I have finally graduated with a Master's Degree!
TLDR; After 18 months of hard work, I am proud to graduate with a Master’s degree in Computing with a specialization in Artificial Intelligence!
I started my journey as a graduate student pursuing Master of Computing - AI Specialization in the National University of Singapore on 08 August 2022. Since then, I have been part of 10 highly specialized courses in Artificial Intelligence. These were an intensive mix of in-person lectures, tutorials, assignments, quizzes, projects, paper presentations, and of course exams! The whole journey was a gruelling yet truly rewarding 1.5 years of hardwork.
Hence, I am glad to share that I have graduated with an Honours (Distinction) with a 4.4/5.0 CGPA!
Throughout the course of my study, I saw a steady increase in my academic performance (my last semester GPA was 4.7 which made my parents a tad bit happier 😝). Moreover, I was not only exposed to state-of-the-art research in multiple AI domains but also made to get my hands dirty and understand the nitty-gritties of each concept. Consequently, I now find myself better equipped to vocalize my thoughts on technical topics to a larger audience in an informed, yet easy to grasp way. A complete list of all my courses can be found at the end of the post.
This journey also entailed a plethora of life lessons along the way. For starters, I shifted to a whole new country after 2 years of complete lockdown - of course it meant major adjustments! I learnt greatly about:
- adulting, making important decisions, how to manage friendships with a highly demanding academic load,
- living for yourself, importance of being kind to others,
- embracing the new culture, adjustments in international living situations,
- how not every moment of your life is going to result in peak performance,
- forgiving, forgetting, and eventually moving on to newer possibilities in life!
I will admit that some times were tough and I caught myself being really hard on myself. However, through the constant support of my family and friends, we all saw it through 🥰! My next steps in life are still uncertain but I am hopeful for the future. I find myself to be a fresh grad in AI in the midst of an AI revolution. There is no better time to start my professional journey.
In conclusion, I’d like to quote a saying I always fall back to when the end goal seems too hazy or out of immediate reach.
“The journey is more important that the destination.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
NUS Course List
- Semester 1
- CS4248: Natural Language Processing
- CS5242: Neural Networks and Deep Learning
- CS5340: Uncertainty Modelling in AI
- Semester 2
- CS5228: Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
- CS5425: Big Data Systems for Data Science
- CS5478: Intelligent Robots: Algorithms and Systems
- CS6284: Advanced Topics in Reinforcement Learning
- Semester 3
- CS5446: AI Planning and Decision Making
- CS5562: Trustworthy Machine Learning
- CS5647: Sound and Music Computing