Roadmap to AI Engineer
PHASE 1: CORE FOUNDATIONS (4-6 weeks)
* Goal: Build a brain for math + programming.
* Topics to Learn:
- Python Programming (CS50P, Automate the Boring Stuff)
- Math for ML (Linear Algebra, Calculus, Statistics - Khan Academy, 3Blue1Brown)
- Git & GitHub (Coursera: Version Control with Git)
* Deliverables:
- Python mini-projects
- GitHub repo with commits
- Notebook explaining dot product, matrix ops, derivatives
PHASE 2: MACHINE LEARNING (6-8 weeks)
* Goal: Learn the ML pipeline & theory, build small models.
* Topics to Learn:
- Supervised Learning (regression, classification)
- Unsupervised Learning (clustering, PCA)
- Model Evaluation (metrics, overfitting, cross-validation)
- Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn
* Deliverables:
- Titanic classifier
- House price predictor
- Customer segmentation project on GitHub
PHASE 3: DEEP LEARNING (5-7 weeks)
* Goal: Train & deploy neural networks.
* Topics to Learn:
- Neural Networks ([Link] Course 1)
- CNNs & RNNs ([Link] Courses 4 & 5)
- Transfer Learning ([Link], HuggingFace)
- PyTorch Basics
* Deliverables:
- Image classifier (CNN)
- Text sentiment model (RNN or transformer)
- PyTorch code on GitHub
PHASE 4: MLOps & AI ENGINEERING (5-6 weeks)
* Goal: Build, deploy, and scale AI systems.
* Topics to Learn:
- Model Deployment (FastAPI + Docker)
- ML in Production (MadeWithML)
- APIs & Cloud (GCP / AWS, Streamlit / Gradio)
- Experiment Tracking (MLflow, Weights & Biases)
- CI/CD & Docker Basics
* Deliverables:
- Deployed ML model on HuggingFace Spaces / Render
- GitHub with Docker + FastAPI backend
PHASE 5: ADVANCED AI & SPECIALIZATION (6+ weeks)
* Goal: Go deeper into LLMs, RL, CV, or Agentic AI.
* Topics to Learn:
- Transformers & LLMs (HuggingFace, OpenAI)
- Reinforcement Learning (Gym, Stable Baselines3)
- Diffusion & GANs (DDPM, StyleGAN2)
- Autonomous Agents & RAG (LangChain, LlamaIndex, Pinecone)
* Deliverables:
- Advanced AI project (LLM app, RAG pipeline, RL agent, or CV tool)
- Live demo + GitHub + blog post