Microsoft ML.net

I was writing an essay as part of the requirements for a program I was applying to, and one of the topics for the essay was for a project you have worked on that has had a significant impact on you. I didn’t have to think too much.

My first Machine learning project!

This project was and still is so special to me because I went against series of advice from so many people, and also against all logical odds to achieve it. The only motivation I had was that it felt like the right thing to do. While composing the essay, a question crossed my mind “Why not share this online as a write-up or an article?” So, here I am, editing my essay to make a blog post. Let’s get down to it.

I wanted to get started with machine learning and all I kept hearing was that Python and R are the only way to go and lazy me, I didn’t have the strength to start learning a new programming language at the time. But majorly, I just didn’t want to do what others were doing for this particular career move and so I started my research into alternatives. This was when I stumbled upon ML.net. It was the confirmation I needed. Yes, I was doing the right thing because I already had a good knowledge of the C# programming language. I started looking for online resources and tutorials to help me get started, but I couldn’t find any because the framework was still very new at the time. The only resource I could find was the ML.net documentation on the Microsoft website.

PS: I and docs were not friends. They always looked so complex to me.

Usually, I would get familiar with the basics of any technology using other resources like PDFs or Video tutorials before “cautiously” venturing into the documentations. This had me rethinking my decision but I just decided to open the docs. Surprisingly, it was as simple as possible and it even came with step by step instructions on how to set up your computer for development with ML.net. Alas! Hope again. Using those steps, I immediately set up my system for Machine learning with C# and opened the tutorials in the documentation. The rest, as they say, was history.

I remember completing the project at the tech hub in my school — Roar Nigeria Hub — which is in a way, the home for the developers’ community. Developers come there to code, collaborate or just hangout. The look on their faces when it worked perfectly told me all I needed to know. I had made the right decision.

Looking back at it now, it was just a simple Sentiment analysis model based on the “Wikipedia detox” dataset connected to an Asp.NET web app, but the impact it had on me was huge.

I still plan on learning Python though, when I’m not too lazy for it. Lol.

Song of the week — RUSH by Barzini.