Sebastien Ouellet graduated from the B.Cog.Sc program at Carleton University in 2013, with a specialization in Cognition and Computation. He has worked as a data scientist in Ottawa for the past two years. Read up on how Sebastien’s B.Cog.Sc degree was instrumental to his career path.
The main role of a data scientist in most industries is to identify relevant data and iteratively develop software that identifies patterns in said data in order to solve a problem. While there is a significant engineering aspect to this job, a considerable amount of work follows principles from the scientific method in order to find and validate the best approaches to framing problems. The connection between this facet of my career and my experience as a Cognitive Science student is no coincidence. I can confidently say that my B.Cog.Sc degree at Carleton helped to prepare me for this career path, and taught me a multitude of skills relevant to the projects I tackle.
Throughout my undergraduate degree, I involved myself in research, especially as a member of the Science of Imagination Laboratory. I participated in research as early as the first semester because I loved how engaged faculty members were with students, as well as their evident passion for their work. Since my specialization was in computation, most of the projects I contributed to were related to the field of Artificial Intelligence, with an emphasis on Spatial Cognition Modelling. At Carleton, I received great guidance on how to participate in research, as well as a welcome amount of freedom in choosing research topics.
The skills I developed through my coursework and research projects were instrumental to my career focused on artificial intelligence and data. The B.Cog.Sc allows its students a decent amount of autonomy to forge a curriculum that fits their interests, as it allowed me to double down on Computer Science courses focused on fields I wanted to explore in graduate studies.
I went on to complete a Master’s Degree in Computer Science with an emphasis on user interaction and machine learning, merging my cognitive and computation background seamlessly. I would heartily recommend Carleton University’s Bachelor of Cognitive Science program if you are interested in hybrid careers that don’t quite fit traditional disciplines alone.