Wolfram Summer School 2017: the story of the participant

Wolfram Summer School website

Every summer, Wolfram Research holds a Summer School for everyone from all over the world. Within the school, each participant gets the opportunity to learn the Wolfram Language and implement his project, which will be personally supervised by Stephen Wolfram and the Wolfram Research team of experts.
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This year, the Wolfram Summer School was visited by Andrey Meek . You can read his story below.
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Came today from, probably, one of the most interesting journeys. At first, I couldn’t believe what happened to pass the interview, then get a visa and so on. The experience is truly overwhelming. Now briefly about everything:

In the school itself there are 3 directions (Tracks), each of which is aimed at a specific goal: Education Track - introducing the Wolfram Language (WL) into the student / student learning process, Science Track - using WL in scientific papers, Technology & Innovation Track - using WL for some practical purposes, for example, BIG Data or Machine Learning. Read more about the projects here: education.wolfram.com/summer/school/alumni

When registering for school, you need to choose one of these three areas. Then there is an interview with a representative of Wolfran Research Inc., in my case it was Vitaly Kaurov. The conversation basically consists in what you tell about yourself, who you are, what you do, interests, projects, etc. During the conversation, you can ask all the information about the school. The conversation is conducted entirely in English. At the end of the interview they ask about ideas that I would like to implement within the school.

To obtain a visa, I requested a letter confirming my participation in the school. Significantly facilitated the conversation with the US consul. Visa required B1 / B2. The organizing committee of the school will promptly provide all the necessary information about the type of visa that is indicated in the various fields of the visa application form. At the very beginning, you must fill out the form DS160. Pay the visa fee (payment of the fee does not guarantee its receipt). Then come to the consulate in one of 4 cities: Moscow / St. Petersburg / Yekaterinburg / Vladivostok at the appointed time.

After your confirmation of participation and obtaining a visa, I was invited to Slack, in which future school participants got to know each other and the instructors. Laid out tasks in order that the level of participants was about the same. In Slack, all school coordination, auto-notification of various events, lunch breaks, etc. took place. If you cannot find your instructor / mentor or just ask a general question, write to Slack.

At Bentley, the atmosphere is very conducive to work. There are opportunities for active recreation. The schedule of lectures / lunch breaks was very well established, there was no overload. Accommodation and food is very good, no complaints have arisen. Lectures are instructors school. Lead as clear as possible, answer all questions. During the whole school, you can communicate with all the instructors, which is very good. Each instructor specializes in a specific topic: Image Processing, Machine Learning, Neural Networks, etc. Almost always, instructors and students gathered in the same classroom at the Community Center. Large room with a large number of small rooms for individual classes. Nature is very beautiful at the university. The university itself is located in the suburb of Boston, in the mini-city of Voltem. Volthem is the greenest city near Boston, so on weekends you can have a great time by going to a local park on a mountain or just strolling around the shops.

An instructor was assigned to each student, who was ready to help almost 24/7, in my case it was Xavier Roy. Each instructor was usually assigned 4-5 students. In the first week of training, it was necessary to choose a project topic. And on the specific day of the first week, you and the instructor meet with Stephen Wolfram to discuss your project. Impressions of communicating with Stephen remain indelible, rarely have the opportunity to talk to a man of this magnitude. The tips are as helpful as possible and the ideas are awesome. The project must be completed in 2.5 weeks of school. The remaining 0.5 weeks is preparation for the project presentation and poster session. At the poster session, Stephen discusses the future of the project with each student and gives advice. Then the graduation ceremony takes place. In my case, Stephen did not manage to bypass all the students for the first poster session, so they did an extra after the ceremony. The next day, a farewell dinner and everyone leaves.

Boston:
One of the greenest cities in the United States. I was in it in the amount of 4 days. During these days I managed to get acquainted with a little bit of American rules, etc. I managed to buy an adapter from a European outlet to an American one. Be sure to visit the MIT and the Museum of Science. They are next to each other. Great pastime for the weekend, either before or after school. In Volthem itself, where Bentley is located, it’s worth going to look at the Boston Dynamics office and Hill Park. They are about an hour walk from the university. The terrain is very quiet and peaceful.

Project:
The project was associated with the correction code. If the code gives $ Failed when calculating, then you need to find a way to fix the code and suggest the user. During school, I managed to implement only the beginning of this algorithm. He is able to fix it only if one character is missing. It was assumed that it would be something like a separate menu for users, which will automatically offer various options for adjustments.

Results: I gained a completely new experience, I understood what to strive for further. The school is very good, if there were shortcomings, they are so small that they are invisible. You can go with any level of ownership WL. Link to the project in the Wolfram Community:
community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/1136114

Photo:

Local attraction, a very large number of rabbits / chipmunks and other living creatures. Which is very unusual. Absolutely not afraid of anyone.



Hall poster section:



Two books that I really wanted to get in this school. I couldn’t get through customs at the time :), brought it myself:



Bentley emblem:



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