Google and Coursera launch advanced online course on machine learning
What's the story
Google and Coursera have launched a new online course on machine learning (ML) called "Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform Specialization." The two companies had earlier teamed up to launch a "Machine Learning Crash Course" which was an introduction to ML. And now the new course builds upon that to offer a specialization.
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What is Coursera?
Coursera is a web platform that offers online courses in the form of video lectures, peer-reviewed assignments, and community discussion forums. The courses are in collaboration with top universities like Yale and Stanford or top companies like Google and IBM.
Details
For developers who want to dig deeper into ML
The course came about after students who took the crash course on ML wanted to further their understanding of the concept and build real-world machine learning models. The specialization module consists of five courses that teach how to create and sanitize datasets and how to write distributed models in TensorFlow. Students learn how to find the right parameters and improve accuracy for better results.
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The course has a very practical focus
Because the specialization course focuses on "day-to-day models" models and real-world problems, it can be used to add value to several existing products that can be improved through ML. It will enable existing workforce to gain new skills and new graduates to get better opportunities.
Advanced skill
ML making inroads in every area of tech
Even the beginner's crash course required students to have proficiency in programming basics and Python, so the specialization course definitely expects developers to be competent programmers. According to Google's Big Data and ML Tech Lead Lak Lakshmanan, the next course in line will focus on working with unstructured data. It will build on the specialization course but deal with a different class of problems.