Claudia Nikel

Claudia Nikel

Data Scientist

Audette

Biography

I am a results-driven data professional with a strong foundation in data analytics, data science and data engineering. Experienced in leading teams and implementing data-driven solutions to transform complex data into actionable insights. Proficient in Python, R, SQL, and cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and skilled at optimizing processes for efficient and impactful operations.

Interests

  • Machine Learning
  • Data Visualizations
  • Coding

Education

  • M.S. in Data Science, 2020

    University of British Columbia

  • B.Eng. in Civil Engineering, 2019

    University of Victoria

Skills

R

Data Wrangling, Statistical Modelling, Data Visualization, ggplot2

Python

NumPy, Matplotlib, Plotly, Pandas

Machine Learning

Classification, Clustering, Regression, Feature Selection, NLP

Databases

MySQL, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery, Database Design, Query Optimization

ETL

dbt, Dataflow

Cloud Computing

AWS (S3, EMR), Hadoop (MapReduce), Spark (Cassandra, PySpark), RESTful API, Web Scraping, Azure, Google Cloud (GCP)

Apache Spark

Retrieve and Manipulate Streaming Data

C++

Basic Programming

React.js

Component-based UI development, State management, Hooks, Routing

Node.js

Server-side development, Express.js, RESTful APIs, Asynchronous programming

Software Package & Scripting

Python & R Package Development, Scripting, Bash, Unit Testing, Travis Integration

GitHub

Collaborative Software Development, Git Version Control

Data Visualizations & Dashboards

Tableau, PowerBI, Looker

Power BI & Power Automate

Interactive reports, DAX functions, calculated measures, custom paginated reports, Power Automate integration

Excel

PivotTables, Filters, Conditional Formatting, Visualizations, VBA Macros

Project Management Tools

Jira, Slack, Shortcut

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Data Scientist, Data Platform Team Lead

Audette

Mar 2022 – Jun 2024 Victoria, BC

Responsibilities included:

  • Led a multidisciplinary team of Software, ML, MLOps, and Building Science Engineers in developing a modeling platform. This expert system employs machine learning, graph optimization algorithms, and a rules engine to create carbon reduction plans for commercial real estate across North America.
  • Established the company’s first data warehouse in BigQuery, laying the foundation for comprehensive data gathering and analytics.
  • Developed PostgreSQL application databases to support and power our products’ front and back ends, optimizing them for front-end analytics and high-performance read/write operations.
  • Created dashboards using Google Looker, providing Building Scientists with a QA tool for our modeling platform and identifying areas for improvement.
  • Collaborated with senior management to plan and set quarterly objectives aligned with business goals. Successfully executed these objectives with my team, achieving 80% of our targets in the most recent quarter.
 
 
 
 
 

Data Analyst

Rocky Mountaineer

Jan 2021 – Feb 2022 Victoria, BC

Responsibilities included:

Data Analysis:

  • Take a proactive approach to gathering requirements from a variety of stakeholders and develop them into an analytical solutions
  • Collaborate with Data Engineers/Analysts/Scientists to support the end-to-end development of analytical products
  • Analyze large data sets to identify market/business sector trends, customer buying patterns, etc. to inform sales, marketing, and operational decisions
  • Apply and integrate statistical, mathematical, and business analysis skills to support the Analytics team in managing complex data from a variety of sources
  • Craft compelling data based stories and communication to business stakeholders
  • Create python scripts to automate analytical tasks
  • Query data using SQL and edit stored procedures

    Business Support:
  • Responsible for building and maintaining supporting relationships with business stakeholders through the response to ad hoc analysis requests and supporting & enhancing automated reports
  • Prioritize projects to maintain focus on adding value to the organization
  • Supporte the usage & driving adoption of analytical products and reports
 
 
 
 
 

Data Science Consultant

Gevity Consulting Inc.

Nov 2020 – Mar 2021 Victoria, BC

Responsibilities included:

  • Collaborated with a team to identify business challenges and needs and translated them into advanced analytics solutions for Gevity clients through thoughtful design and development. Specifically supported a key engagement to develop an analytic strategy for an innovative life science firm.
 
 
 
 
 

Urban Data Lab: Capstone Project

University of British Columbia

May 2020 – Jul 2020 Vancouver, BC

Responsibilities included:

Deployed a Python program to classify live-streaming equipment end-uses using hierarchical clustering with 95% accuracy:

  • Deployed a Python program to manipulate and predict on 66 million rows of NoSQL data
  • Solved a business problem by predicting 200+ sensors into 6 end-uses for anomaly detection
  • Identified data discrepancies in Python that improved model accuracy by 5%

Consulted with technical and non-technical stakeholders:

  • Addressed data type issues to the senior leadership team that improved data warehousing
  • Translated statistical techniques and model results to the senior leadership team

Collaborative coding with the data science team:

  • Guided data science team through statistical techniques that improved model performance
  • Managed analytics project with 3 data scientists that resulted in model delivery after 2 months
 
 
 
 
 

Emergency Plans Developer

Department of National Defence (DND)

Jan 2018 – Apr 2018 Victoria, BC

Responsibilities included:

  • Designed emergency evacuation plans using AutoCAD, increasing the public safety of government buildings
  • Collaborated in a team to ensure all building plans were correct and on schedule in order to meet government deadlines
 
 
 
 
 

Fire Pre-Planning Technician

Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service

May 2017 – Aug 2017 Abbotsford, BC

Responsibilities included:

  • Independently collected, organized, and cleaned data on the city’s buildings and facilities, decreasing the time to create fire pre-plans
  • Coordinated with an app developer to help with the front-end development of the departments pre-planning app which helped streamline the apps release to the firefighters
  • Developed multiple technical documents on Abbotsford’s new pre-incident plan program which helped other fire departments in British Columbia implement their own program quicker and more efficiently
 
 
 
 
 

Facilities Engineering Assistant

BC Transit

Sep 2016 – Dec 2016 Victoria, BC

Responsibilities included:

  • Generated spreadsheets about fluid leaks in buses by cleaning, and organizing years’ worth of data in order to pinpoint the problem areas, saving the environmental departments time sorting through data
  • Wrote and illustrated a technical fluid leak analysis report with summarized data visualizations which identified key problem areas for the department and helped reduce expenses on environmental cleanups

Education

M.S. in Data Science

Relevant Courses:

  • Data Wrangling
  • Data Visualization
  • Predictive Modeling
  • Databases
  • Statistical Inference
  • Cloud Computing
  • Clustering & Classification
  • Neural Networks
  • Supervised & Unsupervised Machine Learning
  • Bayesian Statistics

B.Eng. in Civil Engineering

Relevant Courses:

  • Calculus
  • Linear Algebra
  • Statistics
  • Computer Science
  • Differential Equations

Projects

*

BarkBuddy React App

A personal dog dictionary React App that allows users to add pictures and basic information about dogs they meet at the dog park.

Energy End-Use Classification

For my Capstone project I helped create a python program that queries live streaming sensor data from the UDL SkySpark database, cleans and uses appropriate Machine Learning methods to apply NRCan Secondary End-Use Classifications to the data

CNN-Image Classification

A convolutional neural network (CNN) using the CIFAR-10 dataset to classify 32x32 colour images in 10 classes.

Delayed and Cancelled Flights App

An App that uses flight data to show the worst airport connections for delayed and cancelled flights in the USA geographically.

Mars API

A Mars_API to retrieve and visualize weather data from the last 7 Sols (Martian days) as recorded and updated daily by NASA’s InSight Mars lander. InSight is located at Elysium Planitia, a flat surface near the equator of Mars.

Urban Social Disorder Dashboard

An interactive Tableau Dashboard created using a Urban Social Disorder dataset from the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

3D Drone Modeling and 2D Drone Mapping

Created 3D models and collaborative maps using a drone and software platform.

Featured Publications

Create an interactive mapping tool within a Jupyter Notebook

The article provides a step-by-step guide to developing a dynamic mapping application using Python. It covers the installation of …
Create an interactive mapping tool within a Jupyter Notebook

How to setup a Jupyter Notebook in VS Code (w/ virtual env & kernels) & install packages

The article offers a detailed guide for setting up Jupyter Notebooks within Visual Studio Code. It includes instructions on creating …
How to setup a Jupyter Notebook in VS Code (w/ virtual env & kernels) & install packages

Accomplish­ments

Modernizing Data Lakes and Data Warehouses with Google Cloud

The two key components of any data pipeline are data lakes and warehouses. This course highlights use-cases for each type of storage and dives into the available data lake and warehouse solutions on Google Cloud in technical detail. Also, this course describes the role of a data engineer, the benefits of a successful data pipeline to business operations, and examines why data engineering should be done in a cloud environment.
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Google Cloud Big Data and Machine Learning Fundamentals

Learned to identify the purpose and value of Google Cloud products and services and interact with Google Cloud services.I learned to describe ways in which customers have used Google Cloud and used Big Data and ML products on Google Cloud: App Engine, Google Kubernetes Engine, and Compute Engine. And I made use of BigQuery, Google’s managed data warehouse for analytics.
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Intro to SQL

Learned SQL for working with databases, using Google BigQuery to scale to massive datasets.
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Customer Analytics and A/B Testing in Python

Learned the ins and outs of how to use Python to analyze customer behavior and business trends as well as how to create, run, and analyze A/B tests to make proactive, data-driven business decisions.
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Experimental Design in Python

Learned steps for exploratory data analysis (EDA), hypothesis testing (t-test, Chi-square, Pearson, ANOVA, etc.), dealing with multiple factors, Type I and Type II errors, the power-sample size-effect size relationship, and dealing with assumptions of test.
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Pandas

Learned creating, reading, writing, indexing, selecting, assigning, summary functions, maps, grouping, sorting, date types, missing values, renaming and combining
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Introduction to Power BI

Learned how to load and transform data using Power Query, created visualizations & interactive reports, and used DAX formulas to create customized calculated columns & fields
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Joining Data in SQL

Learned joining tables, using set theory and subqueries in PostgreSQL
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Introduction to SQL

Learned SQL syntax shared by many types of databases, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQL Server, and Oracle. Syntax includes: selecting columns, filtering rows, aggregate functions and sorting & grouping.
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Introduction to Python

Learned powerful ways to store and manipulate data, and helpful data science tools to begin conducting my own analyses, including: lists, functions and NumPy
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