How to: Jan 18, 2025
1. Learn how to read academic papers so that you can stay on top of the latest breakthroughs in computer science and software engineering. Yacine is an engineer and researcher, and in this freeCodeCamp course he'll walk you through how he approaches reading papers. You'll learn how to quickly gain context, fill your conceptual gaps, and analyze datasets & codebases. You'll also learn a bit about common mathematical notation, and how to avoid being daunted by academic terminology. (2 hour YouTube course): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/understanding-deep-learning-research-tutorial-theory-code-and-math/

2. Learn about the emerging field of AI Engineering, which is essentially adding AI to existing websites and apps. 90% of AI Engineering is just good old-fashioned web development with a few new tools and APIs sprinkled in. This handbook will give you an overview of the field, with case studies and helpful career tips for getting started. (full-length handbook): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-ai-engineering-handbook-how-to-start-a-career-and-excel-as-an-ai-engineer/

3. On this week's freeCodeCamp podcast, I interview software engineer Elliot Arledge about building new AI systems from scratch. Elliot has taught several popular freeCodeCamp courses, including one on GPU programming with CUDA. He shares his own approach to reading academic papers – an important skill – and tips for assimilating new concepts quickly. (2 hour watch or listen in your favorite podcast app): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/cuda-gpu-programming-elliot-arledge-podcast-155/

4. Learn how AI is now being applied to agriculture to increase crop yields. freeCodeCamp just published this book that will give you insight into optimized crop cultivation techniques. You'll learn about Precision Agriculture, pest & disease management, soil moisture monitoring, sustainable land use strategies, harvest automation, and more. (full-length book): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/ai-in-agriculture-book/

5. GitHub Actions are a powerful tool for automating aspects of your developer workflow. They can save you and your collaborators a lot of time by listening for certain events, then automatically taking pre-determined actions. freeCodeCamp just published a tutorial that will show you how to get up and running with GitHub Actions on your own Git repositories. (20 minute read): https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/learn-to-use-github-actions-step-by-step-guide/

Quote of the Week: *"All the wonders of our universe can in effect be captured by simple rules. Yet there can be no way to know all the consequences of these rules, except just to watch and see how they unfold."* – Stephen Wolfram, mathematician and computer scientist