Apoorva Tamaskar
BU MET Helps Alumna Apoorva Tamaskar Move Beyond Theory to Develop Real-World Skills
Apoorva Tamaskar
MS in Computer Science (MET’21)
What compelled you to return to school and pursue a graduate education? What is your long-term objective?
The knowledge I acquired during my undergraduate studies in India was only theoretical; I didn’t have any idea about the issues I might face in the real world. Overall, I lacked exposure to the software side of things, what technology to use, and more. With the knowledge and skills gained from this program, I hope to be able to work as a quantitative analyst at a medical/financial institution.
Why did you choose MET for your graduate studies? What set MET apart from other programs you were considering?
A few of the major reasons for choosing BU were the data analytics concentration, the city of Boston (with its medical startups), as well as the fact that BU has a PhD program. Apart from BU MET, I was considering another university, but it didn’t offer a data analytics program starting in January 2019 so I decided on BU.
Is there a particular faculty member from your courses who enhanced your experience at MET? Who and why?
Assistant Professor Kia Teymourian, coordinator of programming languages, has been the best teacher I have interacted with since my undergraduate days and has made the experience at BU amazing. His openness and willingness to resolve doubts, provide guidance on advanced material outside the course syllabus, and a ton of career advice has been extremely helpful. He is also my master’s thesis advisor and his guidance has benefited me a lot.
How do you apply concepts you learned in your courses at BU MET in your current job or internship?
The courses at BU went from a simple introduction to writing an SQL query to me being able to write my own query compiler/optimizer. The SQL knowledge has helped me understand file systems, databases, Deep Learning, and query optimization. This has helped with my master’s thesis, and to make a contribution to open-source software.
Is there anything else you would like to add?
Overall, attending BU has been a very beneficial and satisfying experience.