pre-requisites of any course before registering for it.

Would you recommend doing a minor in general? Why or why not?

Definitely! CS minor, DS minor open up new opportunities, especially if you are interested in they can help a lot, and gives a different taste of engineering as it may not be aligned to your core curriculum