Career Prospects & Courses In Deep Learning

Most of us are familiar with the newer technologies and innovations that are coming up in the market. It would not be an exaggeration to say that at some point we are baffled by it as well. Yes, it is true that in the last couple of decades we have seen technology empower our lives. However, the other side of the story is that the way artificial intelligence is progressing every day is leaving all of us surprised and waiting for more to happen. Indeed, there are very few of us who can claim to be completely removed from the influence of the world of artificial intelligence.

At the heart of such advanced technology lies the science of deep learning. The core idea of deep learning is using mathematics to empower computers and other man-made systems to behave in such a way that comes naturally to humans. Thus, in layman's terms, with deep learning, it is possible that computers are brought to a level where they think and behave at par with humans.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that deep learning is one of the biggest achievements in the world of science and its full potential is yet to be identified and utilised. Read on to know all about the basics of deep learning and how you can pursue it as a career.

· What Is Deep Leaning?

Artificial intelligence is something that has completely revolutionised the world of technology. One particularly important application of artificial intelligence is that of deep neural networks or deep learning. What happens here is that data is fed into the system and the system is programmed in such a way that the network is capable of learning and extracting information out of unstructured data.

The technological marvel of this lies in the fact that the machine learning out of structured data is a very common occurrence. However, the extraction of the same amount of information out of unstructured data is quite a challenge and that is what deep learning has been successful in achieving.

· Unsupervised Learning

The core concept of unsupervised learning is to train a system through artificial intelligence to use the knowledge that has not been labelled, sorted or categorised either by a human being or a machine. Thus, the algorithm is designed in such a way that it has to act on the information without any guidance.

By taking off the human dependency, the scope of learning increases manifold. As a result, these systems get to a position wherein they are able to perform much more complex computations as compared to those of supervised learning algorithms.

· Deep Learning As Unsupervised Learning

The scope of deep learning is immense. If compared with the usual neural networks, we will see that the deep learning network is much more complex in the sense that it has many more hidden layers. These layers can be trained to take up supervised or unsupervised learning based on the type of work we would want them to do.

Interestingly, it is also possible for scientists to design systems in such a way that one of their layers uses a supervised learning whereas the other one uses unsupervised learning.

. Courses Offered

Since this subject is relatively new, in most cases it is not offered as a full-time course. Neither is this subject introduced as a part of the curriculum at the undergraduate level. In some places, this may be offered as an elective at the higher levels.

However, the best way to get a thorough understanding of the concepts of deep learning is through the online courses. Such courses are offered by Coursera, Udemy and a number of other organisations. It is advisable that you start off with a free course and then take up the paid ones.

Most of the paid courses offer certificates on successful completion. The accreditation given by these institutions are held in high esteem by the industries and may prove to be your gateway to the job of your dreams.

· Career Prospects In Deep Learning

There are a number of entry-level jobs for freshers who are well versed in deep learning. You need to be well versed in the basic algorithms for this. If you are confident about your advanced skills, you can use the same to develop an application of your own. If the same is at par with the industry standards, you can sell it in the market and earn a decent amount of money.

This is especially true if you are familiar with things like SVM, LDA, PCA and others. IT giants like IBM, Google and others value these programs greatly and professionals with a decent amount of knowledge in these are paid very well. These days, there are a number of start-ups that are ready to invest in the same.

If you are someone who is not really keen on working with an IT company, you will be pleased to know that deep learning finds immense applications in finance and medical sectors as well. Banks, stock markets and other financial institutions look to deep learning in order to predict the financial conditions. They then use this knowledge to chalk out their course of action so that they make the most money here.

. The Deep Learning Edge

The potential for deep learning is very vast. As compared to that, there is a minimal number of people available who are qualified to work in this field. This creates an imbalance between the number of jobs that are available and the number of people applying for the same.

Thus, if you have good in this field, chances are that you will rise high in your career faster than that of your peers working in some other field. In such a scenario, a career in the world of deep learning is something that is definitely worth considering.