Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform Specialization

Yeah, I know I’ve been inactive these past couple of months. I was busy with some other things and quite frankly, I wasn’t really in the mood to watch any more lectures or complete any more courses. I guess I was in hibernation mode but hopefully, that period is over now.

I came across this specialization from Google on Coursera, Machine Learning with TensorFlow on Google Cloud Platform Specialization, and I’ve got to say, I was really excited to stumble upon this one as I was struggling with understanding how to implement the Machine Learning models and techniques I’ve learned in courses like Machine Learning and Deep Learning Specialization, where the focus was on understanding the mathematical concepts behind these models and the tips and tricks to make them more efficient and to effectively train them, while in this specialization from Google, it seemed that there focus will be on using these models in a production environment. Just the thing I wanted.

I’ve finished the first course in the specialization now, How Google does Machine Learning, and I’m halfway through the second course. In the first course, they introduced us to the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and showed how to start a VM instance and how to use the Data Lab to quickly spin out an instance for Machine Learning and Data Science-related tasks. We also completed a few labs to get hands-on practice with the GCP platform and to see how it all works.

Although the lecture videos are very well made and informative, the thing that I love about this specialization is QwikLabs. The good people of Google have provided the students with free cloud credits in the form of QwikLabs so we could get hands-on practice with the GCP and try out what we are learning in the course. If we had to spend our own credits to try-out things in the GCP, then I’m positive that most of us would’ve just watched the videos and left out practice for some other day. This initiative to give out sandbox environments for learning purposes is much appreciated.

I’ve been quite satisfied with this specialization up til now. The videos have been quite easy to follow Although they don’t go into the nitty-gritty details about how the algorithms work on a mathematical level, then again, that’s not the focus of this specialization. I’ll publish an article upon completing this specialization to tell you about my experience regarding this specialization. And yeah, one more thing, there will be a part two of this specialization also, at least that’s what they said. So, looking forward to that as well. Let’s see how it goes. Till then, Allah Hafiz.