Data Scientist, Photographer, Pun Teller
Hub page for Aaron W Chen. Get to know him and jump to his work as a data scientist and photographer!
Hey there! My name is Aaron and I am a data scientist with a Ph D in chemical engineering. In addition to being a data geek, I also love photography, the outdoors, food, and of course puns!
Currently, I’m working in federal service and am one of the first round of data scientists in my agency! It’s a pretty interesting work environment and being in the inaugural group presents a unique set of challenges. One of the major things I’m pushing is an overall increase in transparent and open code creation/collaboration, and I’m trying to convince others of the value of establishing open baselines and increasing government contribution to open source and healthcare.
For actual data science and machine learning projects, my current work involves using Natural Language Processing on unstructured free text reports and making sense of them with unsupervised learning techniques. I’m also helping with data engineering, dashboard and visualization creation in collaboration with subject matter experts, and development & deployment of easy to use and repeatable coding environments and models, all while incorporating health equity.
In addition to my W-2 work, I run a photography business to share my major passion with others! I love finding abstract beauty in the everyday or otherwise unnoticed details that can be fleeting in life. Don’t get me wrong: I love traveling to grand vistas for those extra special viewpoints (see this article I wrote for Petapixel about the Yosemite Firefall) but you’re just as likely to see me aiming my camera at rocks on the ground or cracks in a wall.
Secondly, I muse about data science and machine learning in the hopes that others can learn from my experience! My side coding projects focus on observations from hobbies (like my Pokemon Go shiny probability streak and trying to see how rare it was), but my favorite project has been MeaLeon, which currently asks what recipes you like and shows you new recipes from all over the web from different cuisines yet similar ingredients.
I would love to hear from you if you want to talk either data science projects or photography adventures, so feel free to reach out! If you want to see what I’m working on, the best places to do so is to check out the respective websites right below!