Understand Advanced Machine Learning (ML) Techniques with Udacity's Data Science Nanodegree Program

AWS Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree program from Udacity helps learners understand advanced Machine Learning (ML) techniques and algorithms, including package and deploying models to a production environment.

The prerequisites to learn data science are Python programming knowledge and intermediate knowledge of ML algorithms. Nonetheless, one can enroll regardless of experience and specific background. Industries, tech firms, start-ups and government agencies are all fields where one can work as a Machine Learning Engineer.

In this Data Science Nanodegree course, you will study how to package your models and deploy them to a production environment.  You will also be taught about Amazon SageMaker, a tool that allows you to test and deploy your model to a web application. Thus, you will get to master one of the crucial skills in the industry, i.e., the technicalities behind updating models (as one goes on to collect humongous amounts of data).

I really enjoyed the online course as the prerequisites for data scientist were specific, the data scientist syllabus was well planned and the lessons were easy for me to follow. The workload (assignment or preps) were measured, so I was able to complete them and also learn the topics without feeling rushed.

I feel the learning experience could have been better, if the lecture PowerPoint were accompanied by audio lectures, as it would help learners cover points that they might have missed out on.

It is an online self-paced, well-curated advanced level course spread over 5 months and taught by experienced faculty members. It usually requires learners to put in an effort of 10 hours per week to match the course pace. 

I liked the flexibility of this course. It worked well with my busy schedule. One drawback was that if you did not understand a lab or the data from the lab, it was difficult to find the answers from the web lab eventually. However, I thought the web labs were very interesting and very realistic and up-to-date. I thought the class notes that followed each chapter were very well-detailed. 

The professors associated with this course have degrees from renowned institutions in cloud development. The course thus offers an excellent opportunity to study under international professors. The applicants get to be a part of a Capstone project that enhances their understanding of concepts and helps them learn innovatively. Some of the top skills that can be learned in this program are ML Algos, Data Modeling, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Technology, and more.

The course offers instructor-moderated discussions that provide great opportunities to make and build connections. The learners get to enjoy the benefits of hands-on training. The curriculum prepares the learners for a career in the real world. Here, you will get a lot of hands-on experience writing code. The advantage of this is that you will have a working code to tweak and use, and perhaps tons of ideas as well, for working on your own projects afterward.

I’m currently a student at Vellore Institute of Technology and the course assisted me to enhance my skills and work better. I believe that this course is highly relevant in 2022 as you get to gain industry-related skills with hands-on training.