Artificial intelligence research has achieved a dramatic resurgence in recent years, as innovation of novel deep learning and other machine learning tools has enabled machine performance surpassing humans in specific cognitive tasks. New records in “machine thinking” seem to be set almost daily. This summer, the BWSI is offering students a chance to learn and use the state-of-the-art machine learning tools in a program called Cog*Works: Build your own Cognitive Assistant. The program will guide students in learning and applying the foundational technologies of artificial intelligence for building cognitive assistants. Students who have successfully completed the online course will be considered for participation in the summer program in which teams of students will leverage professional cognition services (e.g., Amazon Alexa/Echo) and open-source tools in conjunction with their own machine learning tools to develop cognitive systems. The program will be divided into modules during which students will implement and explore algorithms in core areas of natural language processing and machine cognition. These capabilities will be composed to create end-to-end cognitive assistants that will compete against each other at the end of the program.

This program consists of two components: (1) online course from February to May 2022, open to all interested and committed students, and (2) a four-week virtual summer program for a small group of students, July 11 to August 7. During the course, the students will be trained to understand the basics of Python, Git, natural language processing, and machine learning through a series of online teaching modules. Students will build services that are both functional and   fun.   By participating in the online and/or onsite portion of the program, students will develop experience in an area of computer science that is poised to play a critical role in shaping future technologies and applications across many industries.

Online Course

The online component for the Cog*Works course will contain important introductory material that will provide students with the background required to successfully complete the four-week summer course. In addition to the introductory material, the online course will include more advanced machine learning–specific material that will enable students to begin exploring problems specific to cognitive assistants.

Introduction and Prerequisites

• Introduction to Python
• Git & Github management tools
• Perspectives on machine learning

Autonomous Cognitive Assistants

• Advanced NumPy
• Simple image classification with Python
• Introduction to neural networks
• Introduction to Web Services

Summer Course