My 2021 in review
Computer vision, art & design
I look back at my accomplishments in 2021. I worked on various applied ML projects from climate change, protecting sharks to art & design. Highlights include open-source projects, TensorFlow, computer vision, deep learning, art and design. As always, I have been busy learning and sharing my knowledge with the community!
Applied ML projects
ML4CC
Early 2022 I worked as an ML researcher on a Frontier Development Lab project using ML for climate change (MLCC). It was an 8-week sprint where we focused on using ML to solve flooding issues which are costly and destructive.
Shark AI
I also worked on a Shark AI project with Sci-Eye Australia scientists to use drones and on-device ML to protect both the sharks and the humans.
Learning
In 2021 I continued my learning and completed a few certificates.
- Certified TensorFlow developer! Read my blog post for more details.
2. TensorFlow: Advanced Techniques Specialization on Coursera.
3. It took me a while but I finally finished the Udacity Data Science Nanodegree.
Community & open source
I continue to contribute to the ML GDE community, one of my key contributions in 2021 was help launching our own ML GDEs YouTube Channel! Here is a little intro video about myself with an overview of several projects I collaborated with the other ML GDEs.
During the summer, I mentored several students for the open-source TensorFlow projects as part of Google Summer of Code 2021: TensorFlow-GAN, TensorFlow Model Garden / Hub, and TensorFlow Lite.
I was very honored to receive a TensorFlow top contributor award representing the Americas region. It was a surprise announcement at the end of the annual TensorFlow Contributor Summit!
My sketchnotes was included in the official announcement of the TensorFlow Contributor Awardees!
Art & design
I continued my study of art, and throughout the year I dedicated a lot of time to drawing and painting.
This year, I started to create a course called GANs in Art and Design on PyImage Search University. It’s a course that teaches Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) and how to use the various GAN models in art and design. It’s still a work-in- progress and I look forward to completing the course.
PyImageSearch has helped me to learn computer vision over the years. It was quite an honor to be the first author other than Adrian to publish on PyImageSearch.
In November, I had fun giving a talk “Generative Art and Design with TensorFlow” at the “Open Data Science Conference West” in San Francisco. It was my first in-person conference talk since the past 2 years! The audience was a mix of technologists, data scientists, engineers, artists and designers.
Towards the end 2021, I took on learning 3D sculpting and 3D painting, which I found quite fascinating. I’m looking forward to spending more time learning 3D art and hopefully share my artworks soon!
