OpenMined Featured Contributor: January 2022

Where are you based?

"Gujarat, India "

What do you do (i.e. studying, working, etc.)?

"I am in my senior year at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University pursuing a B.Tech in ICT (Information and Communication Technology), keenly exploring the various fields and applications that can be burnished with the touch of Privacy preserving technologies. "

What are your specialties (i.e. Python development, Javascript development, community organization, etc.)?

"I have been exploring Machine Learning and Deep Learning for almost a year now. I love participating in various Datathons that revolve around solving social impact challenges."

How and when did you originally come across OpenMined?

"Thanks to the YouTube algorithm that suggested to me the video “Performing remote Data Science”. This was my very first encounter with Privacy and exactly what began the domino effect that got me all riled up about Privacy Preserving Technologies and how it can aid the current analytics/practices by eliminating internal biases due to lack of data. "

What was the first thing you started working on within OpenMined?

"I was a complete stranger just waddling around, discussing different ideas and projects.I was fortunate enough to have joined at the time of the release of the first course.Initially, I began with helping out with the list of terms for beginners and then tried to summarize one of the talks at PriCon 2020. "

And what are you working on now?

"I am currently a part of the Documentation Team. Also, currently working my way through the courses and trying to get my hands dirty on different Federated Averaging techniques by implementing them.Also exploring the various ways that Privacy Preserving Technologies can be used for informed decision making for both -  corporates and altruistic initiatives."

What would you say to someone who wants to start contributing?

"As someone who was really kindled with the zeitgeist of what people were doing here at OpenMined, I was certainly looking for more! – more to learn and more to contribute. I had joined the Writing team and eventually started working with the Documentation Team. Take my word for it, if you are not convinced about the fact – that writing down your thoughts and insights really portray an overview of your underpinned learnings. So if you’re NEW - just try and go through the amazing courses and maybe join the Writing Team to get started ;)"

"You might not be able to make huge contributions to the codebase from the very start but that’s totally Okay!! Feel free to ask around whenever you hit roadblocks - Trust me! I have asked some very dumb questions now that I look back - But that’s how we learn right?"

Please recommend one interesting book, podcast, or resource to the OpenMined community.

"My number one Podcast recommendation has to be “The Program” AudioSeries. Listening to each episode of the series is a thought provoking adventure of its own in a world where every materialistic entity is controlled by a “Program”. Amazing storytelling, along with the independent stories afford all the more reason why we should focus on the Ethical horizon of AGI."

"I was also intrigued by a fairly new podcast titled “Sudhir Breaks the Internet,” that sheds some light on the broken information flows that prevail in Silicon Valley. Here, at OpenMined we  understand that fixing such information flows is concomitant to our vision/mission of  solving privacy."