ITMO: MTS to Teach ITMO Students to Develop Recommendation Systems in Python
MTS, a Russian telecom company, has launched a course on the development of recommendation systems using Python for the joint online Master’s program Machine Learning Engineering delivered by ITMO University and Napoleon IT. Over three weeks, big data specialists from MTS will give lectures, seminars, and Q&A sessions, as well as offer tasks based on the company’s actual cases using open-source data and frameworks.
In this new mandatory course, students will learn to work with big data and popular recommendation system frameworks and practice evaluating a solution’s effect on the final product with two-level models and neural networks, and much more. Students will complete the course with a final project, a recommendation system API based on a given framework, that they will be able to include into their portfolio.
“Recommendation systems make up one of the most successful fields in machine learning. They are a crucial tool in sales and increase client loyalty for different businesses, from retail to digital services,” says Daniil Potapov, head of data analysis at MTS’s Big Data. “The amount of data grows every day, which is why the market needs specialists ready to solve unconventional tasks related to the way we process and use this data. We are pleased to take part in the training of qualified specialists and share the substantial accumulated experience of our team. ITMO is known for its contemporary approach to education and we are grateful to have the chance to share our knowledge through their platform.”
As the classes will be held online and will be available to students from all over the country, the best of whom will be invited for internships, even before the course ends, according to Daniil Potapov. The most promising students will receive job offers from the company.
Founded in 2015, the MTS Big Data Center has provided solutions for the majority of the company’s business processes, including communication networks, determining best locations of service centers and working hours of their employees, developing recommendation systems for the company’s multimedia services, as well as an antispam system. Moreover, the team’s big data solutions make the core of the GeoEffect geoanalytics platform, score models, and the MTS marketing platform.
According to Dmitry Botov, an associate professor at ITMO’s Institute of Applied Computer Science and the head of AI Talent Hub, in this partnership, the team of the Machine Learning Engineering Master’s program will be able to not only produce unique online courses content- and expertise-wise, but also solve the current business tasks related to recommendation systems.
“AI Talent Hub brings together young talents, leading IT companies, and industry experts. As one of ITMO’s strategic projects, we are training middle+ machine learning professionals. At this Master’s program, the academic process is entirely integrated into developing real-world projects of IT companies, with expert mentorship. Our program is student-driven, meaning that we are guided by their wishes and needs in looking for new partners or developing tailor-made educational modules,” adds Dmitry Botov.