Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

scpd.stanford.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 122 posts

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#31

Post by torinmr »

zxcvvcxz wrote: post #5

How do people in industry generally view these types of certificate programs? Is it markedly "worse" than doing e.g. a Master's on campus? Also - is this closer to a Master's level program or part of an undergraduate curriculum?

The courses are identical to the courses one would take if they were getting their Master's at Stanford - the only difference is that only four classes are required, while a Master's requires about 15.

I'm enrolled in Stanford's CS Master's program right now through the Honors Cooperative Program (which lets you get a Master's online while working in industry), and I'm currently planning on doing a dual specialization in Systems and AI. For the AI specialization I've already taken CS 221 and 229, and I'll have to take three more AI classes drawn from a list pretty similar to the Elective Courses list in the OP.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#32

Post by poikniok »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #16
Xcelerate wrote: post #3

If one's goal is to work at OpenAI, FAIR, or DeepMind, which would be a better use of time — obtaining this certificate or getting quality papers into NIPS / ICML?

Wow tough call. The certificate would represent a baseline of understanding which can be then further trained, a good publication history in NIPS/ICML Etc. would represent a solid contribution to the field. I would not be surprised if those were, to a first approximation, equivalent.

This has to be sarcasm right?

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#33

Post by dnkrtz »

ClearAsMud wrote: post #28

Anyone have suggestions on alternative programs that are less expensive, online, and self-paced? 40+ IT guy trying to stay relevant.

Columbia University has an Artificial Intelligence MicroMasters on EdX, first cohort started this month. It's free, or 1200$ if you want Columbia course credit.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#34

Post by JoeDaDude »

ClearAsMud wrote: post #28

Anyone have suggestions on alternative programs that are less expensive, online, and self-paced? 40+ IT guy trying to stay relevant.

Udacity is offering an Artificial Intelligence "nanodegree" which will set you back ~ $1600.

https://www.udacity.com/course/artificial-intelligence-nanod...

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#35

Post by richard___ »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #21
sharps_xp wrote: post #7

Are ML/AI certificate holders competing for the same jobs as ML/AI PhD graduates? I have a list of follow up questions to this but it seems like there's a lot of hype for ML/AI/DeepLearning but no definitive way to track this new job market. These online programs, although more accessible, are doing the same thing as their physical campus counter part and not being transparent about what to expect after finishing the…

ML/AI is very new field. I heard someone say "AI is like teenage sex. Everyone is talking about it but no one is sure how to do it" So for jobs, ML/AI is pretty much an even field unless there are niche research jobs which only requires Phd gradudates

According to another HN thread this is actually not true. Only having a certificate, without CS/AI undergrad, makes it almost impossible to get a job. You need Masters at least for most positions, some engineering positions you can get in with Undergrad in CS and taking the right AI courses.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#36

Post by dliv »

ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #21
sharps_xp wrote: post #7

Are ML/AI certificate holders competing for the same jobs as ML/AI PhD graduates? I have a list of follow up questions to this but it seems like there's a lot of hype for ML/AI/DeepLearning but no definitive way to track this new job market. These online programs, although more accessible, are doing the same thing as their physical campus counter part and not being transparent about what to expect after finishing the…

ML/AI is very new field. I heard someone say "AI is like teenage sex. Everyone is talking about it but no one is sure how to do it" So for jobs, ML/AI is pretty much an even field unless there are niche research jobs which only requires Phd gradudates

It's quoted on the neural-redis README[1] and attributed to Mike Townsend[2].

[1]https://github.com/antirez/neural-redis

[2]https://twitter.com/Mikettownsend/status/780453119238955008

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#38

Post by jayajay »

richard___ wrote: post #35
ganeshkrishnan wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ML/AI is very new field. I heard someone say "AI is like teenage sex. Everyone is talking about it but no one is sure how to do it" So for jobs, ML/AI is pretty much an even field unless there are niche research jobs which only requires Phd gradudates

According to another HN thread this is actually not true. Only having a certificate, without CS/AI undergrad, makes it almost impossible to get a job. You need Masters at least for most positions, some engineering positions you can get in with Undergrad in CS and taking the right AI courses.

Do people in the tech industry find any more value in physics/math undergrads than CS? CS is not as rigorous. I always thought that physics/math undergrad + ML certificate might be just as competitive as a masters in ML coming from a non-relevant BS

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#39

Post by jayajay »

cr0sh wrote: post #23
b1gtuna wrote: post #4

Would anyone recommend this over doing a masters degree in the similar area of study but at a local university (ie. not Standford)?

Disclaimer: I do not hold any kind of real degree (just an Associates from a defunct tech school - worth little to nothing now) - so take the following for what it is... Based on my experience, which I won't re-iterate here - the various MOOCs I've taken (and currently the Udacity Nanodegree) would not be anywhere close to a masters in the subject (unless I am severely overestimating a masters - but I don't think so)…

I think this seems right. The value in going to a school, taking classes, talking to students in the same boat and talking to professors is greater than the value of a very low-commitment thing like a certificate for watching 20 videos and turning in a few assignments. For the autodidacts, their github profiles are probably worth more than some silly certificate.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#40

Post by jayajay »

nkozyra wrote: post #18
zxcvvcxz wrote: post #5

How do people in industry generally view these types of certificate programs? Is it markedly "worse" than doing e.g. a Master's on campus? Also - is this closer to a Master's level program or part of an undergraduate curriculum?

The available classes align with graduate level one's for their MSCS. If nothing else it's markedly worse because it's 1/3 the classes :). Beyond that I'd expect rigor ... it's Stanford after all.

I am feeling that even a non-Stanford place would present more rigor than an online Coursera course. When I was in school, I benefited greatly from having 1-1 private conversation time with mathematicians, scientists, grad students, my friends, etc. With Coursera, that person is replaced by Google/Bing/Whatever. If I don't get time to talk to the scientists or grad students (at least), I don't see how Udacity/Coursera/etc. are anything more than a glorified YouTube. Maybe I am disillusioned, but the value proposition from Coursera/Udacity/etc. is looking worse and worse as I look at it more and more... hmm...
Post reply on HN