HomeAuthor InterviewsInterview with Bipin Chadha

Interview with Bipin Chadha

Bipin Chadha is the author of Agile Machine Learning with DataRobot we got the chance to sit down with him and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What is/are your specialist tech area(s)?

Bipin : Data Science, Digital Twins, Systems Thinking

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Bipin : I am always doing research but not necessarily for writing the book. It just happened by serendipity that I was thinking about these topics and Packt approached me with the idea for a book and it clicked..

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Bipin : Had some extra time to think about the topics during the pandemic and I saw a unmet need for new data scientists and people aspiring to become data scientists. I have written many papers in the past and I speak at conferences, but you can go only so deep in a paper or a presentation. A book allows you to covers the topics in a lot more detail.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Bipin : I had some issues accessing the tool while writing the book, but luckily my coauthor had better access and was able to fill the holes. So I highly recommend anyone writing a book to have coauthors. It made writing the book even more enjoyable.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Bipin : The technologies related to AI and ML have a bright future and are going to drive the future in the coming years. There will be some up and downs for sure and there will be some growing pains as we come to terms with this technology as a society. I hope we have the wisdom to use this powerful technology correctly.

Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Bipin : I do not think that there is an equivalent book in the market that makes data science and model building accessible to a broad audience that is not very familiar with programming. Also the book brings a systems thinking perspective that is typically missing in most data science books. I feel that a systems perspective is critical in making sure we are solving the right problems and we also understand broader consequences of introducing these new models into the organizations.

Q. What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away from the book with?

Bipin :  Key takeaways from this book are:
* You do not need to be a programming expert to do data science (it is helpful to learn though).
* Knowing programming doesn’t mean that you should do everything from scratch and you can significantly improve your productivity by using advanced tools.
* Generating business value requires more than building and deploying ML models and this book provides many practical tips for making that happen.

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Bipin :  You have to constantly look for new tools that can help you increase your productivity and effectiveness in whatever technology area you work in. Don’t get too enamored with any particular algorithm, tool, or language.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Bipin : Not yet, but hopefully coming soon.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Bipin : There are many blogs etc. but nothing today that provides a holistic view.

Q. How would you describe your author journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Bipin : I really enjoyed working with the Packt team. This is my first book and they made it all look very easy. Yes, I would recommend Packt to any aspiring author.

Q. Do you belong to any tech community groups?

Bipin : I belong to several groups in LinkedIn and I also participate in many INFORMS and System Dynamics Society conferences.

Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?

Bipin : My favorite tech journals are: IEEE Transactions, J of ML Research, arXiv.org, JASSS.org

Q. How did you organize, plan, and prioritize your work and write the book?

Bipin : I created a plan and set a target for number of pages each week, I did most of the writing on weekends, I anticipated the weekends where I was not available and also added a few catch up weeks. Then, I mostly stuck to plan.

Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Bipin : I like to create a broad outline first and then create a more detailed outline before starting to write. Then there are periods of thinking about what I want to say and periods where I am just writing.

You can find Bipin’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Agile Machine Learning with DataRobot is Available on Amazon.com