Get To Know Our Teachers #1: Nicholas Kosmicki

In the first episode of our new "Get to Know Our Teachers" series, we sit down with Nicholas, who teaches our Python Introduction course at Amsterdam Data Academy.

Nicholas has spent 26 years working with data, starting at Bank of America in 2000, with 15 years in finance and further experience across fintech, operations, market research and startups. He currently also teaches hardware acceleration to master's students at Columbia University, where his graduates go on to firms like JPMorgan Chase, BlackRock and Two Sigma, a course he's likely the only person in the world teaching.

But his path into data wasn't a straight one. Before any of it, Nicholas started out with an associate's degree in fashion design.

In this episode, he talks about that career switch, why he steers people away from certain coding languages, what it's like justifying every number in a bank's credit risk model to a regulator, why nanoseconds matter in high-speed trading, and his honest take on where AI actually fits into a data career, and where it doesn't.

Want to learn Python from Nicholas yourself? Check out our Python Introduction course!