After graduating from Emory University with a degree in economics and political science, Ulin worked as a research analyst at McKinsey. His time there was defined by long hours, lots of travel, good opportunities. But perhaps most fortuitously, he sat next to McKinsey’s data science group, where he witnessed tremendous growth compared to other areas of the company. Entrepreneur Marc Andressen’s famous assertion that “Software is eating the world” resonated with Ulin as he considered the growing evidence of a global shift toward data-driven software and services. Ulin is not whistling Dixie: nearly every industry in the universe is now scraping data and using analytics to enhance their business. At his next gig in market intelligence with RPX in San Francisco, Ulin worked with Python and SQL, and he sought to sharpen his data science skills in his spare time, but he realized that he needed to devote more time. He took the leap and applied to GalvanizeU’s intensive, fully-accredited, one-year Master of Science in Data Science program. This partnership between the University of New Haven and Galvanize brings together leading programs in higher education and experienced industry practitioners, and is based at Galvanize’s San Francisco campus. The program is the only one of its kind. It puts students side by side with industry experts, innovative businesses, and promising startups, where opportunities abound for the practical application of what Ulin would learn in the classroom. Those advantages coalesced in a synchronicity that the results-oriented Ulin had banked on. During his course progression, the founders of a fledgling renewable energy startup called PowerScout were looking to move their four-man outfit from a golf clubhouse in the East Bay to a coworking space in the city, where attracting talent would be easier than luring developers to the links. Being in such close proximity to potential employers streamlined the pitching process for Ulin as he pursued his capstone project and internship, the practicum that serves as the culmination of every student’s journey through GalvanizeU. PowerScout was looking for a data science student to tackle a complex image recognition project: harnessing satellite imagery to identify homes with solar panels installed on their rooftops. Given the challenges of their proposed imaging project, PowerScout’s founders had modest expectations of what a student might accomplish in their capstone work with them, but Ulin had very clear ideas about what he was learning in the master’s program and how it could be applied to their goal. He blew the PowerScout team away with his results, Dhuvur said. Well before Ulin’s summer internship at the startup concluded, Dhuvur and founder and CEO Attila Toth brought him aboard full time. Ulin now leads data science operations for the enterprise, which has scaled to 18 employees and raised a seed round of $5.2 million to expand their focus to include battery storage, energy efficient appliances, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This wave of success also propelled a move to new headquarters in Oakland, but PowerScout remains active in the Galvanize community and has extended internships to two more Galvanize-University of New Haven data science students.
