CMDA Student Experience - Benjamin Zeitlin '24

Hello, my name is Benjamin Zeitlin and I'm a senior student for the CMDA program. I'm also a transfer student. When I came to the Virginia Tech program, I really wanted to find something that kind of delved into data or big data. And I didn't really know where to start. After doing some research, I called up some of the advisors here at Virginia Tech as well. I kind of came across the CMDA program. I did not initially know that the CMDA program was a thing until I was really applying for the programs here at Virginia Tech. I got really lucky because I feel like I fell into a major that I really love. The passion that I have for this program and the people that I've met have really driven me to complete the program as well. Not only that, but I do feel like the professors here, especially the CMDA professors, have all been amazing, each one of them. I don't think I've had a bad CMDA professor, and that's not just me speaking to the camera or anything. I just genuinely think that I have had a very lucky time with my professors. They've all been great. My intention was to try out the program for a semester, and this landed me -- I was lucky enough to take CMDA 2005. I took it with Professor Wilson and Professor Hamdi. After a couple of classes, I was a little iffy. I was never that great at math, but the CMDA program, Professor Wilson and Professor Hamdi really inspired me to continue continue my studies and get better. Throughout the semester, I slowly began to love CMDA. It was definitely a transition for me, but by the end of CMDA 2005, I knew this was the right major. The CMDA program offered a lot of different opportunities for me that I couldn't see myself getting in any other program. Not only were the class size relatively 20 to 30 students, but because of that, I got to know the professors really well and develop study groups that I wouldn't have had in other majors such as computer science or mathematics. So I think the best part about the CMDA program is that it really prepares you for any type of field that you'd want basically. That's anything from sports analytics to going into some of the military defense programs up in NOVA to anything health related as well. I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to continue on to my master's program for the masters of engineering here at Virginia Tech. I hope to include a lot of my data science skills there and potentially move it outside. I'm currently trying to decide whether I want to do health data science or move into more economic data science. I'm currently a part of the Center for Biostatistics and Health Data Science Department at Virginia Tech, and I'm a student researcher for them. And I've been very lucky to have that opportunity as well. And health data science is very interesting, especially when you're working with a lot of clinical studies and research that way. The CMDA program not only allowed me to learn practical skills for life outside of college, but has also granted me the ability to meet a lot of amazing people here at Virginia Tech and form lifelong friendships.