This week I focussed on learning fundamentals on machine learning. I went through Google’s Machine Learning Crash Course, Andrew Ng’s Machine Learning Course, and 3Blue1Brown’s Series on Neural Networks. It was a lot of math, so I had a lot of fun learning this content (yes, I like math). To fully understand how everything works, I tried to train my own model that guesses the number represented in an image without using any libraries. This process was taxing at first because the performance of my model was pretty bad, but after pushing on and working through the kinks, I came out of it with a much better understanding of Neural Networks and how to implement them. Now that I understand the nitty-gritty details, I will start working with TensorFlow to make my life easier.
Note: I mostly focussed on supervised learning this week. I will look into unsupervised learning next week.
Even though I think I am working hard on research, I do not fully know my research problem. Although I know this is because I need to acquire more knowledge about the sphere before I can understand it, sometimes I do question what exactly it is I am working for, and not having a solid answer resulted in lower levels of motivation. This mostly fixed itself this week because machine learning was super fun to learn about! However, I do still have some issues with staying on track with my research goals though because my mentor is pretty hands-off, so he does not check in with me often unless I say something first.
Luckily for me, Dr. Mariama Dias, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Richmond who has been my mentor for all things Physics has asked me to join her research group meetings! Her research students and other mentees present their work during these meetings, so this is a great opportunity for me to not only get more insights into the research that my peers are doing, but also to be able to share my work with them. I was particularly happy to get this invite because my interest in physics is newly founded and this is a great way for me to meet more people in this sphere and also learn about how physics research can look. Plus, listening to all the great work my peers and doing and having to share my work with them, has provided the boost that I needed to keep grinding on when I hit a rough spot with my research.