Udacity Offer Deep IT Learning Programs & Nano-Degrees
Udacity is trying innovative new methods of promoting large scale vocational education with focused foundation programs and 'nano degrees'.
Udacity was born out of a Stanford University experiment offering an "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" online course online to anyone, for free. Over 160,000 students in more than 190 countries enrolled. Now they are on a mission to change the future of education by bridging the gap between real-world technology skills, relevant education, and employment.
Greater compute power and power efficiency has made deep learning algorithms ubiquitous in our world. Deep learning has found its way into self-driving cars, convenience stores and hospitals. Yet the fight for top talent in the space remains fierce and is a bottleneck for reaching new industries and solving tough challenges.
Foundation Programs are going to be a major focus for Udacity in the coming year. They fill a niche for students not quite ready for a full nanodegree program. The new course promises a lot in a short 17 weeks. With just 3-4 hours per week of time, the goal is to equip students with enough knowledge to know how to solve any task with deep learning.
To complement Udacity’s previous AI courses, the online education startup is partnering with YouTube star Siraj Raval for a new deep learning nanodegree foundation program that will be co-taught with Udacity’s Mat Leonard.
Raval has experience with conveying a lot of information in a short amount of time. His previous YouTube courses maxed out at two months in length and his students regularly impressed him with what they could accomplish. Raval explains it as a way of thinking.
“By the end, students will have five projects on their GitHubs, including a final project involving Generative Adversarial Networks on the bleeding edge of the space,” said Raval. “That’s not trivial and it will be impressive to prospective employers.”
Raval says his ideal student is someone with a background in Python and knowledge of basic algebra. The idea behind the course isn’t to teach someone who has never programmed before. Instead, it is meant to help more experienced programmers bridge the skills gap to deep learning.
To entice potential enrollees, Udacity is promising deep learning graduates guaranteed admission into either the company’s self-driving car or artificial intelligence nanodegree programs with a $100 credit.
These programs are traditionally competitive with just 16 percent of applicants being offered admission into the self-driving car program and 4.5 percent of students being admitted to the AI program.
“This is a new focus for us at Udacity, so you can expect us to launch more Nanodegree Foundation programs this year,” noted Shernaz Daver, chief marketing officer for Udacity.
