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AI Launch Lab and Dawson AI are offering a sixth series of workshops on artificial intelligence beginning Feb. 10.

Registration is open to all college students for a free eight-week online course on Saturday mornings beginning Feb. 10.

Two students who were in previous workshop series shared their thoughts on the experience, uniquely available through this initiative.

What did you get out of the R&D Program course given by AI Launch Lab and Dawson AI?

David Vila Garcia Sierra (DVGS): It gave me a better foothold into understanding the principles behind AI and how is it tied to the principles being taught in my program.

David is a student at Concordia in Mechanical Engineering and is a graduate of Pure and Applied Science at Dawson (Class of 2023). He participated in the Neuroscience club as well as the Space program at Dawson.

Ana Torres (AT): I learned so much! It revived my programming skills! It was also pretty fun and I loved we were basically free to choose any subject that interested us. It was also an activity useful to put on my CV. It’s impressive how much learning is more effective when working towards a goal, like completing a project. Learning by doing is so effective.

Ana is a student in Enriched Pure and Applied Science and has an active campus life at Dawson, including participating in the High Energy Physics Club, McGill Physics Hackathon, IEEE Concordia WarHacks, the independent research group building a cyclotron, the Electricity and Magnetism Videogames level design, the Bing Bong club, the Chess club. She is looking forward to more hackathons and the Science on tourne contest.

Tell me about your experience in the course. What did you like best? What impact did it have on you?

DVGS: I particularly enjoyed the small coding sessions as it was a new learning experience for me. It gave me the confidence to be able to begin learning on my own as I was hesitant to begin as I thought it to be more daunting than it was.

AT: I loved how personalized it was, how the instructors really focused on helping you with YOUR project, and how they made sure you were able to complete what you intended. They were very helpful and offered tools for all kinds of projects.

What was your project?

DVGS: Initially, I wanted to do a traffic detection model but since the idea was too ambitious for the length duration it was ultimately changed into a self-learning computer vision program based on colour detection.

AT: My project was on student mental health. It used linear regression to predict the stress levels of students depending on a variety of factors (around 25), ranging from sleep quality to workload and financial situation. The patterns it detected were pretty intuitive, although they did give you a clearer view on what truly influences the stress levels of students.

What did you experience and learn that is not currently possible in your CEGEP program?

DVGS: Again programming is very limited for the Pure and Applied science students as there are only a handful of classes – and only one of them being a serious one- that deals with programming. Experimenting with sensors and Arduino was an interesting thing I wanted to fully learn as my interest is directly tied to mechatronics.

AT: I am in Science and Introduction to Programming would be the only class being similar to my project. Of course, it doesn’t come close to the depth of knowledge we acquired in the AI Launch Lab. It’s pretty hard to get a “learning by doing real projects” in general in the context of a classroom, and I think students should take profit of all of these activities that offer hands-on experience in the fields they like. When I talk to my friend from the Computer Science program I even notice how much of the things she’s learning I’ve learned through experience in projects like these, something that would have been out of my reach in my program.

Would you recommend this to other students? Why?

DVGS: I would definitively recommend the program to other students, as I feel it is a great way to get involved and develop skills that are going to become quite relevant in the years to come with AI. I Liked that the program was tailored to cater to both enthusiasts as well as beginners as such even if some workshops were a little advanced for me, I felt like in general it was quite welcoming at creating a bridge for people who aren’t science oriented as well as those who are.

AT: Yes! Definitely, they’ll be able to learn effectively in a fun creative way, creating a project of their own! It’s truly rewarding to have a final product while learning too, proof of your efforts.