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Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

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Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#31

Post by rglullis »

jorgeortiz85 wrote: post #20
rglullis wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have only the best possible things to say about the video lectures, but the lab assignments are just too easy. For something that is supposed to be the advanced track, I was hoping that they would do something more than "take this description of the function, implement it in Octave, make it pass our tests". Of course, I know it's their first class and you can't get everything perfect right off the bat. But I'd love…

I agree the programming assignments have been very easy. However, I doubt they have the bandwidth to manually grade thousands of assignments. Given the scale of the class, the grading is forces to be automated. It's hard to come up with such assignments and even harder to make them challenging, given an automated grading script.

The grading doesn't need to be manual. Think of the lab assignments being something like a smaller scale of the Netflix challenge:

  1) They provide some set of data and establish rules for the competition.
  2) They implement their own solution to the challenge, and that is the benchmark.
  3) A "passing grade" is obtained by getting any working system.
  4) The actual grading is then given on a curve, compared against their benchmark.
If your project is better than the benchmark, you get an A+, 95%-100% an A, 85%-95% gets you a B... etc.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#33

Post by HilbertSpace »

Maybe, but be careful and think 'long shot':

I was one of three researchers in a team at Yorktown Heights that did some of the best research in AI in the world, published a string of peer-reviewed papers, was the source of two commercial products, gave a paper at the AAAI IAAI conference in Stanford with for that year the 25 best AI applications in the world, personally won an award, etc.

I've taught computer science at Georgetown University and Ohio State University. My Ph.D. is in applied math.

Once in my career, just as a 'scientific programmer', in two weeks I sent a few resume copies, went on seven interviews, and got five offers.

But after my Ph.D. and AI work, I sent over 1000 resumes to Google, Microsoft, GE, FedEx, and hundreds more, got only five interviews, and no offers. I got a nice letter back from Fisher Black (as in Black-Scholes) saying that he saw no applications of applied math or AI at GS.

I ask you: Who will hire you in AI and why?

In business, hiring is because some manager has some work to do and a budget to do it. That manager believes that they know nearly all that is needed to do the work and otherwise would not be betting his career on the work. Thus, the manager is not hiring high technical expertise he doesn't have. Instead the manager is, as on a factory floor 100 years ago, hiring labor to add 'muscle' to his work.

In particular, unless the manager knows AI, he won't be hiring for AI. And there is at most only a tiny chance that the manager knows AI and even less chance that his project will depend on AI.

Moreover, the manager does not want competition from below and does not want his project 'disrupted' from below so really doesn't want technical expertise above what is needed just to get his project done.

Net, if you know some AI and want to use it in business, then find an application and start your own business. Then, since you know AI, you won't have to hire anyone in AI either.

What I've said here for AI holds for essentially all advanced academic topics.

Sorry 'bout that.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#34

Post by Homunculiheaded »

robryan wrote: post #24

As someone doing the course i would say its a decent way to identify some candidates but it wont be a really high correlation. It depends a lot on the time you have to invest and how rigorously you go through your answers and study the material the questions are drawn from. Some programming challenges would be great to better separate whether people really understood the material despite being harder to mark. Persona…

I took this course casually as well (wanted to fill in some gaps in my undergrad education). But my guess is that people that complete this course casual probably already have a lot on their plates. For me it was family, working, teaching and taking a grad class. I never double checked my hws, could only do a single pass through the lectures, and didn't spend any time checking for nuance in many of the Qs and my grade shows accordingly. However in the end I'm really excited that I was able to continue through it despite all this (I'm really curious to see the percentage of participants who saw the course through completion compared to those who signed up).

The correlation will be interesting. Undoubtedly the top 1000 is made of many of the type of people that must be the best at whatever they try (not exclusively of course) and with a decent amount of time on their hands, after all there is no disincentive whatsoever for not completing something and no previously known reward for perfection (I guess a piece of paper can count). Given some wording in some of the Qs (actually my only complaint about this course) a lot of care must be taken to ensure that every question is right, so being in the top 1000 is no small effort.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#35

Post by redcircle »

This type of thing wouldn't help you get a job with me. It could make a difference in getting an interview with me, if you had no real experience on your resume/CV. I want a well-balanced team player, that has a good chance to flourish on my team. Do course grades correlate with real-world flourishing on my team? Of course not.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#36

Post by jeremyarussell »

Homunculiheaded wrote: post #34
robryan wrote: post #24

As someone doing the course i would say its a decent way to identify some candidates but it wont be a really high correlation. It depends a lot on the time you have to invest and how rigorously you go through your answers and study the material the questions are drawn from. Some programming challenges would be great to better separate whether people really understood the material despite being harder to mark. Persona…

I took this course casually as well (wanted to fill in some gaps in my undergrad education). But my guess is that people that complete this course casual probably already have a lot on their plates. For me it was family, working, teaching and taking a grad class. I never double checked my hws, could only do a single pass through the lectures, and didn't spend any time checking for nuance in many of the Qs and my grad…

Same here in regards to time, family, etc. I'm hoping they keep the videos up for some time after the last week, I missed a few during the more hectic times. Regardless I've learned tons that I'm already implementing in code (and daily life, like actual planning methods and such.)

That said I have a job I like already, and plan on using what I learned here.

Those 1000 with more time and drive to be the best probably are some of the best job candidates though. Plus chances are they do need a job after all.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#37

Post by anothermachine »

HilbertSpace wrote: post #33

Maybe, but be careful and think 'long shot': I was one of three researchers in a team at Yorktown Heights that did some of the best research in AI in the world, published a string of peer-reviewed papers, was the source of two commercial products, gave a paper at the AAAI IAAI conference in Stanford with for that year the 25 best AI applications in the world, personally won an award, etc. I've taught computer science…

My (small) office has our first AI Ph.D starting next month.

You sound like a qualified candidate, if only you'd sent your resume our way.

Sorry 'bout that.

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#38

Post by loboman »

HilbertSpace wrote: post #33

Maybe, but be careful and think 'long shot': I was one of three researchers in a team at Yorktown Heights that did some of the best research in AI in the world, published a string of peer-reviewed papers, was the source of two commercial products, gave a paper at the AAAI IAAI conference in Stanford with for that year the 25 best AI applications in the world, personally won an award, etc. I've taught computer science…

Yet there are AI applications coming from Google, Apple, Microsoft and many other companies (voice products, kinect, etc.), and service based companies that work on these advanced topics too like ITA used to be. Why do you think those companies weren't interested in you? or weren't you interested in the projects they had to offer? (I'm guessing it's the latter but I could be wrong)

Edit: for example some opportunities here http://www.kdnuggets.com/jobs/

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#39

Post by aerique »

learc83 wrote: post #26
robryan wrote: post #24

As someone doing the course i would say its a decent way to identify some candidates but it wont be a really high correlation. It depends a lot on the time you have to invest and how rigorously you go through your answers and study the material the questions are drawn from. Some programming challenges would be great to better separate whether people really understood the material despite being harder to mark. Persona…

They are also looking for people to work with Professor Thrun's company. So maybe they are looking for people who are passionate about the class.

I'm passionate about the class but I also have to juggle it with a new job and family life which made approaching the class casually the best option for me.

So their metric isn't ideal for identifying passionate poeple ;-)

Re: Job placement program for top students in Stanford's online AI class

#40

Post by YokYok »

learc83 wrote: post #16
WildUtah wrote: post #10

Well, I haven't received any such email and my score in the class is 98% so far (with only the final exam pending this week). I expected that around 10,000 people would have a perfect score in the class given my experience with Asian participation in online programming contests. There are a few countries in that part of the world where organizing a group to check each others' work and ensuring perfect scores is commo…

I got the letter, I made a 100% on everything except homework 6 and 7 (missed 1 each on those).

I made only one mistake (98% in homework 6) and haven't got the letter.
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