BITS PG certificate course in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning related doubts

Hi Connections,

I have been asked a lot of times about the PG certificate course at BITS for which I just completed my final exams. So, I thought to write a post regarding the same which might be helpful for all those who wish to enroll for the same.

I have tried to cover some common questions but if you have anything specific which I have missed feel free to drop a comment and I will try answering them.

Disclaimer: - It is purely my opinion about the course and might differ from other students.

Questions which are commonly asked: -

Q1: How is the course structured? What all topics are covered?

The course comprises of two semesters with three subjects per semester.

Sem 1: Regression, Classification and Feature Engineering

Sem 2: Unsupervised Learning. Text Mining and Deep Learning

The videos are uploaded once in a week per module. There are around 5-8 modules per subject. Each module is further divided into 3-10 sub-modules. The length of a single video would range from 5min -45min depending on the topics. I personally felt that many topics were not covered in detail, so I had to go through some more videos on YouTube for better understanding. Although they do have regular contact sessions every weekend where we can ask doubts or request the faculty to explain a topic again with some examples.

 Q2: What is the mode of examinations? On what basis do they evaluate our performance?

There are two main examinations conducted offline per subject towards the end of the semester for 3hr each. These are conducted over weekends. They provide us two dates for every subject, and we must select one among them. Mostly they are consecutive weekends. You can’t give same subject two times. Due to covid-19 the last semester exams were conducted online through wheebox.

Apart from these they conduct quiz on regular intervals. There are again two dates to opt for every quiz which they call regular and make-up. We had our regular quiz on a Sunday and make-up quiz on Wednesday. You can answer both and best of the two would be considered. Quiz are usually for 12-15 marks. Again, subject to faculty. There might be some multiple-choice questions and some one-word answers or numerical as well. They also keep you occupied with mini-projects and assignments which are given throughout the course and even they hold a considerable weightage in final marks.

At least for my batch we used to have burden of multiple assignments and mini-projects given at one time and sometimes we did nothing for two weeks. So, it completely depends on the faculties when they upload it. Usually the submission deadlines are within a week after they upload them.

Q3: How much time do we need to spend every week on an average for this course?

I personally used to spend my entire weekends to go through the videos uploaded, preparing for the quiz, working on some assignments and mini-projects. I also used to go through some extra videos from YouTube for better understanding. Sometimes when there were multiple things coming up, I had to take out some time in week days as well. As a batch we sometimes did ask for some extra time when we felt over burdened as a group and the faculties were flexible to accommodate that.

Q4: What is a capstone project? Who decides the topic?

The capstone project is for 8 weeks. We were asked to form groups and give the details within 3-4 days. Once we submitted that they gave us some topics to pick from. When we submitted our preferences based on availability most of the groups got their first or second preference. My group chose Persona Identification. They had assigned us a mentor who told us what we are going to implement who was not from BITS. He was founder of an organization and the project which we implemented was their existing product. He guided us throughout the project and gave his opinions and suggestions. We were evaluated every two weeks by a BITS faculty which they call a project review session. The project was more like a real-life challenge which was quite difficult to implement within the given time considering none of my teammates had prior experience in data science domain. But it was really a good start for us to understand real life situations and apply what we learned in theory. You must submit the code in proper formats like files, datasets used and created, readme document etc. You also need to submit a proper report and presentation file which was used during reviews.

Q5: What is a campus immersion program?

So, two times in a year they conducted this program at BITS Hyderabad Campus. It is on weekend. You must arrange your own travel and stay. BITS will only take care of lunch for two days. They have sessions planned for several topics and some interactive topics are covered. It is not compulsory to attend though. It is completely optional. It’s a beautiful campus to visit.

Q6: Do they offer placements after this course?

No. They do not offer any placements post the course. All you will get is a certificate in pdf format and an alumni status of BITS.

Q7: What if I don’t pass a subject or I am not able to answer both the regular or makeup exam?

As far as the quiz, mini project and assignment is concerned you would just loose marks. But the final semester exams are mandatory to attend. No matter how genuine you reason is. If you fail to do so, you will have to pay extra to write it later. But I do not know anyone from our batch who failed. The written exams are tricky, and application based along with some numerical but one can easily score with quiz, assignments and mini-project.

Q8: Which programming language is used for coding and platforms suggested?

We are suppose to use Python for this course. They give you a Python refresher course initially free of cost once you enroll for this program. Also in my opinion it is a very simple yet powerful language and anyone can learn its basics within a week. I used jupyter notebooks and Google collab for my projects and assignments. Although you can use any platform of your choice and submit either the .py file with output generated or notebooks in .ipynb format.

Q9: How was my the overall experience?

Pros:

1. The course is well structured and off course you get a tag/ alumni status from BITS. It will give you a good start in this domain as a fresher.
2. We had a whatsapp group created by a coordinator from BITS which we used to discuss our doubts or share some important notifications.

Cons:

1. Through out the course the assignments and quiz management was really not as expected from an institute like BITS. We had to constantly ask for postponing the submission dates as there were clashes and we barely got time to manage everything.
2. It was surprising to see that even though this was a distant learning course, we rarely got any response to our emails.
3. The exams were conducted in so much of hurry by justifying that the course has to be finished in 11 months. We requested to postpone it by 2 weeks so due to covid situation to which no one responded. But its been so long and our batch still did not receive the certificate. Many are waiting for it as they have to get it reimbursed or some of them have to submit it while joining the new company.

I would suggest to take this course to those who are new to data science field and wish to explore it in a systematic manner and do not know where to start or people who have started their career in this field but want to learn basics which every data scientist should know. I will not recommend this course for people who are already working in this field for more than 2 years as it would not be of use to you. Again this is my view and might differ from others.