My journey

Welcome to my page! I'm Sharna Sattiraju, an AI and digital product management professional with over 16 years of experience in the healthcare and media industries, and a burgeoning passion for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning. And now Generative AI.

My AI Journey

Driven by my intrigue for AI/ML, I embarked on an enlightening journey, investing time and effort into various educational pursuits to strengthen my foundation in AI/ML. I am delighted to share the courses I attended that were pivotal to my interests and objectives, in hopes that you might find them useful and adapt them to suit your learning path. In this evolving world of technology, I firmly believe that continuous learning is the key to staying ahead and I encourage anyone interested in AI to do the same.

• My first step into the realm of AI was through Andrew Ng's 'AI for Everyone' course on Coursera (https://www.coursera.org/learn/ai-for-everyone)). This course provided an insightful introduction to AI concepts, effectively demystifying this complex domain, and empowered me to understand the broader implications of AI/ML in the real-world.
• Next, I enrolled in 'Structuring Machine Learning Projects' by DeepLearning.ai (https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning-projects/home/welcome)). This course allowed me to grasp the structuring and execution of machine learning projects, a critical aspect when leading AI/ML product management.
• Thirdly, 'AI Strategies and Roadmap: Systems Engineering Approach to AI Development and Deployment' taught by Prof. David Martinez and Bruke Kifle at MIT Professional Education (https://professional.mit.edu/course-catalog/ai-strategies-and-roadmap-systems-engineering-approach-ai-development-and-deployment)) offered me a holistic view of implementing AI. This course not only enhanced my understanding but also enabled me to comprehend the strategic planning necessary for AI development and deployment.

Throughout these courses, I was fortunate to be able to apply what I was learning to real-world cases within my organization. Collaborating with brilliant scientists, researchers, engineers, innovators to solve complex problems using computer vision, NLP and predictive analytics, was a thrilling experience. I feel humbled and fortunate to have worked with great minds within the organization and with supportive academic and industry partners. This practical experience, coupled with the theoretical knowledge I was gaining, gave me a unique perspective and solidified my skills as an AI/ML product management leader.

As my interest in the application of AI in healthcare deepened, I did an Executive Program - AI in Healthcare at MIT Sloan School of Management. This program, taught by Regina Barzilay was instrumental in helping me comprehend the nuances of AI/ML applications within the healthcare space, further refining my expertise. 

My journey in AI continues to be a thrilling and enriching one, and I eagerly look forward to the advancements that the future holds in this fascinating field.

Never Stop Learning

Every day offers me a fresh opportunity to broaden my understanding of AI/ML. I'm an avid listener of enlightening podcasts and an enthusiastic participant in insightful webinars and industry conferences. Staying connected to the pulse of the AI world, I follow esteemed AI institutions and thought leaders on LinkedIn and Twitter, ensuring I stay abreast of the latest advancements and insights.

My network of mentors and professionals, who have been a significant source of inspiration and knowledge, continues to foster my growth in this field. There's always something new to learn from their experiences and perspectives.

Engaging with datasets and models hands-on is another method I employ to grasp and internalize concepts better. Although as an AI/ML Product professional, my role doesn't entail coding, understanding the models' capabilities is crucial. It enables me to collaborate effectively with data scientists and subject matter experts to troubleshoot and address issues, thus bridging the gap between complex ML models and their real-world applications. Andrew Ng's tutorials on DeepLearning.ai have helped me with understanding of Large Language Models and implementing them in real world examples. My most favorite course taught by Andrew Ng and Harrison Chase is LangChain for LLM Application Development. At the end of this course you will learn to "apply LLMs to your proprietary data to build personal assistants and specialized chatbots" This solution has the most applications and is a powerful one. I have used this for multiple use cases. 

In my pursuit of AI/ML, I strongly believe that the learning never stops. Every day, I strive to uncover more, delve deeper, and further my knowledge in this exciting and dynamic field.

Volunteering

I have been exploring opportunities and ways to contribute to the AI community. I am excited to join, AI4All: https://ai-4-all.org/. As stated on the website, "AI4ALL is a US-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing diversity and inclusion in AI education, research, development, and policy. Started by Dr. Olga Russakovsky and renowned AI researcher Dr. Fei-Fei Li, with an idea for how to create more access for underrepresented people in the field of artificial intelligence."