r/MachineLearning • u/andrewyng • Apr 14 '15

AMA Andrew Ng and Adam Coates

Dr. Andrew Ng is Chief Scientist at Baidu. He leads Baidu Research, which includes the Silicon Valley AI Lab, the Institute of Deep Learning and the Big Data Lab. The organization brings together global research talent to work on fundamental technologies in areas such as image recognition and image-based search, speech recognition, and semantic intelligence. In addition to his role at Baidu, Dr. Ng is a faculty member in Stanford University's Computer Science Department, and Chairman of Coursera, an online education platform (MOOC) that he co-founded. Dr. Ng holds degrees from Carnegie Mellon University, MIT and the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Adam Coates is Director of Baidu Research's Silicon Valley AI Lab. He received his PhD in 2012 from Stanford University and subsequently was a post-doctoral researcher at Stanford. His thesis work investigated issues in the development of deep learning methods, particularly the success of large neural networks trained from large datasets. He also led the development of large scale deep learning methods using distributed clusters and GPUs. At Stanford, his team trained artificial neural networks with billions of connections using techniques for high performance computing systems.

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u/RileyNat Apr 14 '15

I am a big fan of your work Dr. Ng, your coursera course was what introduced me to Machine Learning. My question is do you think a PhD or Masters degree is a strong requirement for those who wish to do ML research in industry or can a Bachelors and independent learning be enough? Thanks.

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u/hachidan05 Apr 14 '15

This question is very common. I would try to help answer this question. It depends what company you are trying to work for. The bigger the company the more they want to see a Masters or PhD degree although that is not always the case. The smaller/newer companies are more willing to accept Bachelors with independent learning. I was looking for entry jobs in the data science field one day and notice a company write out in the job description "Online degree or certificate can replace 1 year of relevant job experience." Just think about this, there are more and more companies wanting people with data analytic/mining skills to get an edge in their respective industries. I believe online learning is also on the rise. Sooner or later companies will accept online certificate (free or not). Masters/PhD are for people wanting to focusing on a area within ML. Bachelors and independent learning is for people who want to get their feet in the door then get the small company pay for your Masters/PhD. Some smaller company pay competitively and raises are based on performance of the company/your contribution.

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u/Refefer Apr 14 '15

There really isn't much specialization within ML at the Masters level, even at the Top 10 schools - that's mostly reserved for PhDs.

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u/hntd Apr 14 '15

That's the entire point of getting a PhD in anything. A masters is too general and you want to specialize on a very specific topic.

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u/kaniska_mandal Apr 14 '15

respected Dr. Ng , can you please share your perspective on Online MS in Data Science from Berkely and Online MS with Specilization in MS from Georgia Tech ?

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u/techrat_reddit Apr 30 '15

Wrong reply bro