Mary Rose Sarmiento, News, Communication Management Office
A graduating Economics student at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines has showcased his exceptional data analysis skills by clinching the top spot in a prestigious competition. Kobbie Bryant Manrique won first place in the “Everyone Can Learn Python” Scholarship 2023 Competition, besting some hundreds of beginner users of the programming language.
Manrique’s winning entry, “Understanding Carbon Dioxide Emissions and the Bicycle Market,” focused on the analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in Canada and their impact on the bicycle market. Throughout the competition, Manrique displayed remarkable progress, honing his skills as a Python beginner.
“It’s not a freestyle competition meron pong pre-sets of questions. Madali po siyang sundan kasi maganda din po yung instruction doon sa data. About siya sa carbon dioxide and dalawa po siya, about din sya dun sa you have to analyze a fictitious bicycle company.”
In an interview, Manrique shared that the competition, which began in September 2022, was open to beginners in the field of data analysis. “Nag-start po yung competition last year pa September (2022), nung nakita ko yung competition, wala pa rin talaga akong alam dun, dito sa Python beginner pa lang din talaga ako. Tapos ngayon year ko lang siya sinimulan, sineryoso. Sa DataCamp rin ako nag aaral yung nandito sa Science Python na programming and doon ko talaga sineryoso ang kompetisyon. I really tried my best.”
His outstanding performance garnered significant support from the data science community on social media platforms. The competition involved voting, and he secured a place among the top 100 participants.
Manrique shared that his interest in data science was piqued when he started learning Econometrics at the university. Several subjects during his senior year allowed him to further explore DataCamp and similar data visualization and analysis platforms. He believes that these kinds of free learning tools should be used in classes to help students expand their knowledge. He also supports measures that would increase student- and teacher-access to open-source applications, more complete public datasets, and up-to-date softwares, to deepen learning.
“We are very glad that we have these kinds of accomplishments from among our students. They show the strength of our program, but also our students’ pursuit for excellence. Their courage to join these independent competitions really motivates us to continue enhancing our course offerings and this would help encourage more Economics students to expand their endeavors,” Economics Department Chair, Associate Professor Norie Maniego shared in an interview.
Manrique has also been selected as one of the Philippine delegates for an upcoming international conference in Singapore. This accomplishment further highlights his expertise and dedication in the field of data analysis.
Photo source: We’re delighted to announce our ‘Everyone Can Learn Python’ Scholarship 2023 competition winners! (2023, May 12). DataCamp Facebook Page. https://www.facebook.com/datacampinc/posts/pfbid02bXYvLZjXHfSTNLcVny4w1x3sve4wyofVA8L8xBKTZWC6MUKLH5tB8kpuqUgvBcrkl
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