My UP School Journey | Unleash Potential!
By: Nisanur İlhan
Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science, Women In Tech, Bootcamp

What is the purpose of this program?

In Turkey, only 33% of women are employed and only 10% in technology. Even if I said in specially Turkey, this situation valid all around the world. In cloud computing, just 12% of professionals are women. Similarly, in engineering and Data and AI, the numbers are 15% and 26% respectively. By 2010, women accounted for only 17.6% of computer-science and IT programs. The percentage of women among STEM graduates is about 19%. Unfortunately, the rate of women who works in STEM jobs is very low.

UP School’s aim is solving the inequality in education, provide an opportunity for young women to find a job in STEM fields and to increase the rate of the women working in the tech fields in Turkey. UP School transforms the lives of women by offering them a valuable education and opportunity of employment.

Which programs do they provide us?

It has conducted a Data Science and Robotic Process Automation training so far. But they will investigate deeeply in which field they need more women in the technology sector and launch new programs.

How long do take these programs?

It varies depending on type of the program. Whereas Robotic Process Automation training was 8 weeks, Data Science training was 20 weeks.

The Data Science program consists of 8 hours of technical hours and 1 hour of human skill hour per week during the period. -meetings with our mentor guests are not included in these hours-

Is any pre-requirement for apply these programs?

Actually, I can answer that only for Data Science program because I have no idea about others. And yes, this program requires some skills before first of day of the program such as some basic statistical background, knowledge of fundamentals of any programming language like Python etc.

Who gives the education?

The instructors of each program are different. These instructors consist of experts in their field. Here is the more detail about data science instructors team.

Is there any elimination for this program?

You pass through 4 different elimination steps in order to qualify for enrollment in UP School’s programs. These are the basic technical knowledge test, English proficiency, Coding Exam, f2f meeting with instructors, respectively. If you passed all of these steps, you can get a chance to be a student of this program.

Are there any conditions to graduate and find a job?

You must attend a minimum of 90% of the courses in order for you to graduate successfully. You have to complete the graduation project. Before the program starts, you can learn detailed information about the program from the UP School team. It is important for them not to have any question marks in your mind.

More Detail About the Data Science Program

We started with the simplest building blocks like how to use Github and finished worked on Cloud Computing. Although we mainly focus on Data, we have made many applications on the AI side, especially on the Machine Learning side. We even hosted guests from Google as guests for DL lessons. Obviously, I worked more on DL, CV and RL as my interest was more in these fields. But some of my other friends in the class discovered themself that loved one of the fields in the Data Science for example Data Engineering, Data Analytics, Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, etc. Maybe one of the pros of this program is that everyone could find the opportunity that you interest in which field makes you happy and motivated. If I have to explain the overall subjects during the program that we saw in the class, I can say that Python(focus on specific libraries such as Pandas, Numpy, Seaborn, Matplotlib etc.), SQL, DBMS, Data Visualization & Storytelling,(we hosted a valuable guest from Google London Office for this subject, it was really amazing!) Machine Learning, Linear Algebra, Statistics & Modeling, Recommendation Systems, Introduction to Deep Learning, Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Introduction to Reinforcement Learning, Applied Natural Language Processing, Applied Computer Vision in Microsoft Platforms, Cloud Computing and Databases.

All of these subject we learned, we did hw’s, projects, group works, participated in Kaggle competitions etc. Sometimes we worked with real company datas as Trendyol Group’s, Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Data.

We hosted many valuable company for our lesson such as Getir, Global Maksimum, Trendyol Group, Google, CCI, Garanti Bank.

The most significant difference between UP School and other bootcamps

In addition to technical lessons, we held human skill lessons 1 hour in every 2 weeks. We have covered many subjects such as patience, gratitude, respect, time management, dealing with difficulties and achieving success.. We put on our wing of conscience next to our technical wing. Once again, I would like to say thank you to my session graduate Melike Aydın, YGA President who led to us.

In addition to all these, we met with numerous mentors. They were very valuable people, each of whom achieved success in their respective fields. Each one came from different fields. Some of them were the executives of very large companies that we might not have the opportunity to meet in real life. In this way, we had the opportunity to observe many sectors. We learned a lot from our guest leaders as candidates for women leaders in technology.

What happens at the end of the program?

After the program, UP School brings us together with companies for recruitment interviews. Moreover, it prepares us for these interviews! How does? It prepares us for real interviews by providing many opportunities such as CV preparation training, interview training, mock interviews with real companies.

Don’t forget please. The most important thing here is to find a job that you will be happy with. This is also very important to the UP School team.

If this is something that you really want to do, if you believe it in.. Simply keep forging forward because success will come.Even though it’s too hard, don’t give up. Trust me.

My Graduation!

You can watch my capstone project here that I represented before my graduation. If you have any question about UP School or anything you want, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

The End or the New Beginning?

Every separation is sad. But we called it a new beginning, not a separation. The beginning of the succesful stories of 20 different strong women. I am proud of each one. Each of them has a completely different story, different background. I know they will be very successful. The elimination stages for enrollment in this program really found true lead candidates. I’m so lucky to meet these chosen women -in really mean chosen..- thanks to these eliminations.

Thank you everyone, good luck for your journey after this program..