Three graduates share their work in data science and how the Hertie School helped them get to where they are today.
It’s no secret that knowing your way around data (and knowing what to do with it) can make you a strong asset to any team hiring these days. The first group of students starting the Master of Data Science for Public Policy (MDS) in fall 2021 will find that data skills are baked into the MDS curriculum – and our other programmes have long incorporated them as well. MPP and MIA students all take statistics in their first semester and have the option of data science electives in their second year. MPP students can also specialise in policy analysis, the more quantitative of the programme’s two concentrations.
So who are some of our alumni working in the data science field and how did they get to where they are today? We asked three Hertie School alumni to share their perspectives in the above video. Here are their profiles below:
Carlos Ahumada (MPP 2019) currently works as a Senior Strategist in Data Analytics at Cosmonauts & Kings, a data-driven political communication company in Berlin. Carlos first identified the need for quantitative tools in policymaking when he worked as a political advisor in the Mexican Senate and at public sector consultancies in Mexico. He explored this interest further at the Hertie School, where he learned how to work with and apply data to solve real-world problems. Carlos’s take on the increasingly popular field of data science? “The insights you can get from data are invaluable, and they have the power to have a positive impact in our world.”
Hannah Miles (MIA 2019) works as a Statistical Analyst at Ground Truth Solutions, an international NGO based in Vienna, where data science is used to understand how people affected by humanitarian crises experience the aid they receive. Hannah got into the data science field via her first-semester courses in statistics and economics at the Hertie School. Ultimately, the practical elements of these courses helped her develop her skills in Python and R, which she now uses in her day-to-day work. “I did not come from a mathematical background,” Hannah says. “So it was something new for me that I really enjoyed learning.”
Malte Berneaud-Kötz (MPP 2016) works as a Data Scientist at the Looping Group, an independent communications agency, where he helps analyse data from social media and other publicly available sources to understand what customers are passionate about. Malte found his own passion for statistics and quantitative methods right here at the Hertie School. For Malte, the possibilities with data are immense – “Big data allows us to incorporate many more viewpoints and voices into any decision-making process that would otherwise be impossible to process for any single human.”
Curious about the Master of Data Science for Public Policy programme? Hear from our data science faculty and staff in the video below.
