I had a huge ambition to become an artificial intelligence developer.
I've studied all the latest materials. That means sci-fi movies – Terminator, Wargames, RoboCop, and alien. Well, yeah, they're a bit apocalyptic. But such TV shows Night Rider and Star Trek: Next Generation It made me believe that anything is possible.
I was cutting my teeth at the bleeding edge of technology known as the Atari 1200XL and ready for AI.
I also enjoyed programming – I think Basic and Pascal were counting at the time. Nonetheless, I created my own game and database engine for my baseball card collection. Dad didn't want to spend money on software and He challenged me to write them because we are sending our kids to school.
In my third year of high school, I wrote a really fun and interesting program that uses complex wave equations to generate images of the electron orbitals of hydrogen atoms. Create images one at a time. Not as good as these here – it was still in the 80s, but you take a picture.
My physics teacher nominated me for a scholarship at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which was fully impressed. This opened the door to enrolling in school as a computer science major. I was on my journey to AI.
ai winter
At Rensselaer, the AI professor asked me to write a program to play the card game Solitaire. I went to write for LISP and found out that the computers weren't actually learning anything.
I was drawing commander data, finding ways to play the game faster and faster on any shuffle. It's not that I should program it and tell you what to do at every stage.
I asked the professor how this could be considered “artificial intelligence.” She said our job as developers is to communicate the best moves to do at any time and ensure that they cover all scenarios. Basically, forwarding my To the computer for what is known as intelligence.
It was artificial intelligence in the early 90s – focusing on Artificial.
I could feel the bubble explode inside me, but I was not alone. Technology wasn't there yet. This turned out to beThe second winter.
Ah moment
After I finished my studies, I put my ambitions on the shelves as an AI developer. I started my career as a system and network infrastructure administrator and really enjoyed the challenges that came with it.
Being a mental software developer, I have found ways to automate many repetitive management tasks to monitor the health of my system. This was helpful as my users often ask why the network is so slow. Or the classic question, ” Is the network down?”
My employer didn't like spending money, so I went looking for open source software. But you can only go without opening your wallet. A commercial solution that costs six figures will take you there, but we were willing to use it. So I sat down and wrote my tools from scratch and emulated expensive software.
Well, when someone asked if the network was down (spoiler alert: not), I was able to see 5-6 different locations and in about 10 minutes I could figure out exactly (or who) slowing things down.
I was excited to have data I would work with, but it was exhausting to dig into everything.
Then came my “Aha moment.”
Concept of Big Data It was all rage in the mid-2010s. I was at a meeting that gave a hypothetical example of someone finding the best way to get from point A to point B on the train. In theory, Big Data The system can collect train schedules and suggest the best options, taking into account the waiting time, available seats, detours, ticket prices and more.
ah! This is like my challenge of pulling small pieces of system information from various sources and connecting dots to create a clear image.
All I had to do was write another tool with logic and connect it all together. Now I was able to answer by clicking a few mouse clicks on the web server I built when users asked classic questions.
I felt like I was back in college.
learn
This sparked my potential computer science interests, sitting on the shelf for some Decades.
I decided to pursue this new passion and signed up for a data science and machine learning class. My nights and weekends were full of as many online classes as I could.
Looking back, I realized that the “Aha moment” and the revived passion were the real reasons why I was bored with the role of infrastructure management. Don't get me wrong – that's a good job. However, I found a better outlet for my skills, so every support call became unbearable.
It was a time of change.
Luckily, my manager recommended me another role in the company, just like my high school teacher who recognized my potential. Big Data Analyst.
I jumped into creating sales forecast modeling using an elegant programming language r. I was then forced to implement neural networks on this model and rewrite them to Python. Finally, I used Automl to find the best model, the SHAP of explanability, packaged this into Docker and integrated it with QLIK Sense for further visualization.
I don't like to do anything along the way.
Then came the day when my boss asked me to help the consumer services department implement the AI image classifier. Consumers are looking for support for our products and we spend a lot of time understanding the products they have. Photos make it easier, and AI makes it faster.
Our original intention was to find a third-party company to create AI for us. This would be six figure expensive. I know how allergic our company is to spending, so I offered to create my own AI model. We collected image data, trained the model, created a simple web interface for use.
AI Spring
This is where my long-standing infrastructure experience came to rescue. I was able to access internal resources, know how to build a Linux server in the Azure cloud to get a GPU accelerator, and get a web server up and have it accessible. This is 2019 and advances in hardware and software have arrived just at the right time. at last,AI Spring It was on top of us.
A 30-minute demonstration to the director of the consumer services department persuaded him to abandon all negotiations with third-party companies. I was given a green light to take this full time!
Thirty years later, I reached a perfect circle. My dream of being an AI developer was, thankfully, a reality without a killer robot.
I expanded this application over the next six years and it's the highlight of my career. We received the Personal President of our company's achievement award. This project was extremely successful and I'm happy to share what I learned in a series of writings.
retirement
This year, I decided to enter the retirement phase of my existence. This may have nothing to do with the company being stingy, but I'm off track.
On my last day, my boss gathered our team and asked if there was any advice to share. Here's what I said:
- Take a step back and don't be afraid to value what really makes you happy. Pivoting may take time and effort, but it is worth pursuing.
- Make sure you build good relationships with your mentors and managers. They may be something to help you open the door for you.
- Don't stop learning. I don't know where the next inspiration will come from.
I call it “retirement”, but I think it's more reset so I can find other ways to make a difference. There is a lot of interest to explore and a lot to learn.
You will never get old to chase your childhood dreams.
