My journey with AI
how I got started with AI
Early Days
My background is Mechatronics Engineering, a area covered with mechanical, electrical and a tiny bit of Programming in which took me 4 years to finish. With that being said, the shift of my study toward Information Science, especially Artificial Intelligence, in my opinion was a big shift. The reason for my shift of focus is not easy to put into words. I have always in fascinated by the term Artificial Intelligence since I was smaller when that two words got mentioned on on of media platform, even though I had no idea what it is all about. Even during my 4 years of studying, I did not have any, even a little exposure to Artificial Intelligence of any form.
But I was always a big fan of programming, I find it enjoyable seeing those line of codes appearing on the screen and the program got executed. I have tried several time to have more chance to program, I spent time doing self-learning on YouTube, but the I was clear about my programming path at that moment, therefore I would be lost among thousands of tutorials on the platform, from Web Dev to Game Dev and many more.
The Beginning
The summer when I got back to my hometown after the time studying in the UK, I have quite a free time to think about what I am wanting to do with the upcoming chapter of my life. The only I was sure of that time was that I would continue on my higher academic pursuit. During those free time, I started picking up on a Machine Learning course and learning it slowly, it was helpful as I was properly introduced into the area.
But a huge change happened in a so-called “blessing in disguise” situation. In such a situation, I reunited with my high school friend (who I will refer as Mera in this blog) during my first ever internship. His major is the same as me however Mera has started with AI before me and then he suggested me to start making AI project instead of only following the lessons of the course. After the first meeting after such a long time, we spent more time to study together and Mera was like a mentor to guide me with my “first step” of the AI journey.
I started with the “Hello, World!” problem of the AI field which was classification of Dog and Cat. There were a lot of new things that at the time, and I did not have a complete understanding of everything (new terminologies, concepts, ideas…) however, as time passed and we worked on more and more project and problems, I gradually picked up more and more knowledge.
Continuous Learning
As I am writing this blog, it has been nearly 1 year of my journey with AI, I have build a solid cement layer on the background now, thus there are many more things to study as we are living in a fast-growing and evolving technology.
Also I am now doing a PhD research in the area of image processing with the utilization of AI, hence, I need to keep on learning and equip myself with up-to-date knowledge and skills in order to perform well in my research activities, as well as, in a way to satisfy my curiosity and interests in the field of AI as a whole.
Things I have learnt
- Start with proper learning (by taking a established course instead of following unstructured YouTube videos, like I did)
- Practical learning is always faster
- Join the boat with friends
