TLDR:
If your on this page, you have found my blog.
It mainly consists of random projects and attempts to document my path as I make the attempt to switch from software engineering to ML/AI. The (still slightly amorphous) 2 year objective is to be working in AI research either at a company or a university.
What is all this about anyhow?
The purpose of this blog is threefold:
- Gain experience with writing and articulating my thoughts and ideas. Hopefully helping me learn in the process.
- Provide a impetus to do the work. I am basically taking a year off to self study and travel, it can be very easy to think you understand something, when you really do not. Hopefully by writing to the ether, I can Identify and solidify my understanding for the future.
- Make me focus on what is actually important to learn, there are too many things and not enough time to learn them all. I personally have the tendency to go down rabbit holes. I learn a ton, but my current objective is to learn ML, not how to make the best CI pipeline or how to professionally build and package my project.
Finally there is a hope to have some interesting things to show off to people in the future.
Who is this guy anyways?
My name is Nicholas Long.
In August 2023, I quit my job with the objective of shifting to machine learning and AI (along with a bit of travel). My background is in electrical engineering, with a focus on digital signal processing and RF communications. I have solid experience in C++ (mostly 11/17) doing systems engineering and writing streaming radio interfaces and dataflow-type RF signal processing code. In python my work has been mostly scripting, prototyping algorithms, and writing test harnesses. One of my goals for this period is to get more extensive experience in python, especially as it relates to deep learning.
I have not exactly figured out how to do this transition, though my current thought process is to go back to school and get a masters.
I like to dance, spend way too much time reading, and constantly am singing in my head.