I know these things

• Python
• Java
• C++
• Html
• CSS
• Git
• Raspberry Pi
• Arduino

I am really trying to learn these

• Android
• PHP
• JavaScript
• R
• A wider machine learning knowledge

What is my fascination with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence?

April 6th, 2017

For the people that know the difference between Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning I am sorry… I am going to group them as one thing and use them interchangeably. I know that is frowned upon but it is easier to express if I do that.

I will start this with a question. Is there anything you have ever done that you loved and wanted to do more with? If you know that feeling that is how I feel and if you have never felt that you should experiment more there is something out there for you. I can honestly say that I feel that way about machine learning (and AI). I enjoy trying to figure out interesting solutions to simple problems and machine learning offers unique solutions to problems that need to be solved. Outside of beating humans at board games, these algorithms can be applied to information that otherwise would have never be used. Machine learning is just a bunch of predictions and that makes it fun to play with.

For example, I did a project at a hackathon using a type machine learning algorithm called a “neural network”. The interesting thing about Neural networks are that they are modeled after our brain. People smarter than I spent a lot of time getting these working well. So, my team and I used their work and made a “smart” toaster. We took hundreds of pictures of the perfect piece of toast. With that, we trained our neural network to predict the perfect toast and to pop the toast when model said the toast was perfect. Training is basically just showing the computer what to look for with a bunch of examples. In this case, we used hundreds of pictures of toast.

There are countless machine learning algorithms and there are different ways to apply them. My biggest goal for 2017 is to apply as many as possible. I started reading a book from some other crazy smart people who happen to be professors at MIT. The book is named “Deep Learning” by Ian Goodfellow, Yoshua Bengio, and Aaron Courville. I was told that this is THE BOOK for this subject and as I go through it I am using it as a guide to know what I should be googling. Luckily, I have a strong background in math and after taking data structures this semester I understand most of the background information needed to digest this book. I do have to admit that my machine learning skills are a little behind what are needed but I take this a challenge to better myself.

So, to be honest a large chunk of this blog for 2017 will be about Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. I am also working on a tech start up so that might be my next post but I am not committing to that either.

WHY AM I DOING THIS???

April 4th, 2017

That was a question that I thought to myself when I started writing this blog post. To be honest, I am writing this to prove a point to myself.

I need to better my technical writing skills, as well as, talk about the ideas, and projects I work on. Anyone outside ( or inside) of the technology world, knows there are a lot of disconnects with people in the technology world expressing the projects that they are working on, it is a big problem. So, my whole goal with starting this is to make myself an outlier. A technology person who has skills in both worlds.

So… WHO I AM???

My name is Jessie Pullaro. At the time of this post, I am a junior at Florida Polytechnic University studying Computer Engineering. I am an active “hackathoner”, and a creator. The trend that I have seen with other “hackathoners”, is that we are passionate people. We love learning, and making amazing things. Anything from Smart toasters, to apps that find you your perfect dog from nearby pounds. If you don’t know what a hackathon is, you should look it up, It is worth the time. You can check some of the projects that I have worked on by going to my Devpost or my Github. I also like to plan hackathons, but I will write a whole post on that later!

I am currently studying computer engineering, and I love it. I started out with electrical engineering, but that wasn’t for me. To be honest, I fit in with the Computer Science crowd better than with the engineers. I blame the “concentration” of my degree. The interesting thing about my degree is that it is not just computer engineering, it has a focus on something specific. My focus is in “Machine Intelligence”, which is a fancy buzzword that means I want to make computers think like you and I. I know that idea scares people, but it excites me.

Some things about me that don’t fit in the tech field per say, are that I love taking pictures and making things with my hands. I hang lights, make cabinets, work on cars, I have restored a 1966 Mustang, I like cooking (My friend Frank taught me how to make ribs and they are some kick ass ribs). I just like learning new things, and trying to figure out how things work. I used to take things apart to see how they work, and never got them back together. It would piss my grandparents off so much.

Thank you for taking the time reading this first post. I am going to try and post every week or so but no promises.