For the past few months, I have been on a sort of Magical Mystery Tour learning about ‘machine learning’, data science and AI. I still can’t tell you the exact differences between them all but it does not matter to me, I just prefer to let art wash over me 😜
My journey began late last year when I set up an interest, nay, ‘working group’ with a few colleagues at work. It started small and now we have over 60 people in the working group. There’s not much ‘working’ going on 😂 but we have fun trying
Right now, the keen people in the group are all learning some variety of data science/ machine learning. We have 4 learning groups:
The Python and Azure groups are the most popular so far, Python already has a big fan base at work (as a more generalised programming and scripting language) and Microsoft’s Azure machine learning tools are very approachable, I think Microsoft have done a really good job! 👍😀
I am ‘leading’ the R machine learning learning group, its a bit like the ‘blind leading the blind’ as I didn’t know any R before I started and now I’m half way through a very good course on a site called datacamp.com #DataCamp The course I am doing is called “Data science with R”.
I am also doing some other courses in parallel and while I am enjoying it all I find that I am spreading myself a bit thin and recently I have had to pause some courses to focus on fewer at a time. There just aren’t enough hours in the day 🤓
So far, I am finding that I seem to have an affinity for ‘data wrangling’ and my background in data stuff gives me a good base to work from. The hard part for me is knowing what algorithms to use when it comes to making sense of the data, I just don’t have the maths/stats background for this but I am hoping it is something I can grow into along the way. The most interesting part is really learning the ‘work flow’ involved and the ‘mindset’ around setting goals, trying out ideas, failing, learning and trying again.
Another great resource that I have been using is edX.org #edX.org. My journey started there with a course called “Data Science: R basics” and I have since done quite a few other courses, including “Introduction to AI” … I am current contemplating doing a full course with one of the university providers on edX.org HarverdX is one of the providers and looks to have a really good one but I am still undecided as it would be a huge time commitment over and above what I’m doing now
For now I am happy to do ‘bespoke’ modules on datacamp and edX.org and develop my overall skills and experience. One thing I really like about datacamp is access to supporting resources like their ‘data science cheat sheets’ – A3 size posters/ infographics that give you a nice summary of a topic to put on the wall or in a folder near your computer.
That’s about all for my opening blog on my machine learning/ data science magical mystery tour… more to follow as I continue my journey! 😎
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