Yuxian, winners of scholarships Machine Learning
The individual growth of our developers can be simplified in two aspects: their own initiatives of learning and the company´s accompaniment. Does the second aspect happen in all software technology companies?
Santiago Arango, developer and employee of Yuxi Global, along with Mateo Restrepo Head of Data of the company, won one of the 25 scholarships of specilizations in Autonomous cars which was disputed in the contest implemented in the Challenge called “Deep Learning and Robotics” for Kiwi Campos with the support of Udacity and Ruta N, in May 2018. This call was aimed at starting to train people in autonomous cars.
The process
According to Santiago’s testimony, the registration, preparation and participation process was quite simple. The convocation was addressed to people in Colombia with careers related to engineering and technology fields. Approximately 200 people participated, who simply had to fill out their data and answer questions in topics relevant to mathematics and Machine Learning, this in order to make a first filter of who were really interested in the subject and moderately prepared to face the test. Once the registration was ready, a second moment would occur, since they had to attend a face-to-face meetup or through their YouTube channel where the managers told who they were, what they did and finally raised the problem.
Facing the challenge
The managers raised the problem as follows: the concept was autonomous cars to make deliveries, the vehicle goes to the place of purchase or store, picks up the order and takes it autonomously to the person who requested it. And there was where the challenge arose, because the car had inconsistencies in its displacement, since it still crashed with people, or to be more precise the car did not identify pets (dogs) and hit against them, even stronger things like when the car arrived at a traffic light and it was in red it continued travel. Inconveniences like these had to be solved in the contest, since the idea was to find a way to mitigate that type of errors.
Challenge
The participants had to create an algorithm to identify different traffic signals, the algorithm had to be developed in three different techniques:
1. Convolutional neuronal network.
2. Logistic Regression. These two were developed with a Google technology called TensorFlow in Python and the
3. Again Logistic Regression but with a library called Scikit-learn.
• Finally, the managers sent an image to the participant and it had to be classified with success inside the traffic signals.
Santiago had approximately 10 days to resolve the problem. He dedicated his free time after work and even weekends. Definitively it was a dedication challenge. Also it was a perfect moment for Santiago, since he was studying a specialization in Machine Learning. “I decided to make that investment and these are the things you choose in life, because if I hadn´t made that investment I would not have been able to solve the competition, it came alone. Unfortunately, sometimes we don´t think on the benefits that some risks we take can bring.
The price arrived
Santiago was always convinced that he would win the challenge, because he was full of expectations on what he had learned and the effort he had put into solving the problem, he always trusted himself, and said: “I literally said: I win or win. And although the problem sounded complicated, I knew that it was really simple, because I have had the opportunity to solve more serious problems in the health field”
By the hand of Yuxi Global
Santiago has always shown his own initiative when it comes to learning something new, and he says that Yuxi motivates him to do this kind of things, take risks, learn more, study and participate in competitions, since he had the opportunity to be in different companies, he states: “I can say that this is the first company in Medellín that has been interested in the topic of Machine Learning, so this motivates me to continue studying because you notice that there is a field to work in. Yuxi is also really interested in this field, since it has hired Mateo (Head of Data) who knows a lot, and his experience is great. In conclusion, the response and support from Yuxi has been very positive and has receptively accepted my interests in the field of Machine Learning “
And that is how he leaves us a reflection on what awaits the future with the Machine Learning theme, and ensures that the companies together with their developers are the ones who must create the need and not wait for the market to create it. And he assures us: “In Yuxi Global they will always listen to us and they are also willing to bet on this field, where in my opinion, there is the strong future of the market”
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