What skills should a machine learning (AI) engineer have? Explanation of model building process, etc.

2024.06.21

  • Industry Information
機械学習(AI)エンジニアが身につけておくべきスキルとは?モデル構築の流れなども解説

AI is being used in all fields, and machine learning engineers are gaining attention as technical professionals in the field of artificial intelligence. Among those who are currently working as engineers, there must be some who are thinking, "I want to change jobs and become a machine learning engineer.

However, some may not have a detailed understanding of the job description or the knowledge and skills required for a career change. In this issue, we will provide basic information on machine learning engineers, as well as the job description, the flow of building models, and the typical libraries used. We hope you will find this information useful.

What is a Machine Learning Engineer?


機械学習エンジニアとは?

Machine learning is a technology that allows computers to learn by repeatedly reading large amounts of data to improve their intelligence. This technology allows computers to automatically perform tasks based on learned patterns and algorithms, to predict situations that are unpredictable to humans, and to discover laws in data.

The role of a machine learning engineer is to implement these algorithms and to operate and develop them. Some may also use machine learning to concurrently work as a data analyst or data scientist.

Machine learning is used in many fields, including finance, marketing, manufacturing, retail, and medicine. Especially in the IT industry, machine learning engineers are in very high demand because of the shortage of human resources.

Please refer to the following article for a detailed explanation of the difference between a machine learning engineer and a data scientist.

Related article: Thorough Comparison of the Difference between Machine Learning Engineers (AI Engineers) and Data Scientists

Key Responsibilities of a Machine Learning Engineer


機械学習エンジニアの主な仕事内容

The five main responsibilities of a machine learning engineer include
 

  • Algorithm development and design
  • Data analysis and analysis
  • Developing machine learning models
  • Building an environment to run machine learning
  • Investigating and researching the latest technologies


Each of these will be explained in detail.

Algorithm Development and Design

One of the tasks of a machine learning engineer includes developing and designing machine learning algorithms to solve problems or achieve goals. They are also responsible for designing AI algorithms used in deep learning.

Additionally, implementation tasks such as coding and testing are also part of the job.

Data analysis and analysis

The second task is data analysis and analysis. Companies handle a great deal of data, and the work of accumulating, organizing, managing, and visualizing that data is all done by computer. For example, the tasks of extracting specific variables from the accumulated data and checking for variable fluctuations are also performed using computers.

Data collection, analysis, and analysis are crucial for the machine to acquire accurate knowledge, classify, and make predictions. The process of analysis also involves correcting and processing defects in the collected data. For example, spelling errors must be corrected, duplicate data must be removed, and missing data must be supplemented.

The role of the machine learning engineer is to instruct the computer to perform these tasks and to manage and improve them.

Developing Machine Learning Models

The third job description is the development of machine learning models. First, the required algorithm is selected and a model is created for that purpose. Tuning the hyperparameters is important to create a highly accurate model. There are several methods for validating the model, such as the leave-one-out method and the hold-out method, and the appropriate method should be chosen based on the scale of the data.

In addition, it is important to ensure that the chosen algorithm is suitable for the purpose and can handle unknown data. When working with a team on a project, you may be appointed as the project manager.

Building an environment to run machine learning

The fourth task is to build the environment for running the machine learning. The data used for machine learning varies depending on the industry. For example, in an e-commerce business, the algorithm would load data on each customer's order history, product information, and products in which the customer has expressed interest. This data can be used to identify recommended products and products that are likely to be purchased.

Part of the important work is to collect such data and build an environment to prepare it in a form suitable for machine learning. This includes developing patch programs to automate data collection and updating, as well as developing APIs to integrate with the cloud environment. Operations and maintenance are also important tasks after the services have been developed. Operation involves managing the stable operation of the service, and maintenance involves taking measures to prevent problems from occurring.

Research and investigation of the latest technologies

The fifth job is to investigate and research the latest technologies. In order to develop new services, it is necessary to incorporate a variety of methods.

In particular, AI technologies related to machine learning are developing rapidly, and you will be expected to continue learning even after you start working as a machine learning engineer. There are many ways to learn, such as reading published papers and checking out international conferences on machine learning. It is important to update your knowledge on a daily basis and actively incorporate information that is useful to your work.

What knowledge and skills do I need to acquire to become a machine learning engineer?


機械学習エンジニアになるにあたって身につけなければならない知識やスキルとは?

Here are some of the knowledge and skills required to become a machine learning engineer. In machine learning, it is common to use Python, C/C++, Java, etc., even to give instructions to the computer, but if you are already working in the engineering or IT industry, you should already have knowledge of programming.

Therefore, we will explain in detail the other knowledge and skills required. To ensure success in your new job, it is important to understand these skills beforehand, and if necessary, acquire them to advance your job search.

Knowledge of machine learning libraries and frameworks

Knowledge of libraries and frameworks is essential for machine learning development. Writing code from scratch is time-consuming and labor-intensive, but using specialized libraries can make development more efficient. For example, there are libraries and frameworks for different purposes, such as image processing and natural language processing.

Typical examples include "TensorFlow" and "scikit-learn. In order to properly use these, it is important to understand the characteristics, merits and demerits of each. Make sure you have a firm grasp of them before making use of them.

Knowledge of mathematics and statistics

The second knowledge required is mathematics and statistics. Typical knowledge includes
 

  • Differentiation and integration
  • Linear algebra
  • Morphological analysis
  • Syntactic analysis
  • Probability and statistics


For statistics, you will need to have at least a college-level understanding of the subject and be able to pass the second level of the statistics test. This knowledge is difficult to be taught in the workplace and must be studied on one's own. The knowledge required will vary depending on the purpose of the algorithm, so it is important to have a broad knowledge base to be able to respond to a variety of requirements.

Knowledge of networking and cloud computing

The third important skill is knowledge of networks and the cloud. A database is a system that centrally manages, stores, and references data. Knowledge of the database language SQL is necessary when designing machine learning models. In addition, you need to understand RDB (relational database) and RDBMS (relational database management system).

Cloud computing is a system in which services are used through the Internet without storage or servers. Machine learning requires large amounts of data processing and can be hardware-dependent. Therefore, it is common to use the cloud to improve work efficiency; knowledge of cloud services such as AWS (Amazon Web Services) and GCP (Google Cloud Platform) will be an advantage when changing jobs. We encourage you to acquire these skills as well.

Knowledge of Security

The fourth important skill is knowledge of security. Especially in jobs related to web services, security is very important during development. If unauthorized access occurs, it could have a serious negative impact on the system.

Therefore, it is important to have basic knowledge of security. Even for machine learning engineers, knowledge of managing database access privileges is an advantage when changing jobs.

United World provides full support for machine learning engineers in their job search. If you have any concerns or questions about changing jobs, please feel free to contact us.

Talk to United World about 
career change.

Flow of a machine learning engineer building a model


機械学習エンジニアがモデルを構築する際の流れ

The following describes the flow of a machine learning engineer building a model.

1. planning and requirement definition

First, we organize the necessary conditions for building the model. This is the stage in which the following items and others are considered
 

  • Identification of issues: Clarify issues to be solved.
  • What you want to achieve: Set the goals and objectives you are aiming for.
  • Effects to be achieved: Consider the expected results and impacts.
  • Data to be used: Determine which data to use
  • Technical elements: Select the technologies and tools to be used
  • Project team structure: Decide on the structure of the team
  • Schedule: Create a timeline for the project
  • Budget: Estimate the budget required


In this phase, the general direction of the project is determined, including the data collection methods and the goals and objectives to be pursued. This phase is also called the "planning phase" or "conceptual phase.

2. data collection

Data collection is essential for model development. Since models are learned from data, the quality and quantity of data are extremely important. Even if there is good quality data, if the quantity of data is insufficient, adequate learning will not be possible. Therefore, it is necessary to collect data in a way that balances data quality and quantity.

The first way to collect data would be to use data held by the company. However, since in-house data may not be centrally managed, it is necessary to proceed with data integration and organization while confirming the data source and storage location.

If the company is unable to provide its own data, there are also ways to purchase or license new data and testing environments. This process is also called the "AI construction phase" or "Proof of Concept (PoC) phase.

3. data preprocessing

Collected data must first undergo data cleansing. Data cleansing is the process of preparing data into an accurate and usable form by deleting duplicate data and removing abnormal data prior to data analysis and analysis. This makes the data more amenable to analysis.

Next, there is a process known as "annotation. Annotation is the process of tagging data. Accurate tagging is necessary because it is difficult to understand the meaning of the collected data as it is. Accurate tagging makes it possible to utilize data efficiently for learning and analysis.

4. model development and training

Machine learning models are developed for specific tasks or applications, such as image recognition or speech recognition. The models are trained on the data, and based on the results, their performance is verified and the algorithms and data are tuned. This allows the model to make appropriate decisions even when it is fed new data that differs from the data used during development. This phase is also called the "implementation phase.

5. model evaluation

This is the phase in which the final validation of the model is performed. The performance of the developed model is evaluated using the evaluation indicators that have been set. We confirm that the model operates without any problems, and we also prepare to apply the model to actual operations.

Before operation, it is also important to alert the client to the need for precautionary measures and human judgment, including confirmation of areas where human judgment is required. If the accuracy of the model is below the standard, it is difficult to operate the model in the production environment, and the development process should be reviewed and improved again.

If the model is moved to the operation phase, maintenance and operation should be performed to ensure that the model operates stably, and the status of target achievement should be checked on a regular basis. As the environment and society change over time, periodic relearning is also necessary to maintain and improve the accuracy of the model.

Typical libraries used by machine learning engineers


機械学習エンジニアが使用する代表的なライブラリ

A library is a collection of programs for specific processing. You can call and use the necessary programs according to your purpose, thus reducing your work time. Here, we pick up typical libraries used by machine learning engineers and introduce them to you.

NumPy

NumPy is a library for performing numerical calculations in Python. It provides various functions useful for manipulating multidimensional arrays and performing numerical calculations.

Since Python is an interpreted language, it has the disadvantage of being slower than compiled languages such as Java or C. Interpreted languages tend to be slower because they read and execute code line by line. On the other hand, compiled languages are characterized by high processing speed because the entire code is converted into a machine-understandable program at once before execution.

Since NumPy is implemented in C, it can compensate for the slow processing speed of Python. This makes it possible to process matrix multiplication and eigenvalue calculations at high speed.

Furthermore, NumPy has a "broadcast casting" mechanism that allows operations to be performed between arrays of different shapes. Thus, addition, subtraction, multiplication, etc. can be performed even between arrays that do not have the same number of elements.

Matplotlib

Matplotlib is a library for visualizing data in Python, mimicking MATLAB, a language for data analysis, and is used to draw diagrams and graphs. As such, it is very useful when you want to "represent data in a way that is easy to understand.

With Matplotlib, you can draw various types of graphs, such as line graphs, histograms, pie charts, and scatter plots. In combination with NumPy, you can use NumPy to perform the calculation process and Matplotlib to graph the data.

Pandas

Pandas is a library for data analysis in Python. This library has special data structures called "data frames," which allow data manipulation like SQL or R for faster processing.

The main features of Pandas include
 

  • Reading data from CSV, text, Excel, etc.
  • Writing data in CSV, text, Excel, etc.
  • Handling data in different formats in a single data frame
  • Sorting data
  • Pre-processing of data, such as deleting or completing missing values


With these features, Pandas can significantly reduce the time and effort required to work with data while improving its accuracy. Another major advantage of Pandas is that it is provided under a BSD license and is free of charge.

Learning Pandas is essential for efficient data analysis.

Keras

Neural networks are a computer technology that processes data by mimicking the workings of the human brain. This technology is used in a variety of fields, including facial recognition in smartphones, automatic translation, airplane autopilots, and voice recognition software.

Keras is a library developed by Google for rapid experimentation with this neural network, featuring a simple structure that is easy to handle and allows even beginners in machine learning to implement deep learning with short code.

The backend of Keras is supported not only by Google, but also by Microsoft and Amazon's AWS, as well as by well-known companies such as Apple, Uber, and NVIDIA. This makes Keras a state-of-the-art neural network library that is expected to offer a wide variety of services.

TensorFlow

TensorFlow is a library developed by Google in 2015. Its origins lie in a numerical computation library used internally at Google.TensorFlow runs in a variety of environments, including Android and iOS, and is capable of distributed learning, allowing it to handle large amounts of data.

The library comes with a visualization tool, TensorBoard, which allows you to build models using diagrams. In addition to Python, TensorFlow also supports languages such as C, Java, and Go, making it highly flexible.

Information on TensorFlow can be gathered online, and Google Colab makes it easy to get up and running with TensorFlow. In addition, there are plenty of tutorials on how to use it and with sample data, so please take advantage of them to confirm the operability of the software.

scikit-learn

scikit-learn is an open source machine learning library available in Python that anyone can use for free. It is a very popular library for implementing statistical machine learning.

Many algorithms are available in scikit-learn, including
 

  • Support Vector Machines (SVM)
  • Random forests
  • Regression analysis
  • Clustering
  • Gradient boosting
  • k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN)


Even if it is difficult to choose an appropriate method from these abundant algorithms, you can easily find the best algorithm by using the cheat sheet. The official website provides a detailed explanation of scikit-learn, including an overview of scikit-learn, algorithm structure, implementation examples, and arguments, making it easy for even beginners to understand.

SciPy

SciPy is a Python library specialized for data analysis and scientific computing. It is based on NumPy, a Python numerical computation library, and extends NumPy's functionality to enable more advanced mathematical computations, signal processing, statistical analysis, and optimization problem solving. SciPy allows you to efficiently perform complex scientific computations and data analysis.

Furthermore, SciPy is available as open source, making it cost-effective to use. Another major advantage is the flexibility to solve problems by combining a variety of modules; Python is a simple, easy-to-read language, so code using SciPy will be highly readable.

In summary: Get your skills and become a machine learning (AI) engineer!


まとめ:スキルを身につけて機械学習(AI)エンジニアに転職しよう

So far, we have provided an overview of machine learning engineers, their job descriptions, and the knowledge and skills they need. Many engineers and IT industry workers may be considering a career change to become a machine learning engineer. In this case, acquiring the necessary skills is the key to a successful career change. Please refer to the knowledge and skills introduced in this article to learn more in order to change jobs at the company of your choice.

You can also try using "United World" when looking for a job as a machine learning engineer. Our dedicated career advisors will provide you with personalized support and introduce you to companies that match your preferences from a wide range of job postings. Please consider registering with us.

Talk to United World about 
career change.

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