My Developer Journey
An AI Engineer's story
It’s was my first programming course and my first class at the University of Ghana. The course was titled “Programming Fundamentals”. The lecturer, an old gentleman walk in boldly and started asking questions about programming; questions that I have never heard before. So I stayed quiet and prayed that I become invisible to him.
I Quit
After a week's set of sessions on programming, I told myself programming was for people without a social life and since I love my social life; I quickly threw in the towel and vowed never to program in my life. I had a plan to past the class with coding in cplusplus(C++), the programming language they started us with, so I put just a little effort into the course. That means mainly reading through course material provided.
C++ like all statically typed languages has a steep learning curve and requires a lot of concentration to master. My lecturer asked us to buy the famous “D. S Malik” C++ book that was as big as a law book. I grudgingly bought the book, with the hope of giving programming another shot.
Since the book was so big, I couldn’t put it in my bag so I had to carry it with me whenever I had the programming class. This was not easy since I was non-resident in school. One day, as I was going home from school, I sat close to a gentleman who will not stop looking at me. At first, I thought he was gay and so found me attractive but I was wrong. It wasn’t me he was looking but the book I had on me. He would laugh to himself and look away when our eyes met.
Finally, he gathered some courage and asked me if we were studying “these books” as he called it in the University. When I said yes, he burst out laughing in a loud funny voice. I didn’t know whether to be angry or sad. I quickly sold out the book to a friend the following day. This time, I was quitting for good.
My Savior
I had this guy(Emmanuel Ankrah) in the neighborhood who was known to be a programmer and was highly recommended. So I became friends with him and started asking questions about his work. Apparently, he did not finish high school but he was and still is very good in Software Engineering, Hardware, and many others. Currently, he is an IoT guru. He explained to me that he learned everything he knows from YouTube. I was fascinated by his works; that he explained were for large companies in the country. The passion at which he carried out his tasks drew me to programming.
But I still hate Cpp and vowed never to study that language so I wasn’t going to change my mind. Fortunately, he introduced me to Python, a cool dynamic and general-purpose programming language with a less steep learning curve. I was excited when he gave me the book “Learning Python by Mark Lutz”. There and then I made a vow to myself to master Python since it was easier than C++.
I dedicated one month of intense work to Python. Since the book I was using was big, I had to study morning, afternoon and evening, 24/7 including Sundays and at Church. I typed every code in the book and this meant a lot of bugs. I will visit him when I had bugs and he will direct me to Google and Stackoverflow for solutions to my problems.
After a month, I was pretty solid in the core of Python but I realized gaps in my knowledge. I had ideas but didn’t know how to code them out. I needed more training so I started learning Django; a web framework for building incredible applications.
Data Science and AI
Not long after I started learning Django, I heard about Data Science; “the sexiest job of the 21st Century”. I figured it was called so because of the high salaries and benefits people with these skills command. I wanted to enjoy those benefits so I started reading articles on Data Science. Resources on the subject were woefully inadequate at that time and it was believed that Ph.D. students were best suited for a career in Data Science. I didn’t care so much about this notion because I believed I can be whatever I want and no one will stop me.
I began a rigorous search on the internet for resources on the subject. Finally, I got a book entitled “The Data Science Handbook”. This was my first resource on the subject so I thoroughly studied it. I can’t say I understood everything after reading that book but I was determined to continue my studies. More resources followed after that and I plow through them all. My confidence began increasing after each study, practice and personal project.
Artificial intelligence followed not long after Data Science due to the abundance of data and computation power. I started taking courses on Udemy and read numerous books while trying my hands-on personal projects in the domain. After 3 years of hard work and dedication, I can now confidently handle AI projects of all sorts from different domains as well as teach others to do the same.
I may not work for Google yet( I’m working on it though), I have confidence in my ability to undertake to completion, any AI and Data Science based project. I am happy to say that I acquired all these skills before I left University. I even worked as a Software Engineer in my third year at the University.
This how I became who am today. I hope my story inspires you to live out your own dreams because Everything is possible for the determined individual with a plan. If you don't quit, you will WIN!!!
