Together with Intel, Udacity has launched a new nanodegree to give developers the skills they need to build and deploy AI-powered edge devices. Udacity has also extended its recent Quarantine Special Offer of 1 month of free access to this new nanodegree program and to the others which were previously included.

Edge computing refers to running computing processes locally on the device itself, instead of in the cloud. This reduces computing time to allow data to be processed faster, removes the security risk of transferring the data to a cloud-based server, and reduces the cost of data transfer, as well as the risks of bandwidth outages disrupting performance.

The Intel® Edge AI for IoT Developers Nanodegree is a 3-month project based program to advance deep learning and computer vision skills. It will introduce students to the OpenVINO (Open Visual Inference & Neural network Optimization) toolkit, which enables developers to deploy pre-trained deep learning models through a high-level C++ or Python inference engine API integrated with application logic.

Jonathan Ballon, GM of Intel's Internet of Things Group said of the new nanodegree:

"With Udacity, we are training AI developers to go where the data is generated in the physical world: the edge. Optimizing direct deployment of models on edge devices requires knowledge of unique constraints like power, network bandwidth and latency, varying compute architectures and more. The skills this course delivers will allow developers – and companies that hire them – to implement learnings on real-world applications across a variety of fields."

The pre-requisites for this nanodegree are: 

• Intermediate knowledge of programming in Python
• Experience with training and deploying deep learning models
• Familiarity with different DL layers and architectures (CNN based)
• Familiarity with the command line (bash terminal)
• Experience using OpenCV

With this in mind you might need to take other Udacity  nanodegrees before embarking on this one. However, as it is predicted that the global edge computing market will reach 1.12 trillion dollars by 2023 so gaining these skills would appear to be a worthwhile investment. If you haven't already taken advantage of Udacity's Quarantine Special offer, which has a limit of one per customer and applies to Nanodegree programs with 3‍-mon‍th or more access, you can enjoy a month of free access to the program of your choice.

The course and projects that students will tackle in the Intel® Edge AI for IoT Developers Nanodegree are:

Course 1: Edge AI Fundamentals with OpenVINO™

• Deploy a People Counter at the Edge: Investigate different pre-trained models for person detection, and detect the number of people in the frame, and the time spent there.

Course 2: Hardware for Computer Vision Deep Learning Application Deployment

• Design a Smart Queuing System: Build custom queuing systems for the retail, manufacturing and transportation sectors and use the Intel® DevCloud for the Edge to test your solutions performance. 

Course 3: Optimization Techniques and Tools for Computer Vision Deep Learning Applications

• Build a Computer Pointer Controller: Use models available in the Intel® Distribution of OpenVINO™ Toolkit to control your computer pointer using your eye gaze

This first presentation of this nanodegree, which has a start date of April 18,  will welcome as scholarship winners the top 850 students of the Intel® Edge AI Fundamentals Course which started at the end of last year. This should make for a particularly rewarding learning experience for all enrollees in this new program.

More Information

Intel® Edge AI for IoT Developers Nanodegree

Udacity Program Catalog 

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