Hello! My name is Chin Hwee, and my day job is a Senior Data Engineer at a government-linked corporation in Singapore (so technically ah-gong keeps me off the streets) fintech company that helps migrant workers stay in touch with their loved ones back home (so technically my work can potentially make the world a better place for them to live in) nascent team in a superapp company that aims to deliver financial inclusion in one of the world’s fastest-growing regions.
My background is not in Computer Science (I could have switched majors, but I really love studying aerodynamics and aircraft propulsion too), but I’ve been relying on writing codes on-and-off to get myself through coursework since more than 10 years ago. I enjoy writing code and making my codes work, ‘cos bugs are common and solving bugs helps keep my potentially-dangerous perfectionistic thoughts at bay.
More Information
My personal interests range from aviation to music and finance (but sadly COVID-19 sent aviation into a long winter). I am also interested in photography, travel, and innovation.
I’m currently struggling learning how to write well-functioning functional programming codes in Scala so that I can run Spark jobs in their native language, and how to make my Python codes run faster so that I can have more time to focus on machine learning. I enjoy having deep-dive discussions on how to make the world a better place through technology and human intelligence. I also have a resume, if you’re looking to hire someone for data science and engineering.
I keep track of my tech goals every year to keep myself on track in my tech career journey, check them out here.
My top-priority goal in 2022 is to attain seniority and become a Senior Data Engineer, and I have achieved that goal after a turbulent career journey. Leveling matters a lot for me as a data professional who takes my career progression seriously, as “titles make a world of difference in establishing credibility” in my tech career and are directly tied to future compensation and financial outcomes. If you are a data professional who would like a candid discussion on career progression in tech, let’s connect!
Talks
I stumbled into public speaking when I attended Singapore Global CFP Diversity Day in March 2019, and subsequently got my first CFP submission accepted a few months later. Since then, I have spoken at various meetups and conferences locally and internationally on a variety of topics including data processing, parallel and asynchronous programming, and contributing to the open source community.
One of my speaking goals in 2022 is to monetize my speaking engagements. Let’s discuss how I can add value to your next event in 2022!
Topics that I speak on:
- Data Processing
- Parallel and Asynchronous Programming for Data Science
- Data / Machine Learning Pipelines for Time-Series Data
- Contributing to the Open Source Community
- Building Your Tech Career like a Business
More details on my speaking here
Selected Talks and Media Features
- Designing Functional Data Pipelines for Reproducibility and Maintainability at PyData Global 2021
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InfoWorld - 4 Reasons to get Kubernetes-certified, and 4 reasons not to
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Wanted Spotlight - Breaking Data Episode 3: “How to Build Your Data Career Like A Business”
- Making Open Weather Data More Accessible: Extracting Seasonal Insights from Singapore Weather Station Data at OpenUP Global Summit 2019
- Recording courtesy of Open UP Summit
- How to Make Your Data Processing Faster: Parallel Processing and JIT in Data Science at Women Who Code CONNECT Asia 2019
- Recording courtesy of Engineers.SG
- pandanistas - Interview with Ong Chin Hwee