Jasveen Kaur

Why did you choose City?

City has a great reputation amongst other Universities in London. Although the course was new and there was no Alumni, I still went for it because of the course curriculum and the reputation of University as well as the professors of my Course.

Why did you choose to study MSc Artificial Intelligence?

The main reason to study this course was the curriculum. They have designed the curriculum so well that it covers a wide range of AI techniques. The best part is that most of the coursework includes practical work and having good hands-on experience is important in this field.

What has been your favourite module to study?

My favourite module until now has been Deep Learning: Classification. It basically involves computer vision. The topic that interests me the most is GANs (Generative Adversarial Network) and I really enjoyed the lectures for this module. For my dissertation I have planned to work on something related to GANs and Art, two of my favourite things together.

Can you tell us about some of the projects you have been involved in?

MSc AI at City is less about exams and more about projects. In both the semesters, we did coursework that were no less than any project. Here are a few projects that I did as part of my coursework assignments:

• In the first semester, we worked on sentiment analysis of Australian election tweets using N-Grams and Support Vector Machine. We also worked on creating a neural network from scratch and classifying the objects in SVHN (Street View House Numbers) dataset.

In the second semester, we worked on 3 different projects:

1. Creating an agent which acts in an environment and learn to play an Atari game using a reinforcement learning technique.
2. Sentiment prediction using deep learning techniques like LSTM, GRU etc.
3. Working on GANs (Generative Adversarial Network) for Font Style Transfer technique.

What did you think of the facilities on offer at City?

I am very satisfied and happy with the facilities that City has. I just regret that I didn’t know about all of them from the beginning. City has all the support facilities that a student needs during the course.

There are academic skills workshops, library resources to help you with your academic work, mental and student wellbeing team, start-up workshops for everyone, part time opportunities for students and career service team. These are a few facilities that I have benefitted from, and the list just goes on. All you need to do is just keep looking for things on the website or in your mailbox.

What makes City unique?

City is not a campus University, but it is no less than one. Despite being a non-campus University, it still gives you the taste of it especially when you’re staying at a student accommodation.

What do you enjoy most about studying in London?

I think the student life in London is great. You get to experience a lot. There is always something going on in the city. Especially with central London, it is close to where everything happens. I love the markets and lights in London during Christmas time. They are not to be missed at any cost.

You can also get a great number of student discounts with you ID Card, access different libraries and attend conferences and seminars in other Universities.

What do you get up to outside of University?

Being an art enthusiast, whenever I have free time, I go for art workshops, exhibitions, fairs and one of my favourite art stores in UK – CASS Art. I also like to go for Yoga or Zumba session at CitySport.

A new City always has something exciting to offer. There are a lot of famous places that I’ve already covered. Some of the things that are still on my wish list are attending Opera at Royal Opera house and the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace.

What are your plans for after graduation?

After my graduation, I plan to do some more research on different topics of AI and explore some more areas before I choose between doing a job or a PhD.

How has City helped you to prepare for life after graduation?

City has given me a whole different experience. The exposure I got here was necessary for me to take the next step. All my part time jobs have taught me how to manage time with work, studies and social life.

The City careers has also supported me with any confusion I had regarding my future by reviewing my CV, applications and helping me with potential career advice.

What would be your tips for those who have applied to City?

Here are a few tips that I would like to give to anyone who is applying to City for a Masters:

• Time management is the key to make the most out of your experience in London. Learning the art of balancing your studies along with your social life will make your student life better.
• For those who want to get a job or internship, do not wait to apply till the last moment, start applying for jobs from the beginning of the semester because that is the time when you have most of the free time.
• Don’t be shy and be as interactive as you can. Networking can help you a lot in every aspect – job, grades, thesis.
• Don’t miss out on the events in the fresher’s week, they are a great way to make friends and socialise.
• Having a dissertation topic from the beginning is not important but make sure to start thinking about it from the middle of the second semester.