Posts here have been pretty infrequent in 2017 and up-to-now in 2018. I have been working towards completing a Masters Degree in Software Engineering for the past two years which has been a significant commitment whilst also working full-time. In the middle of that, I also moved to a new job (staying at McAfee, but moving to a new team and area), which required a significant ramp-up in new technologies.
I’ve just completed my Masters by submitting my final dissertation entitled Detection of Cyberbullying Using Cloud Based Services. This was a very interesting project where I got exposure to supervised machine learning techniques and tools, and also architecting and building a cloud native application within Amazon Web Services. Once I receive the results of this in October, I will certainly post here on the architecture of the system developed and the conclusions.
While taking a Masters program while working full-time is a challenge and a lot of work, I would recommend it (working evenings and weekends become the norm for a while, especially when completing the final dissertation). The main reason I would is that, as we know, in the field of technology, especially software engineering, skills can get out-of-date very quickly. I had always wanted to look at machine learning and used the same old story of ‘not having the time’. The MSc program I undertook, and the dissertation I completed, forced me to prioritize and make the time, and it has opened up a fascinating world. I’m sure I’ll be posting here about some of my planned further experiments in this area in the coming months.
For right now, I’ve just returned from a week in the sun (Portugal), and am enjoying a few days off work (to do things like update my blog 😉 ).