I've been banging the explicit encoding / knowledge engineering drum for years - I think now is a good time for many to look at Knowledge Engineering as a growing career option.
We've put to together a series to try to give a flavour of what Knowledge Engineering as a career choice looks like - though it might be of interest here.
I also have fond memories of the Ridgeway, and especially the White Horse. As a kid we lived in a village 9 miles or so away (perhaps the same place as your dad?).
I used to fly model rockets from the fields by the White Horse. And I'll never forget being made to do cross country running on the Ridgeway from school.
There's so much history and myth tied up with that area. Especially true of the White Horse, Dragon hill (where legend says St. George killed the dragon), and Wayland's Smithy near by.
Here’s a bit more about the Rainbird platform for those interested…
The platform has two main parts:
1. The studio (an area where you can make visual decision-making models in a process similar to mind mapping)
2. The inference engine (which uses your models to automate decision making)
The platform is designed so that computer scientists and automation specialists can overcome the challenges of machine learning (in particular, our inability to stay in control of algorithms that find their own patterns in data) and RPA (in particular, a decision tree’s inability to juggle many variables at a massive scale). And that’s why we’ve focussed on two principles as we improve Rainbird:
1. Human-down structure: that is, we start with human knowledge and apply it to data (so that humans can always understand and explain what the machines are doing)
2. Non-linear automation: that is, we focus on capturing and codifying knowledge that can apply to multiple scenarios (rather than on steps to be followed in a one-off, isolated situation)
My kids love microbit - and have been hacking stuff on the platform since they were 7 or 8 years old.
They’ve played with raspberry pi too, but Microbit is just so immediate. You write some code (or drag some blocks about), upload and it just works. It’s simple, understandable and quick. It’s also bridging the gap to learning some basic electronics too - building small circuits on a bread board with a mictrobit controller.
There’s something about microbit that just sparks my kids imagination - they’ve used it for school projects, homework assignments, they make little robots, figure out how they can automate tasks like watering their plants. All things they could do on Raspberry Pi of course, but still…
I see my kids playing about with mictrobits and I get a really sense of the same joy I had messing about with computers and electronics in the 1980s.
What a great film! Ilford are a fantastic company, they have managed to successfully ride out the rollercoaster the traditional film market has been through over the last couple of decades.
Some years ago I was taken on a tour of their facility, I was struck by how passionate about the product everyone I met there was. That passion seems to ride through to their loyal user base, I hope Ilford remain strong.
The typical options to look at are the L-1 intracompany transferee visa and the E-2 investor visa with, I would argue, the E-2 being easier but requiring a substantial UK investment and here limited to UK citizens.
We've put to together a series to try to give a flavour of what Knowledge Engineering as a career choice looks like - though it might be of interest here.