Hello trend,
After graduating from MIT and working as an aerospace engineer for over two decades, Bill Kromydas got fascinated by the world of AI.
What started as a tool he used at his job became his new passion.
He took many courses in AI, including our course Deep Learning with PyTorch, spent nights and weekends honing his skills, and recently got hired as a Senior AI engineer and an instructor for OpenCV courses!
We will share his journey and wisdom in the next section, but first a quick reminder.
Our Kickstarter campaign backed by nearly 1400 backers ends in less than 24 hours!
There are many COMBOs in the campaign to choose from, but let me simplify the offerings to just three options.
- OpenCV for Beginners ($57) is a short, fun, and affordable course. It will be available in Sep 2021.
- CV SUPREME COMBO ($747) is a collection of 3 existing courses + OpenCV for Beginners. It provides the best value for courses and is for people who are seriously about a career in computer vision and AI.
- CV MASTER EDGE COMBO ($1097) is a collection of ALL our courses including Deep Learning with Tensorflow and Keras (to be released in Jan 2022) and our award winning programmable smart camera OAK-D. The OAK-D comes with a ton of tutorials and a free course. This is for people who want to build expertise both AI software and hardware.
Excited?
| LET'S START |
A CAREER SWITCH FROM AEROSPACE TO AI
Back to Bill's story in his own words. It's a tale of hard work, persistence, and extreme focus.
My journey into the world of Computer Vision began in an unusual place.
I was fascinated with space travel from a very young age, and years later I eventually followed my childhood passion and pursued a career as an aerospace engineer. I worked on many interesting projects and I am grateful for the experience. After many years working in this industry, one fortunate opportunity pulled me into a whole new work domain that changed the course of my career.
I was assigned to be the technical manager on a small research project that involved the use of machine learning algorithms to classify text and audio files. I spent two years working closely with developers and I was very intrigued by the technology and how well the algorithms performed in many cases, eventually leading to deployment in a real-world system. This experience motivated me to learn more about machine learning and AI, and to also pursue studies in computer vision.
I was excited to explore these new domains and took several online classes over the next few years. Although I was able to apply machine learning to problems in the workplace, I still held a passion for the field of Computer Vision. I eventually pursued a career change that would allow me to work full-time in the field. I am happy to say that I landed in a very good place after several years of self-study.
Looking back, there were times when I wondered how long I could continue taking classes that often required 5 am study sessions and many weekend hours. I always seemed to find something new to study! "Just one more class," I would think to myself. Putting it lightly, I'm not sure how many times my wife said,
"Please tell me this is the last class you are going to take!"
Well, in 2019 I was still at it. I was a backer of the first OpenCV Kickstarter campaign that featured Deep Learning with PyTorch. I enjoyed working through the course because of its emphasis on real-world models and applications.
In my studies over the past several years, I came to understand that a single course in one or two domains was simply not enough. Many courses overlap in the coverage of various fundamentals, and it's helpful to revisit concepts from different points of view at deeper and deeper levels. It also takes time to learn and absorb some material. However, spending effort to truly understand difficult material can be a very rewarding experience. The most satisfying feeling you can have is working on a project where you can extend what you've learned to create something new. At that point, you become so immersed in what you are doing, you lose track of time.
I also realized that I learned how to learn better. If you're not sure how well you understand something then try explaining it to someone else! I often took this approach by writing short tutorials to myself on various topics. This forces you not to skip steps. I found this to be among the most helpful study aids I used. Also, the value of programming something cannot be overstated. This also forces you not to skip steps. That's why "getting your hands dirty" is incredibly valuable.It was a long journey, but a very satisfying one. It was difficult because it took discipline and effort over a long period of time. There are simply no shortcuts, but every journey begins with a single step and some conviction. It takes persistence and patience. But the payoff is gratifying.
I wish you all the best as you pursue your passions!
That's all folks. I hope to see you in our courses!
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