How Udacity helped me explore a career path in new-age technologies — Sarvaswa Tandon
Automation was something that interested me since the first year of my college days. I am passionate about building automated and smart solutions to solve day-to-day problems. My Journey in automation in initial college days only with classroom training programs in Robotics and Embedded Systems. Further I participated in various robotics competitions, where I was introduced to Computer Vision and AI in general. Udacity’s Self-Driving Car Nanodegree Program helped me hone my skills further.
I completed my Bachelors in Electronics and Communication Engineering from National Institute of Technology Goa in 2016. In order to gain more experience and knowledge in Computer Vision, Machine Learning and AI, I worked at Bharti School, IIT-Delhi on automatic Object Detection in images along with a PhD scholar at IIT. We published our research work at the IEEE International Conference on Image Processing 2017, Beijing, China. I then joined the Health Technologies team at Public Health Foundation of India, Gurugram as a Machine Learning Consultant. I was given the opportunity to work with medical data and build solutions using Computer Vision and Machine Learning.
With the recent boom in Artificial Intelligence algorithms and technologies, I was really excited to learn how to implement Machine Learning and Deep learning solutions. I turned towards Udacity’s highly appreciated Nanodegree programs for the same. First, I completed Udacity’s open courses on Deep learning to build some foundation and then moved on to enrol myself in the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree. I chose this Nanodegree since the curriculum of its first term included content that would help me in working on projects around the foundations of Computer Vision and Deep Learning.
The first term helped me learn about building Deep Learning systems and Computer Vision solutions in the context of Self-Driving Cars. The projects included real-world videos taken under highway-like conditions to build a foundation. I successfully built a Lane-Lines Detection system, German Traffic Sign Classifier, taught a car to drive itself in a simulator (Behavioural Cloning), Lane Finding System, and a Vehicle Tracking System. All these projects are well recognised in the industry and help in building the foundations in Computer Vision, Image Processing, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning. The successive terms contain much more complex projects which I am yet to undertake.
The concepts that I learnt from the Nanodegree and other courses on Udacity have helped me in building a career in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Coming from a non-Computer Science background it is difficult to become a part of a fast-growing and highly competitive industry such as AI. Learning the core concepts of a new industry and implementing them helps a lot in building a good resume for that industry. All the interviews that I was able to qualify were because of my work and the projects that I have done. Projects instil confidence into the employer’s mind that the candidate is well experienced with the methodology and roadblocks that anyone faces while actually implementing a solution.
Being a part of Udacity’s Nanodegree program also helped me in becoming a part of the Udacity PropelX, where I was able to get interviews with disruptive tech-companies. I eventually secured an offer and joined Engineer.ai in Gurugram, Haryana as an AI and Machine Learning Ninja.
Udacity has helped me become a part of the mainstream AI industry and I plan to build a career in Artificial Intelligence
