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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

#81

Post by [deleted] »

HilbertSpace wrote: post #71
loboman wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 opportunitie…

I got no meaningful feedback on why I was not hired. The resumes led to only five interviews, and I'm counting phone interviews. The main issues were (1) I am a US citizen and, thus, not on an H1B and (2) I was over 50. Generally a subordinate is supposed to be younger.

[deleted]

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

#82

Post by robryan »

jpeterson wrote: post #67
plinkplonk wrote: post #52

Prof Thrun mentioned in the last office hours that there were about 1650 people with "perfect scores" and he seemed a little thunderstruck by that and said he would admit these folks into Stanford if he could, because they are (paraphrasing, from memory)"Stanford quality". What struck me was how much importance he gave to this metric, which isn't that hard to game on an online offering. I know a few people (who shall…

I know a few people (who shall remain nameless) who collaborate and check each others Why would someone do this for a free online course that gives no credit for a degree? I mean, the whole point is to learn, not get the highest grade. I really fail to understand people sometimes.

Why do people keep coming back to games like farmville and games are now rampart with side achievements with little point like collect 300 x in zone y? I think some people on some level would feel the need to use all means available to maximise scores purely as something that needs to be checked off like achievements in games.

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

#83

Post by codeonfire »

loboman wrote: post #38
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 opportunitie…

At big corporations you needs fame and "eminence" to land a job in a specialized field. You need to showboat and schmooze into these places. They want to hire the Sanjay Gupta of AI, writing code while also talking to refugees on CNN, or something. edit: tell me why you think I'm wrong if you think I'm wrong.

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

#84

Post by tonio09 »

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…

I plan to do a PhD in AI and start my own company after that. I already have a very solid software engineering background. I think in order to truly appreciate your education and efforts, you need to start your own company. Otherwise, you're just generating money to someone else and your work gets averaged by everyone else's work.

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

#85

Post by jonknee »

jpeterson wrote: post #67
plinkplonk wrote: post #52

Prof Thrun mentioned in the last office hours that there were about 1650 people with "perfect scores" and he seemed a little thunderstruck by that and said he would admit these folks into Stanford if he could, because they are (paraphrasing, from memory)"Stanford quality". What struck me was how much importance he gave to this metric, which isn't that hard to game on an online offering. I know a few people (who shall…

I know a few people (who shall remain nameless) who collaborate and check each others Why would someone do this for a free online course that gives no credit for a degree? I mean, the whole point is to learn, not get the highest grade. I really fail to understand people sometimes.

People form study groups all the time, it's a great way to learn. Since it's a free online course all of the benefit is what you actually learn, there is no way to cheat. At least that's my point of view (I am not in any of the classes, but wouldn't hesitate to co-work on stuff if I was).

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

#86

Post by tristanstraub »

plinkplonk wrote: post #64
Technophilis wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is surprising that you thought of this as a "cool AI job offer". I have two remarks here. First, the email sent to the class is barely an invitation to send resumes. Something many programmers/CS Students with online presence experience on a regular basis. Probably not from a Stanford Professor but at least from major companies recruiters. It would be interesting to know how many will actually make it through the…

"It is surprising that you thought of this as a "cool AI job offer"." I don't. That part of the post was written with tongue firmly attached to cheek. If that tone didn't come through, that means I have to improve my writing. The online ML course is CS 229A (which is also an actual course at Stanford. The online version is close to the Stanford course). The "tough" version is CS 229 (no 'A' at the end). I registered…

> 229A is close to worthless

I'd hardly call it worthless myself. It lacks a deeper analysis of all the methods that are used, but using them can sometimes be a greater challenge.

I did the AI course and the ML course and find it a great way of getting a little overview of the subjects, so when I study on my own, I have a little direction.

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

#87

Post by buff-a »

tzs wrote: post #6

Drat. If I'd known they were going to do that, I'd have made sure I was in the top 1000. edit: why is this getting voted down? I would expect there are a fair number of people here who took the course with a casual approach, like I did. E.g., I usually watched the lectures early Sunday, then did the homework that night. Then, for those topics that I enjoyed and wanted in more depth, I read the sections in the book on…

My guess is that you are being modded down because your statement is of a form that many people have heard in real life and associate with poor performance. It shows a lack of thinking about jobs. However, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you are young and not really worrying about such things.

Basically your answer is like the classic "I could have got a 5.0, but I partied", which is a statement that says a number of things. 1. "I think all the kids who got 5.0 are boring and don't party" (untrue). 2. "I am not capable of getting a 5.0 and partying" (probably true).

That the person would even make the statement says something about their general level of intelligence. Hence when you say "If I had but known, I would have been in the top 100", you are saying "I had no idea that a hugely publicized course at a renowned university might lead to job opportunities". This lack of intelligence seems to contradict your first statement. Or it could be that you are not in the habit of thinking about such things. I hope you are either a kid, or an incredibly wealthy trust-fund baby living in isolation. Usually, however, I hear such remarks from people who are not smart enough to realize they are not smart enough, or they are quitters, or they are victims.

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

#88

Post by EdiX »

YokYok wrote: post #51
zmj wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you done all the other homeworks? I also missed only 1 question on HW6 and I did get the letter.

I did them all and got 100% everywhere (except in HW6). I am kind of disappointed. May be the quizzes are part of the grading?

I doubt it, I got the letter but my quizzes scores are rather mediocre.

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

#89

Post by briandon »

jonknee wrote: post #85
jpeterson wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a few people (who shall remain nameless) who collaborate and check each others Why would someone do this for a free online course that gives no credit for a degree? I mean, the whole point is to learn, not get the highest grade. I really fail to understand people sometimes.

People form study groups all the time, it's a great way to learn. Since it's a free online course all of the benefit is what you actually learn, there is no way to cheat. At least that's my point of view (I am not in any of the classes, but wouldn't hesitate to co-work on stuff if I was).

Homeworks must be completed individually, and while we encourage students to help each other learn, homework assignments must be your own work and not done with a group.

As with the homeworks, exams must be completed individually without the help of other people.

https://www.ai-class.com/overview

I think that lots of people probably did collaborate on the homeworks and the mid-term and likely will do so again on the final and it was and will be cheating.

It's a shame, especially given that the instructors do seem to be attaching some importance to students' scores and rankings, but I'm not letting it detract too much from my enjoyment of the class.

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

#90

Post by Natsu »

rglullis wrote: post #31
jorgeortiz85 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 thei…

Granted it wouldn't work in many other classes, but my teacher for assembly language did something like this. First, your code had to work or you got nothing. You also had some time limit, to avoid ridiculously slow, yet working code. Finally, each working submission was graded by the number of additional bytes you used above the reference implementation.

And he knew all the tricks. I don't think anyone ever beat him. And he didn't show anyone any of the solutions until after the final.

I felt like I learned more from the few minutes I spent reading those solutions than I did during the rest of the course.

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