Today is the last day of the IMD Digital Analytics Week. In a nutshell, this week aims to give the MBA participants an experience in coding and analytics. This is becoming more and more important because the world is rapidly changing because of technology. As we heard from our sessions, having a background in coding and analytics is a plus, even if your target industry is outside of tech. This is IMD’s way of preparing us for the digitized world after graduation.
Coming from a background with little to no coding experience, I was initially intimidated with the tasks that we had to do. Thankfully, Professor Amit Joshi and his team were there to guide us the entire way. The week was filled with a good balance of class lecture, group work, coding competitions, and it was capped off with a final presentation of our work to a panel of judges.
As we wrap up today, I look back on the lessons learned and the purpose of this Digital Lab. Before, words such as AI, Machine Learning, and Data Science were all just buzzwords to me. With the week coming to an end, we’ve all gained hands on experience of what it’s like to become a Data Scientist.
Aside from the technical skills learned, the usual camaraderie and leadership skills developed during group work is of equal importance. It’s interesting to see how team dynamics change when you add new elements such as computer programming. Furthermore, I appreciate the effort given by both my peers and Professor Amit’s team during the entire week. We would always see the coaches running around the entire MBA building, juggling lectures and troubleshooting the technical problems of 22 different groups. And as for my MBA classmates, their dedication to the task at hand and their competitive spirit made everything much more enjoyable.
With all that said, it goes without saying that the Digital Analytics Week is definitely one of the most memorable moments of my MBA journey so far.
