June 18 - Dr. Shuman's blog

 

Today my class had a guest speaker named Dr. Shuman. She came to speak to us about AI and coding. 

https://www.salesforce.com/eu/blog/deep-learning-ai-powered-automation/
In her presentation, Dr. Shuman began by asking us what the difference between learning and memorization was. The consensus was that memorizing was only for the specific things that you memorized, while learning can be applied to new things that you have never seen before. 
These definitions mark the branch of machine learning from other kinds of coding. Machine learning aims to exceed the normal memorization that coding uses and create true learning. In addition to all of the applications to coding, I learned that the distinction between learning and memorization can be applied to my schooling as well. 
Cramming information the night before a test does not guarantee that I know it!
Dr. Schuman's own research related specifically to self driving cars. She had built an automated car (a model which would normally be remote controlled) that drove itself through a course with the intent for it to be able to stand up to the bet human racer. That dream is still a little ways away, because the car can only drive a few miles an hour, but the car can navigate through a complicated course thanks to its training data. She showed us several sensors that the car uses, one of which is called LIDAR. LIDAR uses ultrasonic pulses and rotates in a circle to get the full 360 view of its surroundings.  

In addition to the education the governor's school provided, I was also given a chance for an internship during the school year in Dr. Shuman's department. This will be extraordinarily helpful in giving me hands on experience in the STEM fields. 


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