At first glance, data engineering and art may seem worlds apart, but Ahsan Aftab, a Data Engineer at Sertis, sees a perfect connection between the two disciplines. 

In this interview, we take readers on a journey to explore the link between art and data engineering, which ignited Ahsan’s passion for his work. We also delve into what he enjoys most about working at Sertis.

The Interconnected Differences Between Art and Data Engineering

“‘Data Engineer’, as you see, comprises two words: ‘Data’ and ‘Engineer’. However, to me, the second one is far more important than the first, and is actually a prerequisite for the first. Therefore, I have always tried to be a good engineer first.

Personally, I have always loved art and the humanities, and I am inclined to experience vastly different things in life. On a professional level, I must say that data engineering has always offered me that same level of diversity in tools, techniques, and design approaches.

Working as a data engineer for a company is great, but what I have loved the most is its applications in my personal life. I’ll share a small example: I was once working as a hobbyist in 3D art, which involves all kinds of 3D manifestations, like human figures, particle effects, landscapes, and mesh artifacts. I noticed I was repeating the same steps in much of the work. As soon as I realized that, I was able to write down the steps as a pipeline—let's call it a ‘3D pipeline’—where we follow the same set of steps to build an entirely new virtual environment.

I saw a beautiful manifestation in a virtual world of what we know as data pipelines in data engineering. Data pipelines are powerful because they automate a lot of work, and this can have implications for your personal life. You might notice, as we discuss this, that we are talking about living ‘data engineering’.”

Working as a Data Engineer at Sertis

“In this world of digitalization and AI, the word 'data' has become far more relevant than it was in the early 2000s. The applications of data have grown to unprecedented levels. Basically, data turns out to be the backbone of every successful company or organization, and the natural outcome of this is an unprecedented level of data engineering required in those organizations.

Some of the architectures or requirements we have seen are quite complex, but I think the important part here is to go in as an engineer, understand other people’s or the organization’s work or approach, use the wide set of smart tools we have, and enhance the capacity and capability of that solution or system using our engineering skills.

Here at Sertis, we work with a large set of tools and technologies, many of which are open source, while others are proprietary, and sometimes it’s a hybrid of both. We always emphasize solving the business problem in the most efficient and comprehensive way.

I personally believe that engineering, when it reaches a certain level, becomes an art. We are committed to bringing that artistic element to life at Sertis. By the way, one of the best aspects of the data engineering team at Sertis is its diversity. We are one of the most diverse teams here, and we strongly believe that this diversity is our core strength."

From Ahsan's interview, it’s clear that the connection between data engineering and art runs deeper than we might think. Engineering processes can be applied not only to artistic work but also to daily life. Ahsan’s appreciation for these qualities in data engineering motivates him to continually develop the data engineering team at Sertis, striving for maximum efficiency by viewing data engineering as an art that permeates every aspect of life.

Learn more about Sertis and Life at Sertis at: https://www.sertiscorp.com/