I think this sums up a new strategy for my career. After 30 years of working in National Defense, I can feel myself living in a rut. I want to try some new things. This post below is what I sent to Georgetown to get accepted to one of their programs. I've been studying to prep for it (SQL, Python, Stats and Calc), and I love it!
Statement of Purpose: Anthony W. Wright
https://medium.com/@anthonywwright
www.linkedin.com/in/anthonywrightfairfax
I am seeking a Data Science Certificate from Georgetown University to gain skills needed for my current career in national security industry and to transition to a more challenging commercial career. While mulling a career change, I read a 05 February 2018 Harvard Business Review article ( https://hbr.org/2018/02/you-dont-have-to-be-a-data-scientist-to-fill-this-must-have-analytics-role ) which described an emerging analytics role for translators to "help ensure that organizations achieve real impact from their analytics initiatives." The article sparked my interest as I've been translating between end users and technical teams for years. The article went on to list the necessary attributes, which I possess (see below), and highlighted my gaps in knowledge. Namely, "...know what types of models are available... What business problems they can be applied [to]...[and]interpret model results and identify potential model errors..." This Data Science Certificate would help address the knowledge gaps.
"What skills do translators need?"
A) "Domain Knowledge." - I am expert at Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition of large airborne weapons, sensors and aircraft. From understanding customer preferences through to deployment, I have managed large ($100M+) software development and hardware integration programs. With tools gained from a George Washington MS in Organizational Management and a Navy career, I have parachuted into many challenging roles requiring rapid understanding, cultural integration and boundary spanning (or translating). Pilot, Navy leader, Pentagon Portfolio Manager, Acquisition Manager - each position had unique practices, metrics, culture and language. I have repeatedly seen the different "tribes" for what they were, disparate pieces of the same team, and shepherded technologies through development to deployment.
B) "General Technical Fluency" - I have a long history with quantitative analytics and structured problem solving. Since 2012 I have worked to compete various technologies to determine the net effect of "just one dollar more" applied to a weapon, sensor or aircraft. I have worked with teams of advanced modeling & simulation (M&S) experts on tens of thousands of randomized, multi-entity, 3D, effects-based simulations. Controlling for proposed changes, the M&S produced mountains of data requiring significant effort to make sense of and produce the data visualizations required to help non-experts with real resources to understand. I recently worked an analysis of U.S. Electronic Warfare (EW) systems compared to foreign systems, in light of their faster pace of innovation and transition from analog to digital control of the Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum. This started with an industry survey, moved on to a physics-based analysis and concluded with a series of briefings to the highest levels of the DoD. Converting this analysis to something readily understood was "translating" of the first order. What I do not have, from the perspective of the article, is the expertise in various analytics models used in data science. The certificate will help with the gap in my technical fluency.
C) "Project Management." - I have ample academic and real-life management training and expertise. I have led large groups of people, 200+ as commanding officer of a Navy jet squadron. I have managed multidisciplinary (administrative to scientific) groups responsible to over a dozen different Integrated Product Teams (IPT) working different projects. I have managed large IPTs working across multiple organizations (DoD, Navy, industry) conducting system engineering resulting in software development and hardware change across multiple product lines (weapons, sensors and aircraft).
D) "Entrepreneurial Spirit" - Over the last nine years I have connected end user need with new science and technology projects. From securing funding to deployment, I have turned good ideas into new capabilities for the DoD. While looking to address EW needs, I assisted with the integration of a project to field Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program called Adaptive RADAR Counter Measures (ARC). While hardly state-of-the-art machine learning, integrating that software has pushed the user into accepting systems with more autonomy and distributed machine decision making as a necessary capability. The DARPA Radio Frequency Machine Learning Systems (RFMLS) is the next machine learning step in solutions for EW problems and another capability I'm working to deploy with DoD users. It is closer to current academic thinking on deep learning, and a huge integration problem. This project's potential and complexity highlighted to me a need for more education and training in Data Science.
Data Science is a powerful tool that must be accurately applied to the problem at hand. I want to be a part of it. For Data Science teams to be effective, translators are needed to connect end users with developers. I have been translating between end users and technical teams for more than a decade and have many of the necessary attributes to succeed in Data Science as a translator. The Georgetown Certificate in Data Science is a critical next step for me to obtain my professional goals.
https://hbr.org/2018/02/you-dont-have-to-be-a-data-scientist-to-fill-this-must-have-analytics-role
https://breakingdefense.com/2016/11/darpa-ups-funding-for-autonomous-electronic-warfare-work/
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