Zoe Liu
Where are you from, what're you majoring in?
I'm from Chino Hills, it's a suburb of LA, and that's currently where I'm based right now, and I'm majoring in Data Science and minoring in CS.
Are you planning on staying there for next semester as well?
Yeah, I'm still not sure yet. The main thing I'm worried about is the covid cases and just getting infected. It's nice being with family overall, because you get food, you get company, so I might just stay put for Spring. I'm a senior, so I'll be graduating next semester.
Why are you minoring in CS on top of Data Science?
I feel like there's a lot of overlap between CS and Data Science, Data Science being more math and analytics focused, whereas CS is more of the backbone of Data Science. It was nice getting a wider breadth of knowledge, not just focusing on Data Science but doing more of the low level stuff that CS covers. Those are the two things that interest me the most, so if I were to choose a minor it would definitely have been CS.
What's your favorite fun fact about yourself?
I feel like people in SAAS already know this, but I went to high school with the Ball brothers, Lonzo Ball was drafted to the Lakers, so I went to high school with them.
Have you picked up any hobbies over quarantine?
I did a lot of cooking over quarantine, I feel like cooking is very destressing in general, and I liked trying out new recipes, things I don't really eat normally. For example, this week I made pumpkin pie from scratch, and it was pretty good, it tasted like Costco's pumpkin pie and I love Costco's. Cooking aside, I also tried crocheting. I crocheted myself a little grocery bag to take with me when I go grocery shopping, whenever that will be in the future. I'm also part of the Statbus house, so I really like anime.
What's your favorite anime of all time?
The one I always come back to is Fullmetal Alchemist, but I also really like Madoka Magica. It's about magic girls, but more violent. Naruto was the very first anime I ever watched. I started off watching the entire show from start to finish before I picked up another anime.
Are you a big TV and movies person too?
I kind of flip back and forth between TV, movies, and anime, I just finished the Queen's Gambit. I feel like it's the best thing Netflix has ever put out, the characters are really complex. I haven't played chess before, but now I want to play chess because I want to understand what the show is talking about. Another TV show I really like is Bojack Horseman, I just rewatched it a month after I finished it, because it was that good. I used to rewatch Avatar once a year too.
What is your career focus right now?
Currently I have the most experience in machine learning, especially deep learning, that's where I did my internships, but I think I want to step more into the world of analytics or business analytics. I kind of want to do a start to finish data science lifecycle project, that would be cool. Getting a data set, cleaning it, exploring it, and going all the way to predictive modeling. That's not something I've done in an industry context yet.
Are you involved in any other student orgs / clubs?
Not this semester, because I feel like it's been hard to participate in some of the clubs I was in before. Last semester I was a part of BEAM, Berkeley Engineers and Mentors, and we'd basically go around to different elementary and middle schools and mentor kids on certain topics, and I was pretty involved with that. I didn't get as involved this semester, since I think the best part is actually going to site and actually talking to the kids. We had to pre record our lessons this semester, so I just decided not to pursue it.
Do you enjoy teaching or want to go into teaching at some point?
Yeah, I feel like I've always been really interested in teaching, I used to tutor back in high school. I'm thinking about joining Education committee next semester, because I really like the committee. It was one of the first committees I was interested in.
How did you find out about and join SAAS?
Well the flyers on Sproul. But also I knew Andre from freshman year and I heard through a friend that he joined SAAS, and Caroline Chen used to be my roommate sophomore year, so I heard a lot about SAAS through her since she was president at the time. She convinced me to apply, so I applied and got into R&P, and that's how I got my start in SAAS.
What committees have you been a part of so far?
I'm a part of DC this semester, it's been 3 semesters in DC, and I had 1 in R&P. I feel like I got the R&P experience, I really enjoyed getting to do my own research process, and I feel like I joined DC because I wanted a wider range of experience doing client work. My first project in DC was an NLP project, my second was a deep learning project, and this one right now is like a time series business analytics project. I feel like I get a wide breadth of experience from each project, so that's why I really like DC.
Do you think SAAS has impacted your career choice or just strengthened your interests?
I feel like a little bit of both. During the time I joined SAAS, I was already gunning for work in tech, but SAAS has helped me realize that I enjoy the data science part of my work more than the backend engineering, so SAAS has helped me inform my decision to be a data scientist.
What do you think is the biggest thing you've learned through SAAS or DC specifically that you wouldn't have known otherwise?
The most important thing that I've learned in SAAS is that you learn a lot from different people. No matter their experience or level of seniority, you can still learn a lot from different people, since everybody knows something you don't. I've learned a lot about different industries and different subjects from both freshmen and seniors and postgrads. That's one reason I like SAAS, you're surrounded by people with so many different interests and majors, you can pick up a lot just by talking to these people.
Do you have a favorite SAAS memory?
I really liked retreat. The retreat we had last year was really fun, even though it was raining, exec did a great job making it a fun experience. I remember having these really really wild Avalon games and having everyone crack up. We also went to a rock museum, and apparently there are a lot of people in SAAS who are into rocks. We also had some really fun bonding activities.
What's your favorite class at Berkeley been so far?
CS61B with Hug, he's a great lecturer and just made the subject matter so interesting, so that was my favorite class in all of Berkeley. Even though it wasn't the easiest or the least stressful, it was pretty high stress, it was a fantastic class because Josh Hug made it so fun.
What's your favorite Berkeley memory?
I don't know, just hanging out with friends. I really like doing food crawls in SF or in Oakland, so I'll just go with some friends and we'll spend the day there eating our way through Chinatown, we'll get pastries, boba, and then go to random restaurants that we think are cool and just have a day.
What is the prettiest and ugliest building on campus?
Ugliest doesn't need to be said, it's Evans hands down, but I think generally people will say East Asian is the prettiest building, but in my heart it's Cory hall. It has access to the night shuttle right outside and it's always very warm in there so it feels safe, and I just spend most of my time studying in Cory.
Do you have any other Berkeley or SAAS specific advice?
Just try to get to know as many people as possible. I know it can be kind of difficult in this virtual space where people are tired of staring at their screens for so long, but I think it's important to get to know people in SAAS, because the people here are super insightful, and getting to know them can influence your social circle, like it did to mine. Definitely get to know people in SAAS.