Engineering degree -> Industrial Data science -> Physics/Astrophysics?
Posted: Mon Oct 28, 2019 6:35 am
Hi guys,
I'm applying to Astronomy/Astrophysics and Experimental Physics in US and Canada (I'm from Southeast Asian) this term and currently I'm not sure what to do.
So my profile has :
- BSc in Electrical Engineering from top school in my country (GPA ~3.5, valedictorian in cohort of 100 students), have done quite a few electrical projects (like solar panel simulation, mesh networking, building power measurement device, ...) and a theory-heavy thesis on signal integrity (secrecy outage analysis) which resulted in a 3rd author IEEE conference paper
- Physics related courses in my BSc: 1 course in Classical Mech, 2 in Thermodynamics, 5 in Electromagnetic 1 in Quantum Physics, 1 in Solid State Devices, I scored maximum grades on all these courses, but my knowledge is getting really rusty.
- 2 years working as Associate Data Scientist and then Research Engineer for one of the biggest private Machine learning firm in my country. I do 5-6 research projects in this time that involves processing crazily big datasets. So I'm quite competent in programming and big data processing techniques.
- Decent GRE (169Q 162V)
- Probably shitty pGRE, just took this Oct and not sure if I can even cross 50%, 2 years working in CS industry does heavy damage to my Physics memory.
- Somehow my program have ties with UIUC and borrowed exactly their syllabus in ECE, we even have professors from UIUC come teach us 2-3 courses every summer not sure if this will play any role
The biggest problem is I have virtually zero research experience in Physics, I did quite a few student capstone projects on electrical systems, but that's as close as it gets. I know that Astrophysics research will involve heavy data processing, is there any way I could leverage my competency in Data Science into my profile? Should I just screw it and apply to CS program where my profile is quite strong? I really love astronomy though, and I'm not really enjoying my work in Data Science
I'm applying to Astronomy/Astrophysics and Experimental Physics in US and Canada (I'm from Southeast Asian) this term and currently I'm not sure what to do.
So my profile has :
- BSc in Electrical Engineering from top school in my country (GPA ~3.5, valedictorian in cohort of 100 students), have done quite a few electrical projects (like solar panel simulation, mesh networking, building power measurement device, ...) and a theory-heavy thesis on signal integrity (secrecy outage analysis) which resulted in a 3rd author IEEE conference paper
- Physics related courses in my BSc: 1 course in Classical Mech, 2 in Thermodynamics, 5 in Electromagnetic 1 in Quantum Physics, 1 in Solid State Devices, I scored maximum grades on all these courses, but my knowledge is getting really rusty.
- 2 years working as Associate Data Scientist and then Research Engineer for one of the biggest private Machine learning firm in my country. I do 5-6 research projects in this time that involves processing crazily big datasets. So I'm quite competent in programming and big data processing techniques.
- Decent GRE (169Q 162V)
- Probably shitty pGRE, just took this Oct and not sure if I can even cross 50%, 2 years working in CS industry does heavy damage to my Physics memory.
- Somehow my program have ties with UIUC and borrowed exactly their syllabus in ECE, we even have professors from UIUC come teach us 2-3 courses every summer not sure if this will play any role
The biggest problem is I have virtually zero research experience in Physics, I did quite a few student capstone projects on electrical systems, but that's as close as it gets. I know that Astrophysics research will involve heavy data processing, is there any way I could leverage my competency in Data Science into my profile? Should I just screw it and apply to CS program where my profile is quite strong? I really love astronomy though, and I'm not really enjoying my work in Data Science