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Can you get similar knowledge through books? In general what book do you recommend? I'm specifically interested in deep learning.
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They require a previous undergraduate degree, which is a no go for me. I'm already a high level software engineer at a top tier company. I have no desire to go back and take an undergraduate degree. But I do like collecting certificates... Currently taking Udacity's self-driving nano-degree, pretty fun for someone with no robotics background.
How closely do they check the undergrad degree? Some second rate universities will trade you a degree for experience plus cash. Most of them are non-accredited though.
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.
https://www.edx.org/micromasters/columbiax-artificial-intell...
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For me it's valuable the way they've constructed it. I like the idea that I can take some night classes in addition to my full time job, and just focus on one specific area. Okay, graduate degrees fulfill that purpose too, but with life events now and over the horizon, I just don't have the bandwidth to commit to getting my Masters or a Ph.D. right now. I really have no problem with this.
But why pay for it than?
Depending on hiring filters, that might be true. If an application ever gets to an engineer though I'd bet on the last one or two winning.
I think a sensible organisation should skip the usual hiring filters in new fields, because [edit](my experience is in security) you can scoop up really good people who happen to have "unconventional" backgrounds if you have competent people evaluating them.
Regular HR people tend to do a really bad job with career switchers and the self taught since they mostly work off "signalling value". But in newer or very fast moving fields, the oddballs can be majority of decent applicants.
My limited experience is that very technical positions are not actually overwhelmed with applicants, and that it's not hard to evaluate if people have the right stuff because in these areas it's not difficult to devise quite objective challenges without resorting to shibboleths (guess what the interviewer is thinking or, do you come from the same technical culture as me).
Arguably ML positions should be the easiest to algorithmically hire for (at least for industry, not hard core research). Just put an automated judge with a fairly low bar on a business relevant objective function between your careers and your "submit job application" page :p
Personally I find this a little bit funny, because ML driven competence evaluation in "hard" (reasonably concrete objectives) fields should eventually render credentialism and signalling obsolete. But here we are, the $20k "certificate".
All these things said, a structured course of study is super useful for the undisciplined (certainly including me) and dropping "new car money" on something has a way of focusing the mind :)
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But why pay for it than?
They're betting that a certificate with "stanford" on it is better than a certificate with "udacity" or "coursera", or "I read a bunch of web pages and books", "heres my kaggle ranking" or "look at this stuff I did on github and corresponding blog posts". [naturally people breaking into the field need not pick just one]. Depending on hiring filters, that might be true. If an application ever gets to an engineer thoug…
Sometimes it's quite sensible to travel in the opposite direction to everybody else.
Stanford is just trying to cash in on people by having their cake and eating it too. They want to charge 20k, but not let anyone have a chance of further advancing to complete a real degree, no matter how excellent their performance in this program. The reason they do this is solely to protect their brand and exclusivity. They already offer online degrees but the acceptance rate is just as limited as the on campus pr…
Stanford is just trying to cash in on people by having their cake and eating it too. They want to charge 20k, but not let anyone have a chance of further advancing to complete a real degree, no matter how excellent their performance in this program. The reason they do this is solely to protect their brand and exclusivity. They already offer online degrees but the acceptance rate is just as limited as the on campus pr…
I did this program. I can say it was literally a waste of money. I planned on joining a member company (so I could complete the degree remotely) at some point but meh none were interesting enough to join. You can get all the value in this program for free by reading a couple textbooks.
Why not take the Georgia Tech online MSCS instead? Only $7k, you get a Master's degree instead of a 'Certificate', and you have the option of covering a lot of the same material.
The question is only whether the HR person's neural network triggers more strongly on "master's degree" or "stanford".
None of this has anything to do with what you learned or know. Like most tertiary education.
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Thrun's course was offered earlier* and Udacity launched earlier. What's funny? * edit: I just learned the courses were simultaneous. Udacity launched June 2011, Coursera April 2012, according to Wikipedia.
No - AI Class (Norvig/Thrun) and ML Class (Ng) both ran at the same time, in the Fall of 2011. I took both courses, but only completed the ML Class (I had to drop the AI Class due to personal issues at the time). I'm not sure which MOOC company started first (in 2012), though - I do think it may have been Udacity. I know that when it did start, it wasn't able to offer the AI Class because of {reasons} (I think maybe…
You are better off filling holes in your knowledge and build something awesome. That's it. You want an interview & offer at Google, facebook, Microsoft, it's pretty easy with a solid portfolio and a few months study or refresh on algorithms.
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Yep. And Sebastian Thrun's course (the Stanford professor, google VP, Udacity founder and google driverless car initiator) is part of that program. You can take AI for robotics for credit there :)
They require a previous undergraduate degree, which is a no go for me. I'm already a high level software engineer at a top tier company. I have no desire to go back and take an undergraduate degree. But I do like collecting certificates... Currently taking Udacity's self-driving nano-degree, pretty fun for someone with no robotics background.