Tag: #interview

<strong>Let’s get to know our KUOSC Community Coordinators</strong>

Let’s get to know our KUOSC Community Coordinators

KUCC Journal

This article is an interview-based article. For this article, Mr Bisheshwor Neupane, the ML Community Coordinator, has been interviewed with a series of questions by the Documentation team.

Machine learning is a topic that has come into the hype and grabbed the interest of many IT and non-IT background enthusiasts. However, many people don’t take up the subject due to its complexities. To help students of Kathmandu University understand the subject of Machine Learning and help them excel in it, we have a Machine Learning Community under the KUOSC Community. Through this article, you shall get to know the coordinator of ML Community and get to know his point of view on the subject of Machine Learning.

Bisheshwor Neupane

Mr Bisheshwor Neupane

ML Community Coordinator

Tell us something about yourself

I am a resident of a small yet beautiful town in the Kavre district — Banepa and currently a pre-final student of Computer Engineering and ML Community Coordinator for the year 2021–22. Machine Learning Community falls under the roof of KUOSC. Talking about my interests, I am interested in multiple fields but have been sharpening my skills in Python and Django for a few years now. I am also taking steps to be good in Machine Learning and Deep Learning. These two subjects are the ones I am most inclined to. Also with these, I keep a keen interest in web development and game development. And not to miss out, recently I have come to know that I can sing very well. So, when assignments and projects build up pressure, I write lyrics and rap. You will also find me making art and doing paintings in my free time.

Share your ups and downs as a student of Computer Engineering

Life is full of ups and downs. To be honest, there have been more downs than ups. The main reason for the downs is that I try to put my hands on multiple areas and come up with terrible failures. The thing that I at times don’t like about myself is, that I easily get diverted from what I am doing, and this nature of mine doesn’t allow me to get the result as per my effort, which is actually a sad thing.

When I think about the best part of my life, I would say the times that I spent with my mates at classes and after the classes hanging around the gym, pool house and the all-time favourite, Sitoshna. Moreover, thinking about something great and best that I would like to take as ups on my personal side, I would like to thank the lockdown. Lockdown actually helped me explore myself and to my surprise, I came to know that I can sing well enough. I can write good lyrics and rap and I even started a YouTube channel with my name to let my passion take a good platform and for this, I am really proud of myself.

Define ML by adding your perception.

In my opinion, Machine Learning is a prediction. There are certain data and with a good depth of knowledge of those data, we can predict something new. I personally believe that ML has a very bright future since it can be useful in different fields, especially in the health sector. We can use ML to predict the possibilities of changes that might arise in the next generation. There are other areas too where we can use the expertise of ML. Robotic arms, vehicles, flying cars and automatic pilots are some areas that I would like to note. Every day it’s so great to get lost in imagining all the possibilities of what can come next. Especially while watching sci-fi movies. They really give chills running down my spine while getting lost in the new world of ML imagination. It won’t be wrong if I say, the future is Machine Learning.

What motivated you to start this ML community?

One day while I was scrolling through YouTube, and suddenly a video popped up as a recommendation. At first, I thought it would be a great source for killing time. But, who knew that video would be the source of adding fuel to my motivation for starting the journey in an ML? I actually don’t remember who was actually talking in the video, but all those words are totally carved inside of my brain like a beautiful art piece that acts as a source of motivation whenever I think of giving up sometimes to what I have already started.

What, I, actually have experienced and come to know is, very few people are involved in the ML field. One of the main reasons that I have come to know behind the low ratio in the ML field is the complexity to learn the subject and the huge time commitment to be practically proficient in the subject. Google Keynote Speech has been my main motivation. I would say that I am still in the beginning phase and have a lot to walk until I am proficient in ML. I have started this community to help people like me who have an interest in ML, and the best way would be to show a roadmap to ML. This community will be a group where we will be sharing theory and practical knowledge, about deployments and also books and courses that would be helpful while learning ML.

Your struggle while starting the journey in ML

Yes, ML is a tough domain and I am still in the struggling phase. I started my ML journey in the 3rd semester of Computer Engineering, which is about a year or 2 ago. I have done a few small projects for my college semester project. I am reading books related to ML and surfing the internet to get better knowledge and understanding of the subject that I love. When I look at the projects done by others from around the world, I feel like I still have a long way to go.

What can a person or an ML enthusiast expect from this year’s community?

I would like everyone to know that whatever problems related to ML arise, this community is always there for you. We have an outstanding ML team sharing knowledge of ML with each other. I have drafted certain plans to keep all the enthusiasts motivated and excel in the fields of ML. This community will be a support to all (novice to expert) while paving the way to ML. We will definitely have workshops, conferences and talk shows which will be beneficial to know how and where to start.

What are your goals and plans as a coordinator of ML?

I have come up with this community to show the right track to beginners and all ML learners so that they continue in this field and leap up to further areas of ML.

Yes, I definitely have plans and I have been planning basically for the novice. As ML is such a vast topic and experts are needed to explore its depth. It is a bit challenging for me to provide in-depth knowledge due to a lack of resources. Apart from these, I have planned to conduct an AI conference wherein I will try my best to incorporate industry and research knowledge. I have also been planning to hold an ML workshop that would cover the basic concept of ML. Along with these, I would also like to conduct an ML competition if possible.

How are you planning to change the perception of ML via this community?

The first message that I would like to convey is, ML is not complex if guided properly and I along with my team are there for you to guide. I would say keep yourself updated about the ongoing events in the fields of ML and AI. A proper roadmap would definitely lead you to the most beautiful destination- Machine Learning. A common suggestion to all, focus on the basics. Keep exploring because there is a lot of stuff on the internet that would be beneficial for fast learning.

Roadmap to ML

There are many beneficial courses on Coursera for faster learning. There are plenty of books online. GitHub’s repositories have always been our best friends to learn and explore. You can also surf through deeplearning.ai, where you can find some amazing courses on AI. Before hopping straight away into your own new projects, work on projects available on Google. If your interest is in research, then paperswithcode.com would be the place you might be missing out. ML is more of research than implementation. If you want to play with datasets, Kaggle.com would be really a great source for you all, too.

Some words of motivation to those who are scared to start the journey in ML.

There’s a lot of new room for opening up great ideas and projects. Every day, it makes me gasp in awe to see the new rising possibilities. While starting this journey, if you are a crazy person, trust me, when you are somewhere in the middle of the journey, you will end up being crazier. Let me add the main motivation to you, “ If you keep on continuing working on the journey of reading and involving in ML, there’s a lot of money kept in store for you!”

Interviewed by: Ms Melina Shakya

Know our Design Community Coordinators!

KUCC Journal

This article is interview-based. For this article, Mr Kushal Manandhar and Mr Sushant Subedi, the Design community coordinators, had been interviewed with a series of questions by the Documentation team.

Q1)Tell us about yourselves!

Ans. Hello, I am Kushal Manandhar. I am a 3rd-year Computer Engineering student. I  am the coordinator of the Design Community. I am an ambitious person who likes to set goals and work on the goals systematically rather than following a blind approach. I create time blocks to achieve my daily goals and usually stick to my routine to be productive most of the time.  Playing games is my way of releasing stress and refreshing myself. I am very open-minded and calm by nature.

Kushal Manandhar, Design Coordinator

Hello, I am Sushant Subedi. I am from Nepalgunj. I completed high school at KMC. After high school, I planned to go abroad for my higher education but later studied Computer Science at Kathmandu University.

I was most of the time involved in a youth leadership development organization named AIESEC Nepal. Being involved in different clubs at KU, I got the chance to explore my best interest. I also contributed to a few clubs at KU and explored many fields to find what was suitable for me. I later found my interest in designing. I am very fond of designing and being a creative person I find this field exciting. I am presently the Community Coordinator of  KUOSC Design Community. I am a foodie and speaking of my hobbies I like to travel in my free time. 

                  
        Sushant Subedi, Design Coordinator

Q2) Define the term ‘Design’ in your own words.

Ans. According to us, the term ‘design’ is neither technical nor professional but a way of sharing ideas, thoughts,  emotions, and overall creativity. It’s a very creative field, where the design elements (such as typography and images) convey information.  For us, design has always been a mood freshener that allows us to increase our creativity to a whole new level.

Q3) What according to you makes a good graphic designer?

Ans. Well, that’s a great question. According to us, Graphic designers must possess certain qualities. The first and foremost is patience. Patience is the key to success in this field. You cannot create a masterpiece in a single day,  it requires a lot of hard work. You must be patient enough to learn all the concepts and not rush to complete the topics and concepts. Another quality a good designer must possess is competency. A designer must be competent and at every point try to push himself or herself to get the best possible results. A good designer should always have a good idea and gather the energy to create new designs. A good designer is also a good listener who constantly tries to learn from others. Last but not least, he/she should be a constant learner and should possess the ability to accept criticism.

Q4) If you had to learn everything from the beginning, how would you proceed?

Ans. If we had to get back to those days when we just started to learn design, we would concentrate more on the basic theory. Tutorials too would be helpful, but we would avoid depending only on tutorials since watching too many tutorials makes you dependent and less creative. Our focus would be more on the concept and apply the concept learned from the documentation to our design. Copying the trendy design would also be a good idea to learn in the beginning phase. Staying close to the design community for feedback would also be a very good option.

Q5) How do you get new design ideas? Describe your creative process.

Ans. That’s a tough question! We think that there is no need to brainstorm for creativity. We observe trends in the digital market, get different ideas from other designs, google, and in our free time when we use social media, we just take a screenshot if we see any interesting design and try to learn from it. If you professionally work as a designer you should first see the requirements of the company or client and then after proper research and taking help of proper references (if necessary) you can draw your idea. For us, creativity may come from anywhere, and no matter wherever it comes from, we give in our best to make it perfect use in our design. We also sometimes spend hours thinking about suitable topics and sometimes when we are not satisfied with the design we again in the middle of creating a design just have to stop and start again with a new topic or design.

Q6) What were/are your struggles as a Designer?

Ans. Learning design is a very long process, and first and foremost the main struggle we faced was impatience. Even after learning continuously and creating various designs we didn’t have good results at first and sometimes in a hurry of learning everything we would skip various important concepts. This used to make us frustrated and impatient. In the beginning, we also did not plan a proper routine for ourselves, which also was the cause of imperfection. Sometimes in our initial days of learning, we also felt that other people were very biased as they would select other ideas instead of ours, which later we realized was not true,  gave us a very hard time. These struggles now shaped us to become good designers. There is also a huge gap between self-learning and taking internships and jobs in companies and exploring how things worked there fixed everything up. 

Q7) There are many fields in Computer Science, but what made you choose to design?

Ans. Well, it’s very simple. We simply chose to design because it excited us the most than any other field. When choosing your field, you must see how passionate you are about the field. We found out our passion for designing and learning to design was more like fun and gave us immense happiness. We can wake up fresh every morning, even after spending a long time creating designs the previous night. Even when travelling by bus, our eyes automatically go to the hoarding board, seeing the designs implemented there and thinking about what would have made it more attractive and beautiful. 

Q8) What are your visions and goals as a coordinator of the Design Community?

Ans. The Design Community has some flaws which we would like to correct at first. First of all, we would like more people to come for design as there is less number of designers on the team. Also, whenever programs are being held, the designs and posters should be made beforehand by the Design Community. We are also planning to inform the students about careers in design. We have also prepared a one-year plan in which we plan to bring new design podcasts, and challenges, publish magazines, call mentors for guidance and provide field training. We are also going to bring new projects and activities for the students.

Q9) What changes would you like to bring via your committee?

Ans. Well, we would like to set a benchmark through our committee. Students should know what to work on and explore, and we as the coordinators of the design community would like to guide the students on that topic. We would also provide mentorship and feedback to the students who are learning to design. We would like to create friendly teaching and learning environment via our committee.

Q10) Some words of motivation to the one in this field of designing or one scared to enter this field.

Ans.  If you are new, first of all, try. Always remember, a good starting is half done when u try. You will get to explore many things in this field. Express your creativity freely and work on yourself to make yourself better day by day. If you are a beginner, complete the basics fully and implement the concepts in your design. Don’t lose hope and always remember, that bad design leads to the best design. If you are in this field, brush up on all your concepts properly and implement them in your design. Be as creative as you can be. Take inspiration from other designs. 

Fellow designers always remember “Good Designers Copy, Best Designers steal”.

Interviewed by: Sushankhya Chapagain