Epfl Extension School Podcast

In this episode, we interview Aleksandra Sokolowska, one of the EPFL Extension School’s Applied Data Science: Machine Learning (https://go.extensionschool.ch/machine_learning_pro) alumna. We managed to talk to Aleksandra on her way to Silicon Valley, where she will be joining an AI startup in San Francisco. She’s the founder of women++, a non-profit organization aimed at increasing gender diversity in ICT, and we talk to her about her thoughts on machine learning, gender in technology, and open science.

In this episode, we talk with Cora Egli, one of the EPFL Extension School’s My Digital Future Fellows. She recounts how the Fellowship is giving her the opportunity to realize her digital career ambitions and the importance of translating business needs into technical implementation. But she also discusses the daily challenges she and other mums face in acquiring the digital skills necessary in today's world, or in engaging in lifelong learning. 

In this episode, we interview Nicolas Courvoisier, one of the EPFL Extension School’s Applied Data Science: Machine Learning (https://go.extensionschool.ch/machine_learning_pro) alumni. Nicolas is a finance specialist based in Zurich, and in this discussion he shares his thoughts and experiences on the impact that AI and Machine Learning are having across the financial sector, the impact that the EPFL Extension School program had on him personally, and how he sees lifelong learning as an investment.

Our guest today is Nico Schuele, one of our outstanding course developers and instructors for our newest beginner-level course, "Thinking and Creating with Code" (https://go.extensionschool.ch/thinking-and-creating-with-code) - not just a programming course, it embeds coding into the methodologies and analysis skills that programmers use to solve problems. Nico discusses some of our learners' experiences and explains why we teach JavaScript and Python. Find out how this course is giving people critical skills to thrive in the digital age.

Our guest today is Catherine Brand, who is the EPFL Extension School's Learner Experience Manager who is leading our “My Digital Future Fellowship” initiative. We’ll discuss how the Fellowship is an opportunity for up to 100 Swiss residents to learn digital and web development skills. Catherine used her talents as a web developer to implement the https://www.mydigitalfuture.ch website. We’ll also introduce you to our newest course “Thinking and Creating With Code” - a topic of a forthcoming podcast.

Our guest today is Harry Anderson, who is one of the EPFL Extension School's outstanding course developers and instructors. Harry is a software engineer specializing in web technologies and user-interface development. Harry’s focus has been on our Web Application Development program and our UI Development with React.js (https://go.extensionschool.ch/ui-development-with-react) advanced-level course - which we will dive into, along with a short introduction to the EPFL Extension School's My Digital Future Fellowship - a topic of a forthcoming podcast.

Our guest on this podcast is Laura Downhower, the executive director of the EPFL Extension School. Laura spent a considerable time of her early career in the media in Switzerland, Germany, and the US. She’s also been a product manager and strategist, but is most proud of being the founder of her own online startup founder, which she was able to do thanks to her self-taught digital skills. We’ll talk with Laura about the interesting challenges of building and running the EPFL Extension School.

In this podcast, Marcel Salathé, EPFL professor and academic director of the EPFL Extension School, addresses five common myths about online education at the EPFL Extension School.

Our guest on this podcast is Yannis Jaquet. Yannis Jaquet is a web developer and head of the web team at the EPFL Extension School. It’s fair to say “no Yannis – no Extension School”: he literally built the school’s learning platform from scratch, all by himself, and we’ll talk more about that in this podcast. Yannis studied genetics in Geneva, and after his PhD he switched over to web development. He joined the Digital Epidemiology Lab, in 2015, where he quickly became the lab’s “CTO”. When the Extension School started, Yannis was the perfect person to build the school’s platform. We’ll talk with him transitioning into web development, about how to build a platform like the Extension School, and about his new meetup group [Geneva Web](https://www.meetup.com/genevaweb/).

Our guest on this podcast is Linda Farczadi. Linda Farczadi is a course developer and instructor at the EPFL Extension School, where she’s co-responsible for the Applied Data Science: Machine Learning program. Linda has a PhD in mathematics and computer science, and spent some time at EPFL as a postdoc before joining the EPFL Extension School. At the University of Waterloo, she won the outstanding teaching assistant award, reflecting her excellent teaching skills. She also spent some time at Pixar. We’ll talk with Linda about the Applied Data Science: Machine Learning program, and about data science more generally.

Our guest on this podcast is Neill Pearman. Neill Pearman is a course developer and instructor at the EPFL Extension School, where he’s responsible for the Web Application Development program (https://exts.epfl.ch/courses-programs/web-application-development) . Neil has spent many years in industry as a software and web application developer, and was most recently the CTO of upmysport. Since 2016, he’s with the EPFL Extension School. We’ll talk with Neill about the Web Application Development program, and about web development more generally.