Hey there. My name is Giorgio and I am a Machine Learning Engineer (ML Engineer for short). So many people ask me what this is role about and what to study to become one. I do not know if I have a proper answer to these questions, but I can start to answer by sharing my experience.
I have a MSc in Statistics and during my degree, I had the chance to take few courses on machine learning, data mining, and programming languages (R, Python above all). To believe it or not, I knew really a little about Data Science and ML when I started my degree and the only thing I knew was that I wanted to do a job which would involve numbers, reasoning, and technology.
I had my first experience in working with data in 2018 when I was selected as intern for one of the IT companies in Healthcare in Dublin. To be honest with you, I was really scared. That was my first work experience in the industry and I did not know what to expect. I was given a cool project: “Find correlations/patterns between chronic diseases using ICD9/10 codes ( standard codes for defining and reporting diseases and health conditions) and use flow diagrams to represent the results”. While I did not have any idea on how to accomplish this project, I was super excited because I was going to work with other guys in a team of four people, all from different backgrounds (Computer Science, Engineering, Statistics, UI Design).
What did I learn during these three months?
- How to work within a team. Getting on well with your colleagues is probably the most important thing.
- When you think you are not capable of doing something, do not give up and try harder and harder because one day you will look back at yourself and you will see a completely different person from what you have become now.
- I learned to work in an Agile Environment following Agile methodology (i.e. it is a practice that promotes continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the software development lifecycle of the project). Basically in your team of scientists and developers, there are other fundamental roles: Production Owner (person responsible for managing the Product Backlog), Scrum Master (the facilitator that allows a team to self-organize and make changes quickly, in accordance with agile principles) , Tech Lead (the expert for that particular project). There are also a bunch of mentors who are there for helping you in anything you need.
Here you can find examples of:
The type of technique we used to find patterns between chronic diseases:
The type of diagram we used to display the outcome:
After this experience, I got the opportunity to work a year later in the same company as Machine Learning Engineer. So, What does a ML engineer basically do?
A machine Learning Engineer needs to have competencies in Math, Statistics, and Computer Science. This does require a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) degree but it is not limited to it. A ML Engineer should be able to understand the entire process which goes from the Data Extraction to the deployment of a predictive model into production. I had to learn (and I am still learning) how to use software engineering tools like Openshift/Kubernetes to host services/applications, Jenkins for Continuous Integration and Continuous Implementation of your services and other Cloud competencies to deal with your data. Once you extract the raw data, you need to be able to create a readable format for building machine learning solutions. But before that, you need to agree with the Business people on the outcome of the project and what you want to do with the data. I would say this is the main difference between working in Industry and working as researcher in university.
Python is at the moment the number one programming language used everywhere. You have to know it to be a ML engineer in 2020. Of course other skills and programming languages are required (e.g. Java, R, C++, etc.), but Python is for sure at the top of the skilled required. You will see it when you will start to look for a job.
I hope I was able to give you through my personal experience a high-level overview of what a ML engineer does and what you should know before starting a job in this field.
Follow my: Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Jabraghe/. Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCokk3F3UoS7O0Vmja7MXi-w
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