From volunteering to studies in Finland
Andrea first arrived in Finland seven years ago from the Czech Republic. What began as a summer of volunteering on a farm quickly turned into a new life abroad.
– I instantly fell in love with the country, and decided to stay. I was very lucky to get a job pretty quickly, so it was possible for me to stay.
Her professional path shifted when she came across a social media ad for SAMK’s Artificial Intelligence degree. Excited by the curriculum, she applied and was accepted. Three years later, when the new Data Engineering degree opened, she switched, officially completing her studies in January.
A practical path into industry
Andrea highlights the value of SAMK’s hands-on approach, where students are required to complete practical trainings during their studies. She describes the most important part of her studies as the practical training she completed at Wärtsilä as a Data Science trainee.
– It was the first time I saw how things are really done in the industry. That experience gave me a much better understanding of how data science works in real life.
Even before the traineeship, she had the chance to work with real company data from Pori-based partners collaborating with SAMK. This is something she found both exciting and valuable.
From the courses, Andrea especially enjoyed Neural Networks and Natural Language Processing, both taught by Andrés Felipe Zapata Palacio. She says that the tasks were fun and engaging, and she still uses the knowledge from those courses in her daily work.
From trainee to Junior Data Scientist
What started as a summer traineeship turned into Andrea’s career. She has been working at Wärtsilä ever since.
Her role as Junior Data Scientist covers the full cycle of projects, from proof of concept to production. She works with databases, experiments, demo apps, ETL pipelines, and APIs — depending on the challenge at hand.
– I use different tools depending on the project. For example, I might use traditional machine learning to predict the time needed in an assembly process, generative AI to extract information from a report, or computer vision to find features in engineering drawings.
She also presents results to stakeholders, mentors trainees, and collaborates with Wärtsilä’s Sustainable Technology Hub in Vaasa.
The skills that matter most
Looking back, Andrea sees programming and good coding practices as the skills that helped her most.
– Once you learn one programming language, it’s much easier to pick up others.
Her thesis, completed with Wärtsilä, focused on Deep Learning-based Table Detection in Documents. While the project itself was discontinued, the research later proved valuable when similar tasks returned in new projects.
Opportunities after graduation
Andrea believes there are many career opportunities in this field for SAMK graduates. Especially with the boom in generative AI in recent years. Many companies are now using or selling AI solutions, so there are plenty
of career opportunities for graduates in this field.
– Graduates can work as Data Scientists, Data Analysts, Data Engineers, or Software Developers. Some also go into roles like Technical Sales, especially in companies that offer AI services.
Recommendation and gratitude
Answering the question of whether she would recommend SAMK to others, Andrea is confident in her reply:
– Absolutely! The classes have a very practical approach. Group projects were a big part, which helps learning how to work together and share tasks. We also worked on real cases from companies, not just theory. It’s very different from just using datasets from the internet and we learned how to deal with real, unclean data and real problems.
– There were also many interesting courses to choose from. I couldn’t take all of them, but the options were amazing. For example, reinforcement learning and robotics.
– I also really appreciated the Finnish language course. I was able to take it for five semesters, which gave me a solid basics.
– Another great thing was the mandatory practical training. It motivates students to get real work experience before graduating, which I think is very important.
– And finally, the teachers were very patient and understanding. They were always open to questions, explained things clearly, and never made anyone feel bad for not knowing something
Andrea is especially thankful to the teachers who supported her along the way.
– I would also like to thank two teachers who really helped me during my studies. First, Sara Kfouri Koskinen – she always took time to give very useful feedback on assignments and shared helpful points from her own experience. It really helped me improve. Second, I want to thank Petteri Pulkkinen, who supervised my thesis. He answered my many questions and supported me all the way through my studies. I’m very grateful to both of them.
