Lucas Bandarkar
“Semester after semester, I was doing something that was somewhat different from what I did last. I spent four semesters in data consulting, but every project I did was so different and every role I played in my teams was so different. As the semesters progressed, I was getting so much out of this club and was growing so much more as a data scientist, which is why I wanted to stay in SAAS and why I kept coming back. Now as an advisor, looking back at all those semesters I definitely feel like I'm indebted to this club in a way and love giving back as a part of the advising process.”
Tell me about yourself: your year, major, hometown, and a couple fun facts and hobbies!
I'm Lucas, I use he/him pronouns. I'm a fourth year, majoring in statistics and data science. I grew up in Los Altos, California. Currently I'm here in Berkeley this semester. Hobbies that I enjoy outside of my academics include tennis; I really enjoy playing tennis on the club tennis team here. I also enjoy cycling, hiking, and skiing. I'm really into maps, and geography in general as well.
What are your professional interests and why are you interested in those fields? What kinds of experiences, professional or otherwise, have contributed to these interests?
Also, last summer I had a data science internship at Facebook AI, which wasn't necessarily research in the academic sense, but it was surrounded by a lot of research scientists in a research-type setting. That experience furthered the idea that I would want to do a PhD and if not that, be a research scientist in the future doing data science work very closely related to research. Speaking of the research I'm specifically interested in and tying it all together, I'm drawn to machine learning research and natural language processing, deep learning applications to language, and studying how deep learning models can improve the ways machines understand and generate text and language. Altogether I think my interest in NLP is somewhat situational; I had an internship that involved NLP which led me to SAAS projects about NLP, which led me to pursue research about NLP, and I like NLP enough and have enough experience in it where I can see myself continuing this for the long term.
You're a senior who has been in SAAS for quite a while now. How did you find out about SAAS originally, what inspired you to join SAAS in the first place, and what has motivated you to stay in SAAS since then?
And so semester after semester, I was doing something that was somewhat different from what I did last. I spent four semesters in Data Consulting, but every project I did was so different and every role I played in my teams was so different. As the semesters progressed, I was getting so much out of this club and was growing so much more as a data scientist, which is why I wanted to stay in SAAS and why I kept coming back. Now as an advisor, looking back at all those semesters I definitely feel like I'm indebted to this club in a way and love giving back as a part of the advising process.
During your time in SAAS, what have been some developments or transformations that you really liked, and what is your personal vision for SAAS and how you would want the club to keep changing for the better?
Beyond that, as a soon-to-be graduate imaging what I would want SAAS to be going forward, I think that the greatest strength of SAAS is how well rounded it is, in terms of the type of people that it targets and helps. I'd like definitely for that to continue in terms of emerging or budding data scientists being the target audience for Career Exploration. As another example, Data Consulting can be great for people who are midway through college and are trying to develop their applied skills on a deeper level, and Insights & Analytics would be the bridge between CX and Data Consulting. Research and Publication could be somewhat of a different option for people who maybe aren't trying to pursue industry-type roles, but for people who just might be interested in working on their own independent project. That sort of diversity is something that makes this club really powerful, and definitely I always felt like I was always in the place that I wanted to be thanks to this club.
In terms of the three SAAS core values (community, exploration and mentorship), which one would you value the most and why?
Now as an advisor, something that I've been enjoying has been answering questions, providing both classwork help and professional help, and being able to have a lot of donutbot one-on-one's with new people, oftentimes freshmen that I've never met before, and being able to help them with anything they might want.
What has been your favorite class at Berkeley?
Another one of my favorite classes is GEOG 140A and 140B, which were just classes that I took completely for fun. These classes are about physical landscapes, and they were classes I wanted to take for a while but didn't know if I was ever going to fit them into my schedule. It was a super fun class, everyone was super passionate about the class material, and it was a really cute setting to learn about stuff that I've loved for a long time.
Who has been your favorite professor at Berkeley?
I would say that my favorite professor was probably Alexander Paulin, who taught my Math 54 class about three or four years ago. He was just a great lecturer, and I feel like he taught linear algebra in a way that was really understandable and relatable, which was important to me because linear algebra is just so useful, so I'm very glad that I learned linear algebra from him.
What is your favorite place on the Berkeley campus that you think more people should know about?
One of my favorite study spots is the Philosophy Library in Moses Hall. If I ever had the chance to study back on campus, I probably wouldn't reveal this information publicly because the Philosophy Library in Moses Hall is a very small and secret spot, but a super cute spot, like an old wooden old library, completely silent. Beautiful, beautiful place to study.
The website version of this interview was mildly edited for length and clarity.
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