We can debate which season is the best, but Summer has an ultimate advantage over the other three. It’s the season when we go on the holidays that we’ve been waiting for since Christmas. And so does our colleagues, so there’s a low season at the office. Sometimes you get the perception that even the time itself slows down. That’s why Summer is a great opportunity to take a step back, and think about what's the next step for you.
These months are the perfect time to analyze yourself, and see what are your weaknesses that you want to work on, and which are the strengths that you will build upon.
On this note, we’d like to bring to your attention 6+2 free online coding courses. Depending on where you are, these can fill some knowledge gaps you might have, or help you grow in a new tech area. Hope you'll find them useful.
Advanced Algorithmics and Graph Theory with Python
- Offered by: Institut Mines-Télécom via edX
- Duration: 6 weeks
- Effort: 2-4 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview: In this course, you won't just focus on theory or study a simple catalog of methods, procedures, and concepts. Instead, you’ll be challenged to beat an algorithm we’ve written for you by coming up with your own clever solution. Each week, you will learn new material to improve your AI in order to beat your opponent. This way, you’ll confront abstract notions with a real-world problem. The course will go over data-structures, basic and advanced algorithms for graph theory, complexity/accuracy trade-offs, and even combinatorial game theory.
- Register here
AngularJS: Advanced Framework Techniques
- Offered by: Microsoft via edX
- Duration: 6 weeks
- Effort: 2-4 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview: Want to start implementing some of the more advanced features of Angular, but looking for help to get you started? In this advanced angularJS course, you’ll learn how to implement a web framework as you work your way through a series of tutorial-style labs that make learning easy. This course is best suited for those wanting to build upon a basic understanding of Angular, and who have HTML, CSS, and JavaScript training or knowledge.
- Register here
Blockchain for Business - An Introduction to Hyperledger Technologies
- Offered by: Linux Foundation via edX
- Duration: 14 weeks
- Effort: 3-4 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview: The course covers key features of blockchain technologies and the differentiators between various types of Hyperledger projects. It opens a discussion to identifying suitable blockchain use cases for your business requirements. Then it will take a deep dive into the enterprise-ready Hyperledger blockchain frameworks by guiding students through the implementation of various blockchains. You will learn how to perform clean installations of Hyperledger Composer, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Hyperledger Fabric, as well as develop simple applications on top of them.
- Register here
C++ for all levels of experience (introduction, intermediate, and advance)
- Offered by: Microsoft via edX
- Duration: 4 week
- Effort: 4-7 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview of the introduction course: C++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup and, “Its main purpose was to make writing good programs easier and more pleasant for the individual programmer.” By learning C++, you can create applications that will run on a wide variety of hardware platforms such as personal computers running Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Mac OS X, as well as small form factor hardware such as IoT devices like the Raspberry PI and Arduino–based boards. Register here
- Overview of the intermediate course: This course focuses on how C++ interacts with memory, featuring concepts like pointers/memory addresses, heap memory management, and writing/reading files. Knowing C++, you can create applications that will run on a wide variety of hardware platforms, as well as small form factor hardware such as IoT devices like the Raspberry PI and Arduino –based boards. Register here
- Overview of the advanced course: This course is recommended to students who have a solid understanding of pointers, memory allocation, file processing, and general OOP concepts. The course will cover exceptions, C++ templates, Iterators, and advanced class mechanics, and design patterns. Register here
Introduction to Computer Vision
- Offered by: Georgia Institute of Technology via Udacity
- Duration: 16 weeks
- Effort: 4-7 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview: This course provides an introduction to computer vision including fundamentals of image formation, camera imaging geometry, feature detection and matching, multiview geometry including stereo, motion estimation, and tracking, and classification. We’ll develop basic methods for applications that include finding known models in images, depth recovery from stereo, camera calibration, image stabilization, automated alignment (e.g. panoramas), tracking, and action recognition.
- Register here
Principles of Machine Learning Microsoft via edX
- Offered by: Microsoft via edX
- Duration: 6 weeks
- Effort: 3-4 hours a week
- Start date: Self-paced
- Overview: In this data science course, you will be given clear explanations of machine learning theory combined with practical scenarios and hands-on experience building, validating, and deploying machine learning models. The covered subjects include classifications, regression in machine learning, improvement of supervised models, and non-linear modeling, Ultimately, you will learn how to build and derive insights from these models using R, Python, and Azure Machine Learning.
- Register here
