UMass Amherst

by confuzzled dude Wed Mar 28, 2018 6:15 pm

I heard a lot of research happens at UM, in Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning arena, wonder how would some of those research opportunities trickle down to undergraduate level. In other words, Will the undergrad students majoring in computer engineering/science be benefited by this in anyway? Is it a good idea to attend the undergrad school based on their reputation in AI research, if one is interested in pursuing career in that area. How does this compare with University of Maryland which is also big into AI/Natural Language Processing. Any comments/suggestions?

by Idéfix Wed Mar 28, 2018 9:59 pm

AI, ML, NLP, etc. are developing so fast that undergrads who want to get into it will need to build their own skills to keep up with the latest advancements. My sense is that these technologies are now in the development stage of R&D rather than the research stage and they are being advanced more by industry than by academia. It is somewhat like learning Java in the late 1990s -- nobody at my college was teaching a course on Java, and those of us who learned it did it on their own.

by MaxEntropy_Man Wed Mar 28, 2018 10:00 pm

CD -- look into their UROP (undergraduate research opportunities) program. Many professors engage ugrads in their research. At any research intensive university like UMass Amherst the research will percolate down to the ugrad students. I have no specific info on the relative merits of UMass v U Maryland. Both are great schools. U Maryland is possibly ranked higher overall, but UMass CS is excellent and AFAIK is ranked in the low 20s.

by confuzzled dude Thu Mar 29, 2018 7:21 am

Idéfix wrote:AI, ML, NLP, etc. are developing so fast that undergrads who want to get into it will need to build their own skills to keep up with the latest advancements. My sense is that these technologies are now in the development stage of R&D rather than the research stage and they are being advanced more by industry than by academia. It is somewhat like learning Java in the late 1990s -- nobody at my college was teaching a course on Java, and those of us who learned it did it on their own.

True but this gives an opportunity to get a foot in the door for someone who is interested in this field. Situation for AI might be better than Java in the '90s as AI has been (talked) around for a while.

by confuzzled dude Thu Mar 29, 2018 7:27 am

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:CD -- look into their UROP (undergraduate research opportunities) program. Many professors engage ugrads in their research. At any research intensive university like UMass Amherst the research will percolate down to the ugrad students. I have no specific info on the relative merits of UMass v U Maryland. Both are great schools. U Maryland is possibly ranked higher overall, but UMass CS is excellent and AFAIK is ranked in the low 20s.

Thanks Max. That is very useful information. My son got accepted into both schools and is debating as to which is better suited for him.

by Idéfix Thu Mar 29, 2018 9:22 am

confuzzled dude wrote:
Idéfix wrote:AI, ML, NLP, etc. are developing so fast that undergrads who want to get into it will need to build their own skills to keep up with the latest advancements. My sense is that these technologies are now in the development stage of R&D rather than the research stage and they are being advanced more by industry than by academia. It is somewhat like learning Java in the late 1990s -- nobody at my college was teaching a course on Java, and those of us who learned it did it on their own.
True but this gives an opportunity to get a foot in the door for someone who is interested in this field. Situation for AI might be better than Java in the '90s as AI has been (talked) around for a while.

Congratulations! Yes, definitely helps to be at the right school. At a minimum, he will have a community of people who are interested in the field.

by Guest Thu Mar 29, 2018 10:38 am

Congrats CD! That sounds like great universities and majors to be in!

In my final year of undergrad in desh (mid 90s) we had the mandatory course on AI, and then an elective on Robotics. All I remember is learning a bunch of algorithms for search, paths, etc. (the names are slipping in my memory, but will come at some point by the afternoon lol). Was interesting, atleast to me. And I did good in those. That was helpful later in my mandatory math courses here in MS, where we did more advanced stuff of the same thing. Am sure all that is taught in advanced high school courses now.

In grad school here in late 90s, I didn't take Java as its own course, but took another CS course, in which our project was to make our own bookstore like amazon.com. For that I chose Java, and learned a little bit on my own. Some other friends of mine did take Java as its own course.

[deleted the rest of my story, coz upon reread, it was making no sense to me. I guess i need more coffee now a days]

by MaxEntropy_Man Thu Mar 29, 2018 11:39 am

confuzzled dude wrote:
MaxEntropy_Man wrote:CD -- look into their UROP (undergraduate research opportunities) program. Many professors engage ugrads in their research. At any research intensive university like UMass Amherst the research will percolate down to the ugrad students. I have no specific info on the relative merits of UMass v U Maryland. Both are great schools. U Maryland is possibly ranked higher overall, but UMass CS is excellent and AFAIK is ranked in the low 20s.
Thanks Max. That is very useful information. My son got accepted into both schools and is debating as to which is better suited for him.

That's fantastic. Congratulations to your son. Well done!

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