Stories
From COVID Setbacks to NTU Singapore: How Tanya Chauhan Defied the Odds to Reach IIT Madras and DRDO
- •Tanya Chauhan joined the IIT Madras BS in Data Science and Applications programme in 2023 without any prior coding experience and mastered languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript.
- •Despite COVID-19 disrupting her JEE preparation and limited coaching in her hometown, she persevered through a drop year and independent study.
- •She secured a Machine Learning Research Internship at DRDO in Hyderabad, working on real-world research problems.
- •Tanya gained international exposure by working as a part-time business analyst for a US-based automation company while continuing her degree.
- •She was selected for the NTU Global Connect Fellowship and is now conducting research at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Key Questions Answered
When Tanya Chauhan joined the IIT Madras BS in Data Science and Applications programme in 2023, she had never written a line of code, but she started by learning Python and later added Java and JavaScript to her skill set.
During her studies, Tanya completed a two-month onsite Machine Learning Research Internship at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Hyderabad, worked part-time as a business analyst for a US-based automation company, and secured the NTU Global Connect Fellowship for research in Singapore.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted Tanya's JEE preparation, and combined with limited coaching options in her hometown, she struggled to prepare and ultimately took a drop year to study independently before joining IIT Madras.
