Fulfilling the NCDS mission to connect diverse communities of data science experts to support a 21st century data-driven economy by creating a data-literate workforce and bridging the gap between data scientists in the public and private sectors requires educational and upskilling opportunities. All Foundations courses are virtual with live instruction.
The Foundations of AI series provides audiences:
- A virtual attendee experience
- Live instruction in a wide range of technical concepts as well as theory/practical application.
- Expert instructors
- Recording available after the event
- Certificate of participation
Who should attend Foundations of AI courses?
These virtual courses are designed to benefit a wide range of people interested in upskilling, including but not limited to technical people with an interest in data science and Machine Learning, folks with some coding knowledge and math knowledge, engineers who do not specialize in data science, analytics people needing to brush up on skills, a more technical support person, and product managers.
Bulk Registration Discounts
Bulk registration rates are available for groups of individuals from the same institution. Multiple staff from different departments within the same institution are eligible to receive this discount. We can accommodate a variety of budgets. Please contact Amanda C. Miller with questions.
Scholarships
The National Consortium for Data Science (NCDS) is pleased to offer a limited number of full scholarships for Foundations of AI events. Each event description contains scholarship information.
- Priority will be given to faculty, staff, and students from non-R1 and non-R2 institutions.
- The form (viewable within each event) serves as the registration link for the event, do not register via additional links.
Upcoming Courses
Intro to Generative AI for Coders | March 20, 2025 1:00 - 5:00pm ET
This course will give you an overview of what Generative AI is and how it works, and how to do some basic tasks in Generative AI. You’ll learn some tips and tricks for prompt engineering and prompt tuning, as well as more advanced techniques like RAG, fine-tuning and how to evaluate generative model performance. By the end of the course you should have enough knowledge to combine open-source LLMs with a more targeted dataset to efficiently handle AI tasks that are relevant to your work.
Prerequisites
Understanding basic Python and the very basics of data science (i.e., what data looks like in a csv format and how to do a simple linear regression) would be helpful in this class. Understanding machine learning basics is good, but not required.
Scholarship Information
NCDS is pleased to offer a limited number of full scholarships for faculty, staff and students at two-year and four-year institutions to attend the Foundations of AI: Intro to Generative AI for Coders course on Thursday, Mar. 20, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. ET.
- To apply for a full scholarship, submit your application via this form.
- DO NOT USE THE MAIN REGISTRATION FORM TO APPLY FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP.
Past Courses
Intro to AI with Amy Hemmeter | May 16, 2024, 1:00 - 5:00pm ET
In this half-day course, you’ll learn about Artificial Intelligence (AI), starting with foundational concepts in machine learning and deep learning, then moving to the basics of Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision that got us to our current boom in Generative AI as demonstrated by GPT-3, DALL-E and other well-known tools. Learn how to train your own AI models, how to make the most of open-source and pre-trained models on the market, and how to stay ahead of the curve on technical improvements.
In this course you’ll learn:
- Basics of deep learning with language data
- How BERT and GPT work
- What is Generative AI?
- What is an LLM and how do I use it?
- Basics of prompt tuning and prompt engineering
- Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
- Evaluating generative model performance
AI for Non-Coders | September 26, 2024, 1:00 - 5:00pm ET
Ever say to yourself: what even is an LLM? How do I get from chatting with ChatGPT to talking about larger AI products? How do I answer these nonstop questions from colleagues, customers, leadership and more in this new landscape?
Do you find yourself needing expertise on AI that, quite frankly, you didn’t sign up for?
This course is designed to meet the needs of people who are not necessarily well-versed in math and science but who know that they need to know the basics about AI in this changing landscape.
You’ll learn about what AI can accomplish, the intuitions behind how it works (no math or coding necessary!), and opportunities and risks. You’ll come away feeling confident that you know not only what an LLM actually is, but understand all the jargon people use to talk about it.
