About me
Hello! I’m a machine learning engineer during the day, a tinkerer during the evening.
I am interested in machine learning, DIY electronics and 3D printing, and simulations.
To reach out, contact me on: omar at osm-ai dot net
Boring background :-D
Since as long as I can remember, I loved everything has to do with engineering and computers. I loved systems, and putting them together to form other systems, and so on.
During the time I worked in Siemens, my fascination with machine learning and optimization grew a lot. Two things motivated me to finally go there:
- I stumbled upon two books that really changed my life: “Automate This: How Algorithms Took Over Our Markets, Our Jobs, and the World” and “The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence”. My whole perspective about the world changed radically after reading these two books.
- I then did the machine learning course of Andrew Ng on Coursera. It was a fascinating experience, and a logical progression of material.
And thus, I resigned from my work, and started a masters degree.
At the beginning, the plan was to make the transition from electronics to machine learning in few years, while slowly introducing them to electronics. This is due to the fact that I didn’t have a CS background. So I choose to do a masters in embedded systems, while continuing on the side doing online courses in machine learning, and building my knowledge in CS.
Two months into the masters (March 2014), a dear friend convinced me that I can do this transition right now, without the need for my very cautious plan. It was the point of no return. I applied for three machine learning programs, and luckily got accepted in two (April 2014), and choose MLDM, to start in September 2014. From April to September, I decided to immediately drop my other masters, and focus 24/7 on online courses, to build and enhance my knowledge in CS and ML.