Ruhi Doshi
Can you tell me a little background info about yourself, like your year, pronouns, major, and where you're from?
My name is Ruhi Doshi. I am a Data Science and Operations Research and Management Sciences Double Major. My pronouns are she/her, and I’m from Minnesota - specifically, a suburb of Minneapolis.
What are your past and current SAAS committees?
I joined as a freshman in my fall semester in the Career Exploration committee. From there, I moved to the Web Dev committee for a semester. I was on Data Consulting for 3 semesters, and then I joined leadership. I was one of the Insights & Analytics Directors last semester. Now, I am the projects vice president and am managing a Data Consulting team.
About your two majors, how and why did you choose both of them?
Until I was 16, I was dead-set on being an astronomy major and being an astronomer, and then I started to talk to professionals and researchers. They were like, “You should study something with computers and brush up on your math and physics skills, and do it that way instead, because there is not much money pouring into the astronomy field.” Not to say you can’t be successful, but it’s a much more challenging path, than say, if you go through a computational route. So that was part of a year-long research program I was doing in high school, and for that program, I ended up working under a professor in the computer science department, on a geospatial data science project. I found out that I loved it - I loved working with data and seeing exactly how math, CS, and stats intersect with each other and can be applied to create a whole new class of approaches to tackle problems in different domains. That’s how I became interested in Data Science as a whole. I really enjoyed working with data and analyzing it, even more than building software or anything like that. So I was pretty much positive that I wanted to do Data Science as a major when I entered college. The next year, UC Berkeley announced that they were going to be offering the first or second undergraduate Data Science program in the U.S., so I was dead-set on trying to do that. As far as the Operations Research major, once I got to campus, I kept taking classes and I knew that I wanted to add something to my Data Science major, but I didn’t really know what. As I kept looking into it and talking to different people, I stumbled upon a few classes in the IEOR department, which were doing some of the stats-oriented coursework in an optimization-focused setting, and I really liked that. I also really liked the community that I found in the ORMS community as well, so that’s how I applied and became an ORMS major.
Do you have any fun facts about yourself?
I used to take piano lessons, and my piano teacher taught me some organ pieces. I installed a software on my laptop that can connect to my piano at home, so I can play the Virtual Organ.
Any hobbies and interests?
I like listening to music, hanging out with friends, hiking - I’m in the #hiking channel. I’m a big board games fan, so you will pretty much catch me every weekend playing board games. I’ve started to get more into cooking, but that’s a slow work in progress. Other than that, I really like keeping up with astronomy stuff - I’m a part of an astronomy research lab, and I also volunteer with the National Science Olympiad astronomy event. I write tests and proctor.
What are your professional interests, and how did you get into those fields?
I can give a brief overview of my professional background. After freshman year, I was doing a research internship with my astronomy research lab, and from there, I did an internship in my sophomore year with Amazon Web Services. Last year, I was working at a company called Wealthfront as a Data Science Intern. In terms of my professional interests, it’s definitely varied a little bit, but I’m more confident now that I want to do Data Science, and am open to exploring financial technology companies a bit more. I think they have a lot of interesting optimization problems and statistical challenges, specifically due to the scale, the irregularity, and even the user experience of some of these apps and companies. I’m also always looking for ways to stay connected with the astronomy world as well.
Are you in any other campus organizations other than SAAS?
SAAS is the biggest one for sure. I’m also a TA for Data 102 right now, and that’s also really fun. I really enjoy teaching.
How did you find out about SAAS, and why did you join?
I found out about the club as a freshman when they were tabling. I was looking into it, and it turned out that one of my friends from high school was in the club, and he really encouraged me to join. I applied and it went well, and I stuck around because the people, community, and opportunities are really cool.
Which is your favorite SAAS committee?
That’s definitely hard to say. I’ve been mostly affiliated with Data Consulting during my time in SAAS. I think it’s really fun to work on a project and see different aspects of that and gain different skills. You can gain a whole subset of skills through a Data Consulting project. For example, we had a NLP project, and a time series project, and you can pick up a ton of these skills really quickly when you’re actually tackling these real-world problems. It used to be that DC teams were a lot smaller than the other committees. So I found that once I joined that, I really started to find a community and friends within SAAS. That said, I will say the Web Dev board game nights we used to have will always hold a special place in my heart.
Which is your favorite SAAS semester?
I don’t think I can answer that. I’ve had a ton of fun this semester, especially being on leadership in-person. I guess right now, I’d have to say this one.
After your first few semesters, what made you stay in SAAS?
I used to say it was just the people, but I think it was two-fold. The people are definitely really cool, and I really vibed with SAAS members, and the fact that you can find support in your classes. Everybody’s really friendly and down to go out to eat or hang out. But I think it was also that if you look for it, the opportunities are really accessible, even to new and inexperienced members. You might have to work a little harder or ask for them, but it’s really easy to learn more skills and gain more experience in SAAS if you try. That was probably one of the things that stuck out to me most: you get out what you put in, and I was definitely ready and willing to engage with the community.
What is your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?
If you asked me this a year ago, I probably would have said, “Giving a successful team presentation as part of our DC team.” But now, looking back to the summer, the fact that we were sourcing, and found clients post-COVID has been a really big accomplishment as well.
How has SAAS helped you with your career and professional development?
It probably has been single-handedly responsible for most of it. One thing that I mentioned earlier was the fact that you can pick up a new subset of skills every semester on any of these projects, DC or otherwise. I think that has definitely really helped just in terms of giving me both buzzwords and stories to talk about on my resume, and projects that can teach you what it’s like working with other people. Behavioral interviews became much easier when I could say, “Oh yeah, I worked with this person… We had this type of conflict, but we also managed to resolve it really easily.” You have a lot of those to draw from all of a sudden. On the other hand, I think it’s also really helped in terms of soft-skill building. Talking to people, working with people, being comfortable with situations where you don’t know anything or know anyone, I think that SAAS has been responsible for a lot of that.
What is your favorite SAAS memory?
There hasn’t really been a single SAAS memory, but you find people that you get along with really well, so just hanging out and goofing off with SAASies has easily been one of my favorite parts of college.
How did you make friends in SAAS?
I started to make some friends especially in my second year, once I joined a smaller committee and worked a lot more closely with the same people each week. We started to go out to boba and stuff like that. Also, taking advantage of the #classes [Slack] channel and forming study groups with other SAASies was a good way for me as well. I’m kind of an introverted person, so I don’t necessarily know what to talk about. If you have a class thing, it’s a really good fallback. I also mentioned I’m really into board games, so once the Avalon group got rearing up, that was a really easy way to gel with people and form some friendships.
Out of the SAAS values, community, exploration, and mentorship, pick one. What does it mean to you?
I’m going to go with mentorship for this one, just because I feel like a lot of SAASies helped me so much to figure out what I was interested in and how to go about getting there. All you really have to do is ask for it, or sometimes they’ll just offer. Mentorship is definitely one of the things that makes SAAS such a strong and close-knit club. That’s also one of the reasons why I wanted to join leadership too - I benefited a lot from what other people were willing to give me, and I really want to be able to give back in any way I can to this club. Really, if anybody ever wants a resume check, or wants to talk about how to figure out what you’re interested in, or looking for a friend in this club, I’m here for that.
What is your personal vision for SAAS going forward?
One of my goals that we have worked toward this semester was getting people in different committees to socialize with each other. Data Consulting has had a reputation of being an isolated committee, where everyone does the work in their committees and then goes home and doesn’t necessarily participate in the social culture of SAAS, which is easily one of the top things that the club brings to the table. We’re working on that, and it would be really nice to just see that blossom more. Another thing which I personally think is to get more diversity into the different committees in the club. You can see it to be stratified a little bit depending on which committees you’re looking at, and we want this to be an inclusive space, and that can be hard if there’s fewer members of a specific type of person.
How has SAAS changed during your time in the club?
We’ve gotten more close-knit. We’re a large club and we always have been a large club, but I think that a lot of the way that socials were structured during quarantine and how people stayed active has really played a role in keeping the club really tight as a community, even though we’re large. That’s something that wasn’t necessarily there before, and I’m really glad that it has been incorporated.
What advice would you give to newer SAAS members?
I would just say to show up to things. It doesn’t matter if you know nobody else there. Just show up and don’t be afraid to ask questions even if you’re shy and introverted like I was. Just go to things because slowly, over time, you’ll start to build connections that are deep and meaningful with people. If you have questions or anything at all, reach out to upperclassmen. We’re really happy to help guide you through your way in SAAS.
Favorite class?
Data 102. I really like the applicable, modern stats in industry content. Also, Astro C10. I’m a huge astronomy nerd.
Favorite professor?
Filippenko for Astro C10.
Favorite Berkeley memory?
There’s just been so many.
Favorite spot on campus that more people should know about?
East Asian Library.
Favorite place to study on campus?
Lately I’ve been going to the music library, but I just study wherever.
Prettiest building on campus?
I like that one room in Doe with Harry Potter vibes.
Favorite bathroom to use on campus?
The good ones have changed after COVID. Right now, I like Bechtel a lot, but I also don’t really care.
Favorite library to use on campus?
East Asian Library. I’m also a fan of the one in Worster. Also, I’m always in Kresge.
Favorite restaurant in Berkeley?
I really like Momo Masalas. It’s on Northside, and it’s run by a cute little couple, and I think that their food is really good. It tastes like home-cooked food for me.
Favorite boba shop?
Lately, I like U-cha’s Bomberman drink, so that’s my current favorite.
Favorite constellation?
Orion.