I Co-Authored Research Papers On Data Science Before B-School Ft. Bhavya Popli - InsideIIM’s Best 50

“My name is Bhavya Popli. I completed my B.Tech in CSE from BVCOE in 2018 and MBA from IIM K in 2020. I am the kind of person who has always been quite competitive in nature and has tried to gain recognition from other people by creating an impact through his work. I was the Head Boy in my school and during my graduation too, I was a part of a number of committees in the college. Apart from that, I have co-authored 2 research papers on data Science. During my MBA, I was among the Top 5 percentile in college and also won a number of case competitions. My interests include dramatics and playing poker. Apart from my academic achievements throughout school and college, I have also taken part in a number of theatrical plays and even performed in both state level & national level theater festivals”

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Name an instance where you wanted something and went out of your comfort zone to achieve it OR Tell us the biggest risk you have taken so far in your life.

“One instance when I went out of my comfort zone in order to achieve something was when I got my first research paper published in an International Journal. During my 3rd year of B.Tech in 2016, our class had been assigned a research paper as a part of the curriculum. But I did not have any area of interest in which I wanted to work and was clueless about what to do. I was not very proficient in technical knowledge and all the good students of the class had formed their own groups.

One of my friends offered to make a group with him and suggested that we would take up some simple topic in order to get away with this work. However, this was going to be my very first project during B.Tech and I wanted to learn something significant from it. I consulted one of my seniors who had already written a number of research papers and explained my situation. He said that he was intending to work on publishing another research paper on Data Science and required one more member for the team. He offered to work with me for publishing the paper provided I would give full dedication & commitment towards the paper and sit overnight working along with them.

Although I had no clue on data science and had never really sat overnight working on something, I found it a perfect learning opportunity during that time. So, I took up the challenge, started working with them and sat for nights completing the work being assigned to me. Initially, I faced a lot of difficulties in writing & debugging codes but they were always there to help. Slowly and gradually, I started enjoying the work and got intrigued by a number of interesting things pertaining to this field. We were able to complete the paper on time and got it published in an International Journal. Therefore, from being a student with negligible technical knowledge, I was able to co-author in a top-tier research paper by going out of my comfort zone.”

When was the last time someone relied on you? OR What did you do which was purely for someone else - a truly selfless act.

“During my MBA summer internship, I selflessly created the UI design of an ideal CRM system for one of the teams. I had my internship with Tata Administrative Services and my project was with Tata Teleservices to improve the operational efficiency of one of their call centers. In the call center, there were 2 major teams for lead generation: online campaigns team and cross-selling team. My project deliverables were limited to the online campaigns team but I sat with and observed both the teams in order to understand all the processes inside the call center. While sitting with the cross-selling team, I observed that they were using an outdated CRM system and as a result, the agents had to waste a lot of their time in performing search and updation operations from the CRM while making a call. When I enquired the team leader about the same, he told me that the company would be shifting to a new CRM system but that would take some months.

While observing the agents, I had been able to take a note of the pain in the search and updation process which they had to go through while making a call. I was able to empathise with the kind of demotivation which they had to go through when they got no answers even after making so much effort before a call. Therefore, having made my observations, I decided to create a UI design of an ideal CRM system which should be there for the agents so that it could be used when the company finally shifted to the new CRM system. I handed it over to the team leader to forward it to his seniors once the transition process would start. This was one instance of a selfless act which I performed that was outside the domain of what I had to deliver.”

Tell us about a time when you disagreed with an opinion/idea/decision. What did you do about it?

“One such instance occurred while deciding upon the proposal for a case competition when I was in disagreement with the idea suggested by one of my team-mates and instead gave an alternate proposal. For one of the b-school competitions, we needed to recommend a sustainability initiative impacting the lives of communities in rural India with the help of technology. My team-mate came up with the idea of leveraging blockchain to simplify the farm supply chain and increase rural income. I was in very much disagreement with this proposal because of 2 major reasons: Firstly, this was a very common kind of proposal & many of the teams would already have worked on it and secondly, it did not align with the business model of the company which had launched the competition.

I had a very long debate and discussion with him on why we could not go forward with the idea and the intricacies which would be there in it. After the meeting, I researched for the whole day on whether we could come up with a better idea for the competition. After 2-3 days of research, I came up with a proposal for leveraging blockchain technology to create decentralized off-grid systems to solve the electricity crisis in rural areas. Having done a significant amount of research before presenting this proposal, I was able to explain to him about the key intricacies of the idea and how it was already being implemented in other countries too. After 3-4 hours of discussion, I was able to finally convince him and we started working on it. In the end, we made the submission and were also adjudged as the campus winners for our proposal.”

What is the one thing you can claim to have some level of expertise or depth of knowledge in - it could be anything - a subject, a sport, a hobby, a venture, an initiative which has led you to do deep work in that field?

“One subject in which I have got a significant level of expertise is data science. Even before the interest for this field started booming within the market, I had already co-authored and published 2 research papers in this field in top-tier journals. I have also done certifications on enhancing my knowledge on different topics (Statistics, Machine Learning, Deep Learning) and tools (Python, R, Tableau, Excel) which are relevant to this domain. During my graduation, I was able to take the lead in my group for my final year project on Machine Learning and also received appreciation for that.

Apart from that, during my MBA too, I was the National Runner Up in Brain-a-lytics Analytics Competition, National Finalist in TVS EPIC Analytics Challenge & Campus Finalist in Amex Analytics Challenge. I love reading about the domain and how data has become the new oil in gaining different types of insights & translating them into decisions for businesses. Apart from that, I still have a lot to learn in it & thus, I always keep on watching videos and webinars on the Internet on small little things pertaining to this field in order to enhance my knowledge base. Therefore, having done and experienced all this, I can confidently say that I have got a significant level of grasp in this field.”

If 10 Million Dollars (approximately INR 75 Crores) is given to you to use it any way you deem fit what would you do with this corpus?

In case I get Rs. 75 crores to spend, I will do the following things with this corpus:

2 crores for building a house in Delhi.
1 crore for my World Tour Travel Plan.
1 crore I will use for creating a comprehensive Data Science Certification online course by taking the help of top executives working in big companies which would be free for all.
1 crore I will keep for me as an emergency corpus fund for any health-related or other issues for my family.
30 crores I will use for Angel Investing in potential technology startup firms by taking help from the people who are already experienced in this field.
20 crores I will use for a donation to the NGOs working for the causes that I support which include names like Goonj, Akshaya Patra, HelpAge India, CRY, Smile Foundation etc.
15 crores I will use for making personal investments in the following: Sovereign Gold Bonds, Mutual Funds, alternative investments like REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) etc.
5 crores I will keep in FDs for my Post-Retirement Plans.