Louise Joly is the administrator of the AI program at Simplon, which is celebrating its five-year anniversary in March. There are actually 20 of those AI faculties in France, which have skilled about 900 individuals, about 33 % of them girls. Joly says that Simplon has lengthy needed to achieve gender parity in its lessons, however that quite a lot of limitations holding again girls have made it onerous to achieve that aim.
“At Simplon, we’re less concerned about the reasons behind that glass ceiling than finding a solution,” she says. To that finish, it created prequalification course for ladies solely within the AI program, which she says has resulted in a better completion charge.
She additionally cites the faculties’ hands-on methodology for its success in putting its college students into good jobs. Participants within the AI coaching spend 4 months within the classroom, seven hours per day. Then they spend a yr in an apprenticeship at an organization, with one week in school and three weeks on the job. Simplon works with firms to create and repeatedly enhance the coaching program. Companies choose candidates for apprenticeships from Simplon from the start of the coaching program. In this manner, Simplon helps firms in a non-traditional recruitment course of – producing sturdy recruits exterior of the traditional channels, reminiscent of stage of training, skilled background and former expertise.
Laurent Cetinsoy is a professor within the Microsoft AI School by Simplon in Paris, and he’s an advocate of the college’s hands-on strategy.
“The idea is, if you want to learn tennis, the best way is not by hearing some old guy speaking about tennis for three hours,” he says. “We try to put the student into action as soon as possible, but that doesn’t mean I don’t explain things.”
Even in the course of the intense class portion of the course, Cetinsoy says, the individuals work on actual initiatives.
In the primary yr of this system, he says, the category helped an inventor enhance a machine that recycles plastic instantly for use in an connected 3D printer to create new objects. Class members used AI in coaching the machine to acknowledge and kind the plastic by kind. “We had the luck to see [Microsoft Chairman and CEO] Satya Nadella visit the school at this time, and he really liked the project,” he says.
Stan Briand graduated from the AI School in February of 2022 after a yr spent in an apprenticeship at LACROIX in Rennes. There, he developed a system utilizing AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to assist detect leaks within the water system of the city of Nevers.
“On average in France pipelines are leaking 22 to 25 percent, so about one fourth of the clean water we produce for drinking goes back into nature,” Briand says. “This is due to multiple factors, but the most important one is the pipelines are aging. Aside from the environmental waste, this loss costs huge amounts of money.”
The system Briand developed takes information from 200 sensors that detect water movement within the Nevers water community and makes use of an AI algorithm to investigate it. The AI helps pinpoint the place leaks are more than likely to be discovered. Scrutinizing that information was taking on effectively over an hour a day for a employee on the water utility. Briand says the job now takes 5 minutes and frees up time for different important upkeep duties.
“France and some other countries are having problems with drought,” making water assets extra treasured, Briand says. “This is a step toward solving those kinds of issues, so it’s really rewarding.” The system he created is now in use at a second municipal water system and can be deployed to others.
Briand’s supervisor at LACROIX is Reynholds Reinette. During Briand’s one-year apprenticeship, he confirmed ability and initiative in growing the water anomaly detection system, Reinette says, and it was a straightforward choice to rent him.
“The project was great, and we wanted to continue working on it,” Reinette says. He says LACROIX just lately employed one other Microsoft AI School by Simplon graduate in Rennes and could have one other apprentice from the college beginning later within the spring.
Before coaching as an AI specialist, Briand taught English in Chengdu, China, and ultimately turned an administrator on the nationwide stage for a bunch of English-language faculties. He computerized the administration system and have become fascinated with what he may do with information. When he moved again to France, he determined to hunt out coaching to enter the world of laptop programming.
“At that time, I felt that the AI field would require a lot of experience, a lot of math background and basically I thought it would be too hard for me to get into that,” he recollects. “But the Microsoft-Simplon school doesn’t require that much math or even a master level in technology. So, I applied, I passed a few tests, and I got in.”
Cetinsoy, the AI professor, echoes Briand, saying that a very powerful components for fulfillment in this system are motivation and willingness to work very onerous.
“You need an analytical mind and an analytical view to solve problems,” he says. “Good programming skills are more important than being a crack at math.”