Last Friday I got an email saying I was awarded the Bertelsmann Technology Scholarship Challenge Course. The course is an Intro to Deep Learning with PyTorch through Udacity. It utilizes Python as the programming language and is the fundamentals of AI (Artificial Intelligence). The classroom opened yesterday so I've already started. This is actually a free course on Udacity as well if anyone would like to take it!

So what makes the challenge course different?

Well, I'm glad you asked. Bertelsmann awarded around 45,000 scholarships to three tracks. AI, Data Analysis and Cloud Computing. That's 15,000 people per course. Then the top 1,500 people will get the full nanodegree. They take into account if you completed the entire course as well as the amount and quality of participation in the Slack group.

What I expect:

The recommended study time is 10 hours a week. During my last scholarship through them I definitely procrastinated on studying the first month since it was a topic I was already familiar with so I'm not doing the this time.

I have no AI experience and very minimal Python experience so I know it's going to take a lot more than the 10 hours. Thankfully on Slack we have a beginners channel to share resources and there are channels to get help.

I had started this course before but was quickly overwhelmed by the speed so having the extra help (and a deadline) is already helping. Personally, I tend to stay off Slack for the first week because it's a lot of people introducing themselves, posting just to post, repeat questions and not threading anything. It's unnecessary and very overwhelming. After the orientation and an AMA session I'm sure it'll calm down.

Have you done any AI? Is it something you're interested in?

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