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Hi all! I work at Udacity on the Nanodegree program mentioned in this article. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. You can also e

by dhruvp 10y ago

Hi all! I work at Udacity on the Nanodegree program mentioned in this article. Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. You can also email me at dhruv@udacity.com or join our slack channel for interested applicants at nd013.udacity.com

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
MrQuincle 10y ago
What is the contents of the program? + Particle filters? + SLAM? + Sensor fusion? + Bayesian methods? + VC dimension? + Sparsity? + Nonconvexity? + Deep learning? I think it's gonna be a challenge to do useful machine learning for self-driving cars if you're not familiar with quite a range of math-heavy topics.
- dhruvp 10y ago
  Hey! It's a difficult, 9 month program where we cover the following (some of which you mentioned): - Computer Vision and OpenCV - Deep Learning - Sensor Fusion (Radar, Lidar) - State Tracking with Filters (Kalman, Particle) and Localization - Controllers - Vehicle Dynamics We have come up with this curriculum after talking to the heads of Engineering at Mercedes Benz, Otto, and NVidia at length. In addition, we have an open ended section where students can dive deeper into an area of their choosing. Like you mentioned, a lot of this is Math heavy, which is why we have applications to enroll. Hope that answered your question!
  - fizzbatter 10y ago
    Does Udacity offer programs for those lacking _(partially or entirely)_ in the math(s) required for these types of courses? Ie, to bring them up to speed? I'm not sure if Udacity is even interested in teaching these types of courses, fwiw... though, i know Khan has lots of math courses.
    - dhruvp 10y ago
      Hey! We do have a few math courses such as our Intro To Statistics class (https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101 https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101) and our Linear Algebra class (https://www.udacity.com/course/linear-algebra-refresher-course--ud953 https://www.udacity.com/course/linear-algebra-refresher-cour...) but I'd still recommend Khan Academy or MIT OCW's math offerings. The 18.06 class on OCW by Professor Strang is really awesome in particular.
  - MrQuincle 10y ago
    Cool, here in the Netherlands I have all the time trouble finding master students that have a thorough machine learning background (https://dobots.nl/hall-of-fame/ https://dobots.nl/hall-of-fame/). There is quite a need for this, also in general autonomous robotics! And there is lower hanging fruit than self-driving cars... I would be grateful if you provide good (math) fundamentals. It's much harder to understand how things work if you have to search for it yourself. Suppose you've never heard about a spark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_(mathematics)), a Hilbert space (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space), Metropolis-Hastings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis%E2%80%93Hastings_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis%E2%80%93Hastings_al...), or a Dirichlet Process (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_process), then it's not so easy to find such concepts and understand their significance. (1) If you need some help, you can find me here. I'm currently playing with MCMCs in nonparametric Bayesian methods that adapt to the structure in the real world. It is a waste to sample everything. For examples aisles in a supermarket have structure to them. In the "visual grammar" of the supermarket, they are aligned with each other. MCMC that can encapsulate this type of grammar will mix much faster. (2) If you find a pupil interested in the combination of transfer learning and deep learning, feel free to refer to me. I'm not interested from the viewpoint of domain adaptation, but from the viewpoint of robotic communication.
    - socmag 10y ago
      Do they have to be Masters students?
      - MrQuincle 10y ago
        Yes, I found out that the topics are typically hard enough that around 9-10 months are spent on them, typical graduation time in Europe. Of course, it also gives me the opportunity to see how someone works, rather than relying on a short application process. :-)
  - Animats 10y ago
    Some big omissions there: - Hard real-time - Fault tolerance - Safety engineering - Human factors analysis The stuff that kills people. An automatic driving project should have someone from avionics design on board.
- blazespin 10y ago
  TO be fair, I think the type of folks that these company needs aren't necessarily the ones doing original research / math heavy work. They need people who can translate what the PHDs do into practical solutions.
feel_the_need 10y ago
I'm trying to get into the program, working my way through your pre-req courses. I do a lot of self studying on the side, but don't have anything to show for it on Udacity. I'm shooting for 33% completion on the 3 Ai-related courses before the application date. Do you think this looks better, or would you rather see I go for a 100% completion on one course?
- dhruvp 10y ago
  I would optimize for completion. We'll be looking for students who've shown they can aim for end to end completion in the program. Hope that helps!
  - bitL 10y ago
    If I didn't complete related courses on Udacity but relevant advanced courses on edX/Coursera, like MIT's Underactuated Robotics, would that be OK as well?
    - dhruvp 10y ago
      Yes! Those count as well. If you see our application we specifically mention courses from Coursera and EdX as well.
    - statguy 10y ago
      What about folks who have taken no online courses, but instead have MS/PhD degrees with a specialization in related areas (Machine Learning) and want to use this course to get into the self driving space? Also, what will the workload be like? Can this be done on evenings/weekends while holding a full time job?
bitL 10y ago
So when can I finally pay you and take the nanodegree? ;-) Why do you limit the number of seats for the program? When Sebastian sent me the new nanodegree heads up I was mildly excited and now as you filled in the actual content I can't wait. With MIT's Underactuated Robotics at edX (which was fun) this is probably the most exciting set of courses I can see on the Internet these days!
- dhruvp 10y ago
  Hey! Great questions. We limit the first batch for two reasons: 1. This is the first batch of the program ever and we want to make sure it's great before opening it up. We want to use this batch to learn and improve and then focus on larger class sizes. 2. One unique thing about Udacity is we provide real human services throughout the program such as a mentor, a code reviewer, and a career support rep. Many of these individuals are actually current or former students of our program. Since this program has never been done before, we are limited in how many such people we can find. Once we get more students in the program, that pool will naturally expand. Best of luck and thanks for applying!

by dhruvp 10y ago

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

MrQuincle 10y ago

What is the contents of the program? + Particle filters? + SLAM? + Sensor fusion? + Bayesian methods? + VC dimension? + Sparsity? + Nonconvexity? + Deep learning? I think it's gonna be a challenge to do useful machine learning for self-driving cars if you're not familiar with quite a range of math-heavy topics.

dhruvp 10y ago
Hey! It's a difficult, 9 month program where we cover the following (some of which you mentioned): - Computer Vision and OpenCV - Deep Learning - Sensor Fusion (Radar, Lidar) - State Tracking with Filters (Kalman, Particle) and Localization - Controllers - Vehicle Dynamics We have come up with this curriculum after talking to the heads of Engineering at Mercedes Benz, Otto, and NVidia at length. In addition, we have an open ended section where students can dive deeper into an area of their choosing. Like you mentioned, a lot of this is Math heavy, which is why we have applications to enroll. Hope that answered your question!
- fizzbatter 10y ago
  Does Udacity offer programs for those lacking _(partially or entirely)_ in the math(s) required for these types of courses? Ie, to bring them up to speed? I'm not sure if Udacity is even interested in teaching these types of courses, fwiw... though, i know Khan has lots of math courses.
  - dhruvp 10y ago
    Hey! We do have a few math courses such as our Intro To Statistics class (https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101 https://www.udacity.com/course/intro-to-statistics--st101) and our Linear Algebra class (https://www.udacity.com/course/linear-algebra-refresher-course--ud953 https://www.udacity.com/course/linear-algebra-refresher-cour...) but I'd still recommend Khan Academy or MIT OCW's math offerings. The 18.06 class on OCW by Professor Strang is really awesome in particular.
- MrQuincle 10y ago
  Cool, here in the Netherlands I have all the time trouble finding master students that have a thorough machine learning background (https://dobots.nl/hall-of-fame/ https://dobots.nl/hall-of-fame/). There is quite a need for this, also in general autonomous robotics! And there is lower hanging fruit than self-driving cars... I would be grateful if you provide good (math) fundamentals. It's much harder to understand how things work if you have to search for it yourself. Suppose you've never heard about a spark (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_(mathematics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_(mathematics)), a Hilbert space (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilbert_space), Metropolis-Hastings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis%E2%80%93Hastings_algorithm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis%E2%80%93Hastings_al...), or a Dirichlet Process (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_process https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirichlet_process), then it's not so easy to find such concepts and understand their significance. (1) If you need some help, you can find me here. I'm currently playing with MCMCs in nonparametric Bayesian methods that adapt to the structure in the real world. It is a waste to sample everything. For examples aisles in a supermarket have structure to them. In the "visual grammar" of the supermarket, they are aligned with each other. MCMC that can encapsulate this type of grammar will mix much faster. (2) If you find a pupil interested in the combination of transfer learning and deep learning, feel free to refer to me. I'm not interested from the viewpoint of domain adaptation, but from the viewpoint of robotic communication.
  - socmag 10y ago
    Do they have to be Masters students?
    - MrQuincle 10y ago
      Yes, I found out that the topics are typically hard enough that around 9-10 months are spent on them, typical graduation time in Europe. Of course, it also gives me the opportunity to see how someone works, rather than relying on a short application process. :-)
- Animats 10y ago
  Some big omissions there: - Hard real-time - Fault tolerance - Safety engineering - Human factors analysis The stuff that kills people. An automatic driving project should have someone from avionics design on board.
blazespin 10y ago
TO be fair, I think the type of folks that these company needs aren't necessarily the ones doing original research / math heavy work. They need people who can translate what the PHDs do into practical solutions.

feel_the_need 10y ago

I'm trying to get into the program, working my way through your pre-req courses. I do a lot of self studying on the side, but don't have anything to show for it on Udacity. I'm shooting for 33% completion on the 3 Ai-related courses before the application date. Do you think this looks better, or would you rather see I go for a 100% completion on one course?

dhruvp 10y ago
I would optimize for completion. We'll be looking for students who've shown they can aim for end to end completion in the program. Hope that helps!
- bitL 10y ago
  If I didn't complete related courses on Udacity but relevant advanced courses on edX/Coursera, like MIT's Underactuated Robotics, would that be OK as well?
  - dhruvp 10y ago
    Yes! Those count as well. If you see our application we specifically mention courses from Coursera and EdX as well.
  - statguy 10y ago
    What about folks who have taken no online courses, but instead have MS/PhD degrees with a specialization in related areas (Machine Learning) and want to use this course to get into the self driving space? Also, what will the workload be like? Can this be done on evenings/weekends while holding a full time job?

bitL 10y ago

So when can I finally pay you and take the nanodegree? ;-) Why do you limit the number of seats for the program? When Sebastian sent me the new nanodegree heads up I was mildly excited and now as you filled in the actual content I can't wait. With MIT's Underactuated Robotics at edX (which was fun) this is probably the most exciting set of courses I can see on the Internet these days!

dhruvp 10y ago
Hey! Great questions. We limit the first batch for two reasons: 1. This is the first batch of the program ever and we want to make sure it's great before opening it up. We want to use this batch to learn and improve and then focus on larger class sizes. 2. One unique thing about Udacity is we provide real human services throughout the program such as a mentor, a code reviewer, and a career support rep. Many of these individuals are actually current or former students of our program. Since this program has never been done before, we are limited in how many such people we can find. Once we get more students in the program, that pool will naturally expand. Best of luck and thanks for applying!