Antonio Domènech López

Question: How did you get into the programmatic industry?

Answer: It was not intentional actually. I love artificial intelligence and data analysis. I was just lucky to find out I can really use and expand my field in the programmatic industry.

Q: What is the best part of being a Data Scientist?

A: Not having to interact with the customer… Ups! Sorry, the wrong answer, let me try again. In my role as a Data Scientist, I really like finding patterns and developing new AI algorithms capable of improving and optimizing tasks, revenues, results, etc. It’s incredibly satisfying, only comparable to the feeling of having a clean room after a cleaning day.

Q: Could you list some tips to become a good Data Scientist? What are the essential skills needed in your job?

A: Don’t learn the code, learn how to learn the code. I can guarantee you will always (absolutely always) find something new you have to develop. Even if it’s just because programming languages and technologies are evolving every day. It’s good to have strong fundamentals, but never think you are a good developer cause you have used many technologies. Think you are a good one when you are capable of implementing new stuff you had never seen before successfully.
Oh, and patience! Tons of patience!

Q: Tell us about a recent success story or job goal you’re proud of.

A: I’m always looking into new AI trends and I’m very proud to have to build my first Transformer algorithms to translate Sign Language into text. It was one of the hardest problems I faced in my career.

Q: How do you organize your day? What tools do you use and which of them are your favorite ones?

A: Morning is composed of emails, organizing the team/projects, meetings… Afterward, I code or analyze data. I’m a Python developer and I found that Jupyter notebook is awesome for data analysis. Also, Pandas is an absolute beast that I could not leave without. Regarding AI I prefer Tensorflow over Pythorch since it provides versatility when converting python models to other languages like JavaScript or C++. But I used both.

Q: What do you expect from the future of the industry? What needs to be improved?

A: Where to start? From a Data Science perspective, there is so much to do. Trends to have into account, the creation of targeting groups, contextualization of content, etc. I can definitely say the data guys will have a job in the future. Unless Elon Musk builds an AI that makes us obsolete of course…

Q: Do you have any idea how many emails you send per day?

A: I actually don’t send many emails. I receive a lot of emails regarding tasks and I also set lots of tasks for the team, which creates an automatic email as a notification. So you could actually say I do send emails… Anyways it would be around five emails a day then.

Q: What is the app you use the most in your daily life?

A: Probably WhatsApp, but also Google Maps, I got a motorbike and I can’t get my butt off the seat. I really like doing long trips and going to see new places, I honestly don’t know what I would do without Maps indications.

Q: What is the first thing you do when you get home and disconnect from work?

A: It’s either exercise or music. Lately, I’ve been singing a lot. To my housemates’ misfortune, I love how it makes me feel.

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: Easy!

• Hire someone who could help me manage all that money
• Store a portion of the money for each member of my family
• Buy a house (probably with a mortgage cause I don’t want to pay all taxes at once)
• Invest in stocks that I care about like energy or tech.
• Never work for someone else. I only work on my startup or projects.

I know, this was more rational and specific than you thought it was going to be, but come on, I’m a data scientist… What were you expecting?

Q: Tell us something fun about yourself.