My Life is Getting Tensor

In my first year studying Computer Science I attended a seminar on Artificial Intelligence given by Professor Melanie Mitchell of Portland State University and the Santa Fe Institute. I figured by the end of it I could probably build my own BB-8 to roll around and do whatever else an armless, frictionless orange ball does (I still don’t know how he was able to roll through the sand on Jakku).

I was wrong of course.  Pretty much everything went right over my uneducated head. Still, I was excited to be there. When she asked for questions at the end I bravely raised my hand and asked “I’m a new CS student and don’t know much about Artificial Intelligence, how would you recommend I learn more?” I was hoping for some great online resources, or maybe suggestions for a specific tool to practice with. Instead I got

“Ummm, maybe take a class on it?” 

It really would be the right thing to do, but it felt like a “well duh!” sort of answer.

To be fair to Professor Mitchell, she was short on time, and when I reached out to her later she gave me some excellent suggestions including her own book “Artificial Intelligence, A Guide for Thinking Humans” which I highly recommend you read.

The reason I’m remembering this story is because my “job” over the next 3 months is going to be studying Machine Learning tools like TensorFlow and applying them to the construction of an application which can identify the Genre of any music it is provided.

“That sounds really complicated” my family said when I told them about it. 

I totally agree.

To be honest, it is a lot more than I can currently handle. I’ve never touched a Machine Learning algorithm, nor am I a genius at math, nor have I taken any classes on Artificial Intelligence, despite their recommendation by Professor Mitchell. Despite this I know that with a lot of 3:00 AM bedtimes and the support of my teammates I’ll have something at the end to be proud of. It is a daunting task, but I will not be daunted! (imagine cheering and fireworks and a flag being waved by robots behind me. Also imagine Melanie Mitchell chuckling, because she could probably write this program in less than an afternoon and because her flag waving robots are better). 

I know next to nothing about the nuts and bolts of Machine Learning, which means I am put in an excellent position to teach you! Seriously! Sometimes the masters of a subject are too distanced from the novices to remember what it is like learning the topic for the first time. Like, how is a novice supposed to know that a “directory” is the cool programmer way of saying “folder”. Therefore, because I will clearly make an excellent teacher, the goal of this blog will be to teach you everything I learn about Machine Learning. Everytime I learn a new term or find an easier way to do something, I’ll record it here! Hopefully at the end of 3 months you’ll know just as much as I do!

Oh, and in case you didn’t catch the joke in the title, my life is about to get a lot tensor. As in “more tense”, but also “Tensor” like in “TensorFlow” the machine learning library! Ha! I’ve been told that if you have to explain a joke then it isn’t really funny, but honestly that’s my favorite part of telling a bad joke.