Re: Career Question: Self Study vs MS w/Thesis vs PhD

"Sam Banerjee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Hello everybody,
>
> I am a programmer working in the commercial world, and I would like to
> get into AI, preferably a position that amounts some amount of
> research/creativity. I have never done AI related work before, so I am
> considering the following options to make me more palatable to
> employers. I am targeting industry and government, not a professorship
> in academia.
>
> 1) read up on ai on my own
>
> 2) do an MS with thesis at a local college. The advantage of this over
> a Phd is that I can keep my current job and do it in the evening
>
> 3) go in for a full time PhD. I would enjoy the opportunity to do a
> full blown research project, but there is the cost factor of chucking
> in my job for 6 years
>
>
> I would like to know what people think of these options. Any comments
> would be welcome,
>
> Thanks,
>
> -Sam Banerjee
>

Hi there Sam...

I too am caught in this very same trap.

Like you I am a software engineer (with a rather heavy workload, mind you)

I work for Discreet - division of Autodesk, and I am both engineer and
engineering manager.  I have done readings in AI with a focus in rule-based
systems (CLIPS and SOAR) and some Bayesian decision theory.

With the exception of the rule-based systems I mentioned (their sources are
freely available) which I can inspect implementation and match up to some
theory, on the latter I really have a problem.

I've decided to resolve this by signing up via Stanford's SCPD program to
take a few of their courses in statistics/data-mining and comp. sci..  So
far this is giving me a good theoretical foundation, as well as actual
implementations to inspect.

However, at some point I would like to make the leap into something a little
more "research" but cannot figure how to get from "here" to "there" without
pursuing option #3 that you listed.

I would like to propose that if there are other engineers in the Bay
Area/Silicon Valley who are trying to resolve this particular issue that
maybe we could collect interested members and have an informal "get
together" and trade notes about how to go about getting education, training,
and opportunities resulting from this interest.

Sincerely,
Rodolfo J. Cazabon
Software Development Manager, 3ds max
Discreet - a division of Autodesk, Inc.

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