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Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

scpd.stanford.edu

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Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#81

Post by sqldba »

kriro wrote: post #71
betadreamer wrote: post #54

Can you get similar knowledge through books? In general what book do you recommend? I'm specifically interested in deep learning.

I think "Artificial Intelligence a Modern Approach" is still the best foundation book. However it certainly is not focused on deep learning. There's chapters on pretty much everything (one on reinforcement learning) but it is build around the idea of intelligent agents first and foremost. Best written CS book I own.

I'd love to read a book like that but I don't have any maths, and I presume those things are full of maths.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#82

Post by kriro »

sqldba wrote: post #81
kriro wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "Artificial Intelligence a Modern Approach" is still the best foundation book. However it certainly is not focused on deep learning. There's chapters on pretty much everything (one on reinforcement learning) but it is build around the idea of intelligent agents first and foremost. Best written CS book I own.

I'd love to read a book like that but I don't have any maths, and I presume those things are full of maths.

I think this book is actually very approachable without much of a mathematics background. It's structured so that you can usually skip the mathy parts (and there aren't many really). Time and space complexity might be a bit tough but it's not that hard to work through. I think the Bayes related math was explained well and should be approachable with next to no math knowledge.

The math is mostly applied and not proofs. There's a fair amount of pseudocode and algorithms but they are explained well and I think it's not hard to follow (our students of different backgrounds usually didn't have problems). I did get a bit tired of the running example of the map of Romania (essentially used for all the search related things). The diagrams for algorithms are very helpful.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#83

Post by enknamel »

bitL wrote: post #77
enknamel wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can you please be more specific? I am considering taking this program and any details why was this inadequate would be very helpful! Thank you!

You get to take the actual classes but you don't get real credit for them. Recruiters, hiring managers don't care because it's not a real degree and they have no knowledge of the program. If you just want the knowledge you can basically get it for free from youtube or buy the textbooks. The ML/AI lectures there were often better than the ones from Stanford. You also don't have real student privileges. Some of the professors request that you do not attempt to show up for lecture or office hours because you aren't a real student. They just want you to watch the videos online.

And so on. It was overall a pretty negative experience for me. I can't recommend it.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#84

Post by deepGem »

XenophileJKO wrote: post #67
deepGem wrote: post #37

The toughest curriculum in any AI related MOOC I've seen so far. Just CS228 - Probabilistic Graphical Models is enough to bleed someone's brain. Wish Daphne Koller still taught that course.

You are in luck. They have just re-released it on Coursera. https://www.coursera.org/specializations/probabilistic-graph...

That's awesome! Thanks for the link

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#85

Post by dsacco »

XenophileJKO wrote: post #62
eranation wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You might be interested to know that it's possible to enter a Master's program without completing a Bachelor's degree. This is not openly advertised, but I am aware that even universities with high signaling value like CMU and Oxford are open to this arrangement.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#86

Post by amelius »

> Software engineers interested in acquiring a solid foundation in artificial intelligence.

Does a "solid foundation in AI" actually exist?

I'm asking because it seems that nobody really knows why many algorithms actually work, or even how they should be adjusted to cover new applications. To me it sounds more like "educated guessing".

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#87

Post by dsacco »

alnitak wrote: post #72
jedberg wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Do you happen to know any accredited university or institution that would do that? Maybe with some examinations?

I don't think any actual accredited university would allow you to "test out" of an entire four year degree, let alone simply buy it because you have comparable experience.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#88

Post by grayshirts »

dsacco wrote: post #85
XenophileJKO wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You might be interested to know that it's possible to enter a Master's program without completing a Bachelor's degree. This is not openly advertised, but I am aware that even universities with high signaling value like CMU and Oxford are open to this arrangement.

In general Masters in CS programs require either a BS in CS or coursework in areas like operating systems, data structures, algorithms, computability/complexity etc. These courses generally have prereqs such as 1-2 semesters worth of programming courses, discrete math etc. Someone without a CS background most likely would not be accepted to a standard MS program.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#89

Post by grayshirts »

amelius wrote: post #86

> Software engineers interested in acquiring a solid foundation in artificial intelligence. Does a "solid foundation in AI" actually exist? I'm asking because it seems that nobody really knows why many algorithms actually work, or even how they should be adjusted to cover new applications. To me it sounds more like "educated guessing".

If you are talking about ML then: Bayesian stuff, Variational and MCMC, Graphical models, Deep Learning, Linear Algebra, Probability theory, Statistics, Multivariate Calculus, Optimizations - as a baseline. I think the "average" person on HN would not be interested in ML if they had to learn it rigorously. It's much easier to blackbox the entire thing and label yourself as a "ML Engineer" then learn the fundamentals listed above. Having a Stats/Applied Math background would be very helpful.

Re: Artificial Intelligence Graduate Certificate

#90

Post by aerioux »

grayshirts wrote: post #88
dsacco wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You might be interested to know that it's possible to enter a Master's program without completing a Bachelor's degree. This is not openly advertised, but I am aware that even universities with high signaling value like CMU and Oxford are open to this arrangement.

In general Masters in CS programs require either a BS in CS or coursework in areas like operating systems, data structures, algorithms, computability/complexity etc. These courses generally have prereqs such as 1-2 semesters worth of programming courses, discrete math etc. Someone without a CS background most likely would not be accepted to a standard MS program.

i'm sorry but this is not correct. CS Masters programs are more money-making then credential caring. Georgia Tech's MS as well as CMU's both accept non-CS traditional backgrounds.

This is trivially verifiable on linkedin. That said they do require high ugrad GPAs frequently.

Source: Knowing Georgia Tech Phd TA's and being a CMU TA for Master's classes

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