| Title: | Europe-Swas-Artificial-Intelligence |
| Moderator: | HERON::BUCHANAN |
| Created: | Fri Jun 03 1988 |
| Last Modified: | Thu Aug 04 1994 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 442 |
| Total number of notes: | 1429 |
We're working on a new Training Program. Please let us have your
opinions.
It would differ from our current Program in a few fundamental areas.
Specifically: 1. The new proposal is 4 Weeks in lenght. The current
program is 6 weeks.
2. The new proposal is aimed at getting a customer off
to a "quick-start" on a REAL project. The current
program is aimed at providing a number of basic
Knowledge Engineering Skills with the thought that
the student will apply them to a real project later.
In the proposed new program, customers are teamed
with a DEC K.E. for the 4 weeks of their study. The
K.E. helps them make a choice of tools and works on
the design and development of the customer project.
*** The MAJOR OBJECTIVE is to get the customers
started on their own Project. ***
3. The new proposal focuses on technical areas. The
current program offers more management awareness.
We have offered the current version here in Europe on two occasions.
The feedback was, primarily, very positive. However, the length of
the program (6 weeks) was considered extreme by some participants.
************************************************
Here is a short outline of the proposed new program. What do you
think? Could you sell it if it were priced around 10k ? We could
offer it to individuals or to teams of people who need to work on
the same project.
Would you sell it ?
WEEK 1 ..... Introductory sessions on Knowledge Based Systems,
Symbolic Modeling, Neural Nets, Obj. Oriented Programming.
Also, fundamentals of Knowledge Representation.
Short presentations on several tools. During this week,
the DEC K.E. helps the customer make a choice on which
tools to choose in Week 2.
WEEK 2 ..... Tools Training ... hands-on .... OPS, KBMS, TRELLIS. Maybe
others also. The week will also include evening
presentations on related topics like Knowledge Aquisition,
Project Management etc. But those topics will not be
covered to the degree that they are in the current
program.
WEEK 3 .... Individual Project Work ... codeing. The customer(s) are
working on their real projects with the help of the DEC
K.E. Also more evening presentations.
WEEK 4 .... Same as week 3. Probably short presentations by the
Customers also.
First offering would be in September or October.
This program would also be the first phase of the AI FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM.
Thats it !! What do you think ??
| T.R | Title | User | Personal Name | Date | Lines |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 290.1 | my 2 cents | ULTX03::2548 | moduladaplisprologopsimulalgol | Thu Feb 28 1991 15:45 | 19 |
Just reacting with whatever bubbles up in my mind: 6 weeks is considered too long; i think this still true for 4 weeks. Maybe the training could be done in 3 weeks if 1) the students are carefully selected, 2) the students are given some preparation materials, 3) the problem they're going to solve is carefully selected and more or less fixed. Money is not an issue if you solve a customers' problem! I guess we could ask more and for instance plan some knowledge acquisition at customer site (by student AND our KE). By trying to do some more preparation before the training starts, we could identify some oppurtunities. Looks like this new training and the fellowship-program are converging. Therefore, I would not call it a "training" anymore. Hans de Hartog | |||||
| 290.2 | What does the customer want & what do we want ? | LAPUTA::SUTHERLAND | Simon - IM&T (AI Center Europe) | Mon Mar 04 1991 08:56 | 21 |
I agree with Hans' last statement. The shorter the course becomes and the more it focuses in on a customer project, then it changes from a training course into a project / consulting session. Is the purpose to train lots of people in a BATCH mode or to target specific customers in working a project ? If the former then we need a lot of individual courses, joined by a curriculum(?) The latter is harder to plan, because you have to ensure that customers all want to do projects at the same time, to get people together into a classroom for the training or they get the training at different times, then you have to make sure that the instructors are available as required. The original 13 weeks training was 13 weeks because it had content. To shorten it to 3 or even 2 weeks does not necessarily improve the quality, but in fact removes the content. Are we saying that the other training is not required or can be picked up later ? If so then does DEC want to make this other training available itself, or let the customers go elsewhere for it ? What do customers really want and what do we want ? Simon | |||||
| 290.3 | Looks more 'Europeanised' | KETJE::VANDEVYVER | Luc Van de Vyver 856-7577 | Mon Mar 11 1991 11:36 | 40 |
I like this more practical approach of the Training Program : - it will be more acceptable/defendable to (belgian) management. - 4 weeks is shorter than 6 (needed a ES to figure this out :-) ) - their real-life problem might be (partially) solved. - (+/-) free of charge help from Digital K.E. - 10K$ should not be a problem If I understand the proposal well, the follow-up fellowship will be replaced by paid consultancy/project. This creates commercial negociation-space, which didn't exist when we gave it away for free. I agree with Simon about the 13 versus 3 weeks training contents. On the other hand, I got remarks from potential participants that they've already followed courses which are in our curriculum, or are not interested in certain parts of it. So... we should offer other courses, as stand-alone ones, to cover domains which are not in the 3-4 weeks training program. To prepare/convice customers, or to train them in special topics (KA, NN, ...) For example a General Introduction. More or less the first week of the 'old' training program. This training could and should be offered to management as well , to create awareness. Maybe the title 'training' should be replaced then by 'seminar', but it might fill a gap : the existing seminars attracts people who are knowledgable about the technology, but are hard to sell to new-comers. One last remark. About the tool-choice : is G2 to much of a niche, or are we no good friends with Gensym anymore? So far my 0.02 $ Luc | |||||