‘Assuming the Reader’s Role Is My Biggest Challenge’: Hacker Noon’s Contributor Gautam Tata

This story is a part of Hacker Noon's Meet the Writer series of interviews. The series is intended for tech professionals contributing the most insightful Hacker Noon stories to share more about their writing habits, ideas, and professional background (and maybe a hobby or two).

If you too would like to start contributing to Hacker Noon, you can do so here.

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi HN fam, My name is Gautam. I’m a Software Engineer at Salesforce and the co-founder of Aquanaut.ai. Some of my favorite interests include playing sports, watching documentaries, and eating!

Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about?

My Latest HackerNoon story was about using Generative Adversarial Networks to synthesize images of Marine plastic. In the field of marine debris, there is a need for realistic images of marine plastic for use with computer vision algorithms.

The lack of images means it’s harder to train the neural nets to have accurate detection results. Generating “realistic” images resolves the need to curate large datasets manually.

Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about?

I usually write about all topics somewhere at the intersection of Deep learning + Climate science.

Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing?

Assuming the reader’s role is my biggest challenge. As experts in our fields, we often write articles that only other experts in the field can understand. While this is great if I’m writing for a peer-reviewed journal or giving providing peer-reviews, my goal is to write in a way that most readers would be able to understand.

What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career?

I’m very passionate about climate science and energy. I want to use my skills in technology to help solve some of the most pressing climate problems that we are facing, whether it’s an energy crisis, global warming, or sustainable eating.

Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice?

Chipotle. Fun fact, in 2015-2016, I ate chipotle 365 times!

Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it?

I like to watch sports -- Huge warriors and Chelsea F.C fan.

What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next?

I’m hoping to write more about the possibilities of using Deep Learning to help with our energy problems. I’ve been very interested in pursuing ideas in this space!

Thanks for taking the time to join our “Meet the Writer” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words?

Thanks for having me on HackerNoon! Love to be a part of this community both as a writer and a reader.