Entrepreneur | TEDx Speaker | Founder & CEO bitsCrunch Leading Global Data Professional
Vijay Pravin Maharajan falls in the category of Global Indians who make their homeland proud. An award-winning Data Scientist cum Entrepreneur, Vijay’s journey began in the small town of Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, India.
Born to a mother who was a teacher and a father who served in the Police Force, Vijay was a certified Geek. After scoring more than 90% in Grade 10, Grade 12 and Engineering, Vijay found his way to Munich to pursue his Masters in Electrical Engineering from one of the top universities in Germany – Technical University of Munich (TUM).
Following top grades, yet again, Vijay spent the next couple of years in leading German corporations such as Telefonica, Volkswagen and Siemens, wherein he established himself as a Global Expert. In 2020, he was one among ‘20 Top Data Scientists to be followed on Linkedin’. He was also awarded as ‘Top 40 under 40 Data Scientists’ in India. In addition, he is a TedX Speaker, who has travelled to more than 22 countries.
Data Science is a most sought after field today, thanks in part to customer-oriented products – be it Amazon (recommendation lists), Youtube (song suggestions coming up next), Location-based ads or Chatbots you see on some modern websites.
Speaking about the profession, Vijay says, “A good Data Scientist should have really good mathematics skills, especially the right Statistics basics. Analytical skills and Logical Thinking are equally important. Coming to programming, either Python or R language is sufficient. But one can’t be a Data Scientist overnight. It takes days, weeks and months to master the art. Even after years of experience, one feels fresh for each new project. It’s always a learning curve when it comes to data science.”
Vijay’s favourite thing about the field is Data Visualisation. He says what truly inspires him are the many changes that are occurring in data products in day-to-day life. To keep abreast of these changes, he relies on three resources – Blogs, LinkedIn groups, and Twitter feeds.
What are the challenges in the field, we ask him. He shares, “Data Quality is always something to ponder upon for every Data Scientist. Most data scientists spend a lot of time in cleaning and refactoring the data. There’s also the gap between the data world and business world. Sometimes, data guys don’t get the business values, and the business people can’t fully understand the technical solutions. Becoming a decision scientist, rather than a data scientist, helps. Proper communication skills and analytical thinking also gives a bit of edge.”
Vijay’s areas of expertise include – Blockchain, Data Analytics, Business Analytics, Public Speaking, deFI and NFT, and Machine Learning. Recently, armed with his skill, expertise, and seed funding, Vijay founded the Blockchain Analytics Firm – bitsCrunch.
bitsCrunch is an Analytics firm making giant strides in the blockchain ecosystem by providing AI enabled securing services that protects the ecosystem integrity, with a cross-functional team of experts backed by the leaders in the industry. It is one of the top 4 AI companies in Munich, Germany, that excels in Blockchain technology. Vijay leads the team that is building AI products using computer vision and NLP to secure the NFT ecosystem on Blockchain.
Telling us how the revolutionary technology of Blockchain is here to stay, Vijay says, “I’m not sure if all the present cryptocurrency in the market will be available forever, but the Blockchain Technology behind it will stay for sure. Countries like El Salvador and Estonia have already accepted Blockchain as a technology, and others are in line.”
From Engineering to Data Science and now Blockchain, one of Vijay’s biggest strengths is not being afraid of change. He loves to explore new technology and make challenging decisions. From where he does he get this power, we ask him. “My parents and my wife, Rathina Mangai, whose rock-solid support is behind all my success. I’m a new dad and the pandemic didn’t help either. But thanks to my wife, who herself is a Computer Science Engineer working with a startup in Munich, I’ve been able to do justice to both my babies – my daughter (Iniya) as well as my new company,” says Vijay.
An acclaimed leader in his field, Vijay hopes to transform lives by educating and empowering. “And I want to do that now, when I’m 30, not when I’m old! I want to tell youngsters to be patient, persevere, and never stop learning; learning is the key. As is consistency, both of which will take you places,” sums up Vijay.
