Techie Stories: Konstantin Wehmeyer’s Journey as an AI & Web Development Techie
How can freshman/sophomore bachelor’s students gain hands-on experience in Data Science, Artificial Intelligence as well as Web Development within a year? In this article, we hear about the experience of our Techie Konstanin Wehmeyer who set about on his exploratory journey in the field of Software Engineering during the nascent stages of his engineering degree.
TechLabs Marketing (Abhishek): Thanks for taking the time for this interview Konstantin, can you give us a brief introduction about yourself and also your previous coding experience?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: I am a fourth semester electrical engineering student with my track specialization as computer engineering. I chose to pursue an engineering degree since I liked mathematics and physics and was interested in the practical application of these fields. My coding experience though only stems from some University courses which were focused more towards the theoretical aspects of computer science.
TechLabs Marketing: Why did you want to take part in the TechLabs program?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: I actually stumbled across the application phase via the RWTH Instagram account. At first when I saw that the program needed a five hour per week commitment, I was a bit skeptical since I would have to balance my existing courses from the University. But the idea of finally being able to learn about these digital skills that everyone talks about and also the prospects of meeting new people was what convinced me to apply. I was easily able to manage the workload alongside my regular courses since they are very structured and guided me exactly how to go about learning.
TechLabs Marketing: Which tracks did you choose during the digital shaper program?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: I applied for the AI track during my 3rd semester and continued with the Web Development track in my 4th semester since I had a very positive experience. But I would strongly recommend people to start with the Data Science track first if they have never worked with pandas and other python libraries. The application process was also something I would say that stood out. There was no need to submit any resume, motivation letter. The questions were more thought provoking like “Why do you want to learn such skills?”, “Where would you implement it?”, “What projects would you like to do?” and so on. There was also a fun segment where we had to use code blocks to build our own games/storyline which I had never done before.
After joining the digital shaper program, I realized that there were a lot of people from very diverse backgrounds like medicine, economics, geography and so on. Thus having such a unique application process ensures that anyone without any programming experience or doesn’t come from an engineering background can also apply since the courses are tailored to you and you can start from scratch.
TechLabs Marketing: Can you tell us more about the AI project that you worked on?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: I think what helped execute the project was the initial coursework. We were exposed to writing code and understanding them from the first lesson rather than diving very deep into the theory part. The project was in association with the Massachusetts General Hospital with the aim of discovering ML models and features for predicting scheduled patient examinations. Our team consisted of DS techies who worked on traditional models such as random forest, support vector regression while I explored mainly the deep learning models, especially Convolution Neural Networks. The highlight of the project was when we presented our findings to one of the Assistant Professors of Harvard Medical School.
TechLabs Marketing: What prompted you to continue with the Web Development track also?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: The AI project was one of the key moments I really enjoyed. Our mentor was ready to help us by sharing insights and encouraging us to explore deeper. Additionally, I often realized that when I tried to learn coding skills via YouTube videos, I could easily follow the contents until I had to actually put it into practice. Thus it was only natural that I take up another semester at TechLabs Aachen.
This helped me to really understand more in detail how the web is built and our project work to develop an errand running platform gave me experience in both frontend and backend technologies.
TechLabs Marketing: How was your overall experience being a Techie?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: Having spent almost a year learning at TechLabs, I can only recommend it to anyone reading this. Being in my 2nd year of bachelor’s meant that I had really no experience nor idea on what interests me as something that I am really passionate about. But that has since changed and I am on a path to create practical solutions using digital skills. I was also fortunate enough to land a HiWi position later at the Fraunhofer IPT partly due to the experience I gained using Git, Notion, Slack alongside my coding skills.
At my current position one of my tasks is to develop the frontend of a data visualization and analytics tool for the production process for the tanks of a rocket. I don’t think I would have thought it possible a year ago that I could work on such a project. Also, with so many different technologies, models, methods in use, it is very tough to get an understanding as to what they all mean. But since I was a techie, listening to the project pitches at the end of the semester meant that I already had a basic understanding of such models and so on. The exposure I gained has certainly helped in a lot of ways!
TechLabs Marketing: That’s really an interesting take indeed! As we come to an end, what are your future plans during bachelor’s ?
Konstantin Wehmeyer: I am inclined to do a semester abroad in one of the eastern countries in the field of machine learning if covid permits. Being in a new country would give me a nice exposure to not only the technical know-how but also the cultural feel. Post that I am keen on exploring machine learning applications as a thesis possibility too! I am already in the talks about a topic that deals with speech synthesis using deep learning models. The AI project has helped me in this regard.
I found that I resonate a lot with the vision of TechLabs and have hence joined the volunteer member team since the last six months. I am looking forward to implementing a few of my own ideas and help spread the curiosity in digital skills throughout the Aachen landscape.
Inspired by Konstantin’s journey and looking for a platform to start learning to code? Then apply for our Digital Shaper program!
