Testimonial Huib Baetsen
"The minor touches upon a lot of different sides of AI, from theoretical data structures to the ethical aspects of Machine Learning."
Background
I am Huib, a physics student interested in almost everything that is studied at the TU Delft. In my minor I therefore wanted to focus on a subject that is different from my major, yet applicable to the fields of research I am interested in. The minor Engineering with AI offered a possibility to increase my knowledge of Python in the context of Artificial Intelligence. In the final Capstone project of the minor, you get to work on a project provided by the faculty of your major. This experience opened my eyes to the many fields in which machine learning and AI can play an important role.
Diversity in courses
In my bachelor I already got acquainted with Python for scientific purposes, this knowledge was expanded in the ‘Introduction to Python Programming’ course. In addition to learning basic python skills, there are also courses on the more fundamental side, for example Data Structures and Algorithms and an introductory machine learning course. I liked the latter course as it takes you through the different kind of machine learning algorithms along with their advantages and drawbacks. This course does not focus on the in-depth coding of such an algorithm, rather on their applications. I personally enjoyed the ethics course on AI, as it introduced a new side to Artificial Intelligence that is just as important as the technology itself. In this course the possibilities of AI are put into context of broader socio-economical frameworks.
In the last part of the minor, you get to work full-time on a group project provided by the faculty of your major. Together with 4 other students I worked on the application of a deep learning model to transfer imaging modalities. This was a really fun experience.
Moving forward
I feel the Engineering with AI minor greatly improved my understanding of Python, as well as my confidence in applying it. It provided me with a birds-eye view of the possibilities of machine learning, boosting my interest in applying it in my further physics studies. In general, I would recommend this minor to anybody who is interested in programming as a means of facilitating research in many fields.