Plentify is a budding startup with a passionate team. Plentify's goal is to build sustainable, intelligent cities one home at a time. As a data science intern and worked on two main tasks. The first task was to predict the bulk electricity load. I explored three broad types of models and suggested to the team the best one among them based on performance metrics and time complexity. The model worked well when tested, and the team decided to move forward to deploy the code in real-time. That gave me immense satisfaction. This work is essential to the team as it helps them work on load-shifting to manage the load on the grid. The second task was to perform data querying and manipulation to compute metrics that help identify issues in Plentify products. This work supports the team in easing their effort to check the product issues. If they check manually, it will consume a lot of time. Also, as the number of devices in households increase, it is not practical to check their status manually. So, this work is also of great value to the team.

During the internship, I got an opportunity to apply what I learned during classes to real-world data and problems. I also improved on a lot of skills, starting from coding to communication skills. Because I had to explain what I worked on to both the technical team and non-technical team, I experienced how careful I should be when choosing words. Overall, the skills I learned and improved are invaluable. Apart from these, I also learned how passionate the team should be while working towards a more significant cause. In addition to this, I appreciate every member of the team for being compassionate and supportive during these difficult times.

While the overall experience was excellent, there were a few challenges I faced. The first is to manage proper time boundaries for work and personal life. I found it challenging to concentrate continuously for long periods. When I took a break from work, I lost track of time and failed to get back to work for almost the next two hours. This habit led to me working late evenings and sometimes weekends, which I wanted to avoid. With time, I successfully resolved this issue, making a proper everyday schedule. There were a few other challenges in work that I addressed with the help of my manager and other team members.

With all these learnings, I would say the experience was beyond valuable. I thank the Plentify team for this fantastic opportunity. I understood that building a passionate team is one of the most critical things in a startup. Also, I learned that in a startup, there could be unforeseen challenges that have to be dealt with patience. These learnings are essential to me as my long-term goal is to establish a data science services startup. This experience gave me an idea of how working in a startup feels like, and I enjoyed every part of it.