Hi all,
I have an inquiry that’s unrelated to Team 6328. At my high school, every senior does a capstone year-long experiential research project, and I’ve chosen to focus on machine learning. Even after all of the work I’ve done in FRC (citation), this is one area I’ve yet to properly experience.
I’m hoping to do a deep dive into modern machine learning techniques (beyond simple genetic algorithms). I’m still exploring potential areas of focus, but it might include reinforcement learning, neural networks, vision systems, etc. A key component of this capstone project is to find opportunities to apply what I’ve learned outside of a classroom through an internship, research project, or something else entirely! If anyone has advice, connections, or potential opportunities I might consider, I’d really appreciate your help. Feel free to message me publicly or privately. At this point, any information or connections are helpful.
One potential resource for internships or research would be any type of local college or university that would have researchers. I was able to work in a lab related to biology, where the researchers had an interest in machine learning. You can also potentially get your name on a publication .
I’ve actually reached out to a few professors at a local university about a CS internship and while most of them didn’t respond, one of them did. So I would recommend cold emailing professors (if you don’t know any) if you want to do a higher level research based project (which it sounds like you want).
In the realm of “something else entirely”, you might want to consider participating in a Kaggle competition. You’d get a chance to work with nearly or completely realistic data and essentially grade yourself based on how you rank. In most cases, data engineering, feature engineering, and other aspects of a full machine learning lifecycle are needed to be successful, which is a good reflection of the real world. Some employers look very favorably upon a strong Kaggle portfolio when hiring.
), this is one area I’ve yet to properly experience.
.