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Kevin Faber
Kevin Faber

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Ways to Advance Personal Learning in Machine Learning

There are areas in academia, research, and business that have a need to have people with skills and understanding in machine learning. These people have to be able to keep up with the latest trends and research to keep their knowledge relevant in their field of endeavor. That is why people need to know the best ways in which to improve their knowledge. While learning at a university, such as the EMSE program at GWU, is a start, there is much more to it. The person has to be able to adapt and find new ways with every advance in the field.

The Start

People believe that education is the way to get to where they need. There are many college programs, like engineering management and systems engineering. That is only the beginning, though. Education builds a solid foundation to be built on. Many people can acquire the knowledge that a degree provides. It takes imagination and discipline to go beyond that. Education does not always cover the latest knowledge and skills that have been found. Education does allow for a person to understand what others see as complex answers. They see how solutions work. They see where more research is needed.

Researching daily

A person who wants to expand their knowledge and skills for machine learning needs to be a researcher at heart. There are many programming languages and application uses out there. A person who has a firm foundation can see how a breakthrough for financial trading can be used in data security. A person who understands the code can open their mind to how programming has advanced areas others see as limited. That means that this person has to read all they can and keep programming. There are lots of articles and blogs to read, but they can reap benefits for many professionals.

Keep records

One of the ways to help keep track of knowledge is by keeping records. A journal can allow someone to go back to remind themselves of knowledge they may have forgotten. Mixing the old knowledge with the new can lead to a different mindset on how something can be applied to a current problem. It could allow for someone to come up with a new way of doing a task more efficiently. As with speaking a language, programming has several ways to reach the same end result. That means that a journal can show someone how they arrived at the answer before and can improve it with new solutions.

Group Activities

Never be a loner in the world of computers. Become part of an open source project. Join a local group to discuss machine learning during lunch. Learning from and with others will allow for new perspectives to be brought into work and personal projects. Getting stuck can be solved over a hamburger. An open source project could lead to a breakthrough that changes another industry. Groups working together should pool knowledge, not hoard it. New algorithms are scoured over by all those who work in the field for a reason.

 

Once a degree is finished, the learning is just starting with machine learning. That means that people need to keep researching the field. They need to make sure they keep track of what they already know. They must learn from and share with those who share the interest. Never believe that a few good algorithms are all that is coming from one mind. There is a lot of creativity to be had, which means a person needs to know the best ways to keep up with machine learning. Advancement comes from years of being disciplined in these matters.

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