Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) research, supported by major government investments to position Quebec and Canada among world leaders, have generated enthusiasm that is infiltrating all sectors of our society. This has been followed by a strong demand for professionals with technical AI skills.
The Continuing Education and Business Services Directorate of Cégep de Sainte-Foy, attuned to the new needs of the workplace, has answered the call by offering a college studies certificate (AEC) inTechnical Specialization in Artificial Intelligence.
A comprehensive program, from start to finish… The 900-hour program is both solid and comprehensive. It is offered entirely online, part-time, evenings and weekends. This format allows students to remain employed while improving their skills. Its duration (two years) is relatively short considering the program covers all stages of developing an AI project, from setting up a development environment to putting it into production.
Data The time dedicated to collecting, storing, analyzing and processing data is generally energy-intensive in AI projects. The program enables students to develop all of these skills and master the tools specific to these stages… a valuable help for any AI project!
The most in-demand tools… Amor Amami, a program instructor and senior advisor in advanced analytics at Desjardins, is particularly proud to say that “the Cégep de Sainte-Foy program uses the most up-to-date technologies, notably for data collection, ingestion and management, such as Apache NiFi, Kafka, MongoDB and Cassandra. For source code management and continuous integration, it’s Git, GitHub, DevOps, Jenkins and CI/CD, MLOps. Regarding deployment and production of AI systems, we use Docker and Kubernetes.” Students thus develop skills that are at the cutting edge of technology.
Machine learning… Another instructor, Mikaël Swawola, who also works as an artificial intelligence developer at Optel, developed and teaches the program’s initial courses in supervised learning, unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning. He met this challenge brilliantly, finding the right balance between theory and practice, delimiting this vast field of expertise, and making it accessible for college-level teaching. For his part, instructor Étienne Larrivée-Hardy, also Director of Innovation and Analytical Research at Co-operators, also used pedagogical tricks to teach the courseDeep learning algorithms : “In this course, students have the opportunity to build image recognition and text analysis models and even explore a personal project in which they can focus on tools that will serve them in their personal or professional projects.”
Ethics take center stage… Sensitive to the impacts of AI on society and on humans, Cégep de Sainte-Foy ensured that its students are eligible for the scholarship offered by the International Observatory on the Societal Impacts of AI and Digital Technologies (OBVIA). This allowed one of them to obtain a scholarship for his project concerning the structuring public transit network of the City of Quebec. The main concepts of the ethical and regulatory components are also the subject of a specific course. Frédérick Guillot, Associate Vice-President at Co-operators, also an instructor in the program, comments: “The legal and ethical component covered in the program is very concrete; it relies on real case studies as well as current legislation.”
Links with the workplace… Relationships and exchanges with the workplace are numerous thanks to guest speakers from renowned AI companies. In addition, the program includes a 300-hour practical end-of-studies internship. Professor Virginie Boivin, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Videns Analytics, adds: “Combined with students’ past experience, internships allow them to understand the reality of the sector and consolidate their learning. They thus graduate ready and autonomous to support companies with their challenges.”
Hands-on… All program instructors are professionals working in the AI world. They can thus speak about practical issues and share their learnings from the real world. This is an incomparable asset for students. For example, Pierre-Marc Juneau, a process engineer, has extensive industrial experience. According to him, “the program allows students to see different fields and industries that can concretely benefit from advances in AI. Notably, artificial intelligence is increasingly used to model and control industrial processes, with the aim of optimizing production and reducing energy consumption (carbon footprint).”
Added value… Compared to university AI programs, college-level trainingplaces the emphasis on the applied aspect while providing students with the theoretical foundations. The distinction between the profile of an AI technician and that of a university graduate is well illustrated in the informational documentattached. Thanks to their broad technical skills, future graduates will bring undeniable added value to any AI project. Frédérick Guillot specifies: “Technical AI professionals make a unique contribution when it comes time to put AI systems into production and to maintain them with cutting-edge tools.”A college that does more
… The entire teaching and administrative team associated with the Technical Specialization in Artificial Intelligence program remains attentive to the needs of students and offers both pedagogical and psychosocial solutions to ensure a balance between studies-work-family, perseverance and academic success.In addition, the Continuing Education and Business Services Directorate of Cégep de Sainte-Foy has innovated by offering its
Bridge Session, giving non-IT professionals the opportunity to access the AEC in AI through a diagnostic tool and self-paced courses.Learn more about the jobs presented in this article:
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Ce contenu partenaire a été produit dans le cadre du projet En route! – La destination carrières en transports électriques et intelligents.
