Humans of Udacity: Tetevi Placide Ekon
This is the fourth post in a series about the unique and interesting stories of people in the Udacity alumni community.
Meet Tetevi Placide Ekon:
Thanks for chatting with us today! To begin, tell us about your background, if you would?
I am a graduate student in Civil Engineering, with a passion for Computer Science. I am originally from Togo but had to travel to the neighboring country of Burkina Faso, where I currently live, for educational purposes. I love engineering in its many forms because of the things it enables you to do.
I have also been a volunteer at Udefe, which was really amazing. We would go from village to village providing pens and books to children and that really made me feel like a part of something.
I think education is the best gift you can give someone and there are so many bright children here that don’t have access to it.
Which Nanodegree program did you graduate from, and what led you to enroll in one of our programs?
I graduated from the Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree program. As an engineer I aim to make my designs as autonomous and helpful as possible and Machine Learning enables you to do that.
What project did you enjoy the most during your Udacity studies?
The project I enjoyed the most was the one on reinforcement learning: “Train a Smartcab to drive”. I had to write an algorithm to “teach” a self-driving agent how to reach its destination in a certain allotted time while at the same time being respectful of (US) traffic rules.
The most challenging part of the project for me was applying all the theory in the course materials to the actual coding, and I was so proud when I managed to achieve that.
What’s next?
The “Train a Smartcab to drive” project really boosted my enthusiasm, and I am now really excited to learn more about reinforcement learning and building intelligent systems. I have applied for the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree program and really hope to get in. I just cannot imagine the level of awesome projects I will be doing in that program.
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Update: Since this interview was conducted, Tetevi was accepted into the Self-Driving Car Nanodegree program!
