My Deep Learning Experience with Udacity Bertelsmann Scholarship
The quality is great but the community is just amazing!
Today is the day the Phase 2 of the Udacity Bertelsmann Scholarship formally comes to a close. It’s a great time to share about my experience in the past ~10 months.
How did I know about this?
I was already interested in Artificial Intelligence at that time but was kind of just starting. As a student, my allowance is kind of short especially to Udacity Nanodegrees. However, I am really interested with it because the nanodegrees are really hands on, there are mentors present while learning, reviewers giving feedback to the projects and known industry experts teaching it, even the pioneers themselves! A friend of mine shared to me his secret to get in, it is via the Udacity scholarship. He further told me to wait for some announcements so I waited. Finally the day came, I looked at the AI Track immediately. I was really glad because it was about Deep Learning — the topic I was interested about in the moment and I thought will be very useful for my thesis.
Udacity Bertelsmann Scholarship
Over a three-year period, Bertelsmann is investing several million euros in funding as many as 50,000 tech scholarships on the online education platform Udacity to strengthen people’s tech skills. Specifically, the Group is funding 15,000 tech scholarships annually for Challenge Courses in Cloud, Data and AI. In addition, the top ten percent of participants will receive a scholarship for a full Nanodegree in their selected subject area.
This programme has two phases:
Phase 1: Challenge Course
From all of the entrees, only 15,000 learners were selected overall for the three tracks: Cloud, AI and Data Track. In 3.5 months, we learned about the key components using the course they provided. To get to the next phase, the requirement is just the active participation in the slack group.
Phase 2: Nanodegree
Out of the 15,000, only 1,600 learners from the three tracks will be awarded with the Nanodegrees. We had the chance to complete it in 6 months.
Phase 1: Challenge Course
After doing my application for phase 1, I got in!
I find this phase really fun. I think the requirement to get into the next phase is wise as it requires people to be active in the slack group. At first, I thought to be active because I really want to do the Deep Learning Nanodegree but as time went by, I just enjoyed it!
The slack group had members from all over the world. Timezones are crazy! It was my first time to be in this kind of environment where people are actively learning and really diving in to their interests! Before, I was actually just learning myself and as people know, that’s a struggle. I tried looking around and just saw few people doing it. So, for me, being in this slack group was a gem.
There were lots of activities in the slack group and that was a big thanks to our community manager, Grace Cho and our AI Student Leaders. There were different channels and there were quizzes, threads, sharing, workshops, study jams, webinars, etc. The best channel for me was the 60 days of Udacity which I used to finish the challenge course and gain a star in the honorable mention wall. We did aim that. I actually first started 100DaysOfCode and I just restarted it over and over again. Finding this community helped me to push through it as I see other people learning with me too.
Also one best part of it, as you share, you also engage with other people. After some days, I found myself talking with other learners that I did not even know previously. I also knew that the learners came from different backgrounds. Like me, there were also students. Some were undergrads, and others were taking their PhDs. There were professionals and there were unemployed. It was a full spectrum. Then, it clicked to me,
Interest is a great bonding or unifying element of people coming from different backgrounds of different countries.
After some time, I became consistent learning everyday even though I have formal classes that time. It was a struggle but every participant has a story to tell and they chose not to make that an excuse. They find a way and did it all the way with enjoyment.
Fast forward, as the challenge course closes, we bid goodbyes with our ‘goodbye for now but see you again’ posts. Here are some of the memories I’ve saved:
And at the end, the YOU ROCK AWARD WINNERS were also revealed!
Among the awardees, I am very honored to be appreciated too.
After 3.5 months, as Phase 1 closed, the slack group was also gone.
Phase 2: Nanodegree
We waited at some time and finally woke up to see the email.
A rush of happiness went on. “I got in! I got in!” People were posting in their Linkedin accounts. Although, we were technically in our own, as Phase 2 started, a new slack group was also formed having the same members as before! Well, at least those who were interested. Really thankful to one of the members who made the initiative. Over 6 months, we pushed through the habit of learning everyday and helping others at times. We also shared interesting stuff in the slack outside the Nanodegree context. That’s pure amazing.
Regarding the Deep Learning Nanodegree, it has two parts: the Core Curriculum (required to graduate) and the Extra Curriculars.
Core Curriculum
The Core Curriculum has 6 parts with part 1–5 having different projects:
- Introduction to Deep Learning
- Neural Networks
3. Convolutional Neural Networks
4. Recurrent Neural Networks
5. Generative Adversarial Networks
6. Deploying a Model
Extracurricular
This part has two parts:
- Deep Reinforcement Learning
- Additional Lessons (such as in Regression, Cloud Computing, etc.)
The best part in doing the projects was getting detailed reviews. Really thanking the reviewers. Here is my github repo for the projects.
After 6 months, and that’s technically today, Phase 2 formally finished and we graduated. All hail graduates!
Overall,
It was quite a journey that transformed us. We learned a lot and we formed some bonds. For me, this is just the beginning. I hope to learn more and create a career out of what I’ve learned — may it be in the academia or industry. I hope the spirit of this learning community will also reach other communities — especially the local groups.
