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Sergio Quiroz

CST 300L

January 19 ,2019

Amazon

Computers are everywhere today and have had a global impact since they were created.

As technology became more advanced so did computers and their uses became ever more

expanding, two major examples would be in finances and education. Present day, a new way to

use computers is applying them to machine learning. Machine learning is a new area of computer

science relative to the history of computer science.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are often confused and thought to be the

same. Though they may be similar, according to (Marr, B. 2019, January 14), Machine Learning

is a AI application based around the idea that gives or allows a machine access to datasets and

allows them to learn by trial and error. On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence is allowing a

machine to work freely in order to undertake assignments in a smart way (Marr, B. 2019, January

14). Therefore machine learning and AI are not the same and have different purposes. Machine

learning is used by some companies to find patterns from large set of data in order to provide a

unique customer service, some things that they do are image curation, improved content display,

curated timelines, neural networks, unique customer service and much more. The purpose of

machine learning at its benefits for a particular company are vast and game changing. One

company that invests heavily and uses machine learning is Amazon to provide a unique customer

service.
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Turn of a century in which brought the birth of technological advances that have affected

day to day life. One of the biggest changes or advance would be the internet and what it brought

with it. Instantly, new business and existing ones began to develop accordingly and the market

become flooded by new businesses which in present day, has come to be known has the dot-com

bubble. One of those companies that was created during that time was Amazon. Amazon is a

large tech company that has a variety of different services. Amazon was created by entrepreneur

Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos established his “main headquarters in Seattle Washington, in 1994, as a

online book store”(SCHNEIDER, L. 2018, February 18).

However, as time passes Jeff Bezos’s vision for his company grew beyond an online book

store. He looked to expand Amazon to different markets and eventually turned it into a global

company. Amazon is mostly known as a online ecommerce store that has two day shipping.

However Amazon has many services, some mains ones are cloud computing, logistics, hardware

and data storage (Eight Trends That Amazon Made Better.2018, August 31). Amazon web

services encompasses all these to some extent. Amazon web services allows people to use many

of Amazon services to sell their product online at the Amazon website. This allows Amazon to

sell a variety of different products without actually manufacturing them themselves but offering

services that allow people to sell their products and receive compensation by doing so.

Although Amazon was created by one person, Jeff Bezos, there were key people who

joined Amazon to make it what it is today. First let's start off with Jeff Bezos the mastermind

behind the idea of Amazon. Jeff Bezos grew up in Texas but he did not attend school in Texas,

“Bezos graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa in electrical engineering and computer

science from Princeton University in 1986”(Officers and Directors). After graduation he found
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himself working for a company on Wall Street until he had the great idea of creating Amazon.

His current role in the company is “Founder and now President, Chief executive officer and

chairman of the board” (Officers and Directors). Needless to say he is still involved in his own

company and makes the final decision when they are needed to be made.

In addition to Bezos, another important person who has influenced Amazon would be

Andrew R. Jassy. Andrew R. Jassy joined “Amazon in 1997. Prior to founding AWS, he held

various leadership roles across the company. He has an AB from Harvard University and an

MBA from Harvard Business School” (Officers and Directors). Now he is the CEO of Amazon

web services (aws). Jassy played a very important role which was making sure that Amazon web

services was working properly. This was one of those ideas that propelled Amazon ahead of its

competitors and allowed Amazon to grow somewhat exponentially. Jassy has now been with

Amazon over twenty years and continues to be a strong figure in the company.

Furthermore, another key personnel in Amazon would have to be Brian T. Olsavsky, “Mr.

Olsavsky received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Penn State and an MBA in Finance

from Carnegie Mellon University. He had 15 years of previous experience before joining

Amazon at other companies in which he held a variety of financial and operational

roles”(Officers and Directors). Now Olsavsky is currently senior vice president and chief

financial officer in Amazon. Olsavsky plays an important role in the company because in the end

of the day, it is a business and he knows what the company's expenses, income, assets and

liabilities.. No one man or women can run an entire business therefore there needs to be key

personnel to make a company successful.

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Amazon’s success also had to do with the services they were providing along with the

right people for the job. The two day shipping, stated earlier, will surprise people because

Amazon Prime has around 85 million subscribers in the United States alone, Prime costs $99

dollars a year (Gershgorn, D., Grisworld, A., Murphy, M., Coren, M. J., & Kessler, S., 2017).

Thats because of what the customer receives upon the purchase of the membership, which is two

day free shipping, free movies, ebooks, and music that come included. Couple this with that fact

the Bezo’s company philosophy is that the customer is always first, the end result is more

purchases overall for the company. When it comes to company trends and finances the company

seems to be continually growing and expanding. The stock of Amazon has reach the 2000 dollar

mark and expected to continue to increase. There were rumors that there was going to be a

second headquarters and “In November, Amazon made it official: it announced Northern

Virginia's Arlington and New York's Long Island City would split duty as its second

headquarters.”(Yurieff, K. 2018, December 03) Therefore there will be a headquarters all

throughout the United States of America. With the expansion of the company there will also be

more jobs available and “...Amazon will be adding again to employee count in a big way, with a

promised 50,000 high-paying jobs in the new city.”(Schlosser, K. 2018, February 01) Also

Amazon is rumored to say that out of those new jobs some of them will be remote.

Working for Amazon as a machine learning engineer would be a great experience. Even

if one does not get to become a machine learning engineer right away people can move up by

first becoming a software engineer or even a database engineer and then make the transition. I

would one day like to work for Amazon as a machine learning engineer. The fact that Amazon is
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one of the largest tech companies that invest heavily in machine learning, means that they will

have the latest technology available to experiment with and run trials.

One way the I will prepare myself is networking correctly. LinkedIn is very common in

hiring future employees nowadays since it has all their information on their profile and is easily

accessible to reach out. Employers can see the education and experience a person has very

quickly and for the person it is very beneficial as well, since they can apply to multiple jobs

fairly quickly. Another way I will expand my network is by attending Meetups and meeting

people who have the same interest as I do, which is computer science specifically machine

learning. People who attend Meetups not only come away with meeting new people and the

ability to add them to your LinkedIn network but also learn from people who are already in the

particular field. Working on side projects with people who already have experience in machine

learning will cut my learning curve dramatically.

In addition to networking, I will complete my educational goals. I will first a pursue a

bachelor's degree and later on a masters degree. First, is the bachelors in computer science,

which I will receive upon completing the program at California State University Monterey Bay.

The classes that I think will impact me heavily and take me in the right direction are CST 338

which is software design, which will help me learn how to map out the software in order for it to

be as efficient as possible. CST 363 Database Management, will teach me how to manage

databases and maybe even cycle through all the data in order to find what is need. I am excited to

take the database management course because I hope learn about the SQL language, I think it

would be very beneficial for me going into machine learning. Also will take CST 438 which is

software engineering, I hope to learn about the software development cycle and hone my skills.
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In the software development class I hope to build interesting projects that are challenging that I

am able to share on Github. Furthermore, in the CST 370 Algorithms class, I expect to learn

what everything that constitutes a good algorithm and how to implement it into the operations. In

addition, CST 336: Internet programming, will help me develop the necessary skills in internet

protocols that will help me connect the client with the server. Another class would be CST 325

which is graphics programming, this class will help me to add visual to my programs that will be

user friendly and easy to use. I not only want my code to be good but I also want the aesthetic of

the finish product to be great. All of these classes will help further develop my skills and teach

me the correct process of the software cycle. In order to do well in upcoming classes at this

institution, I will use Udemy, personal projects and open source projects that can be displayed on

Github in order to get good grades in all of the classes.

Furthermore, I have already thought of what my capstone project will be and it in fact

will have something to do with applying machine learning to the economy. I will try to apply

machine learning to the stock market in order to predict future prices of the company. There will

be many challenges along the way since there are “...different types of data like volatility

indices, prices, global macroeconomic indicators, fundamental indicators , and more”(Top 10

Machine Learning Projects for Beginners.2018, July 17). After I have created something I will

show case

it on Github. I want to focus my machine learning project around the economy, will see how that

goes. Furthermore after my graduation at CSUMB my next step will be to apply to different

Universities in order to get my masters in Computer Science, preferably an online university that

way I am able to work. When it comes to work experience I am currently looking for internships
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as a machine learning engineer intern and as a database engineer. I have updated LinkedIn and I

am actively looking.

In conclusion, I hope one day soon to be working as a machine learning engineer at

Amazon. Upon receiving my bachelors I will apply and hopefully get interviewed. As of now the

only thing I can do is that which I can control therefore I will continue to develop my skills and

display the ones I have. Networking will be key to my success and hopefully make it easier to

reach the goal faster. I look forward to getting the most out of the computer science curriculum at

CSUMB.
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References

Eight Trends That Amazon Made Better. (2018, August 31). Retrieved January 14, 2019, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/08/31/eight-trends-that-amazon-made-bette

r/#567bef1869e0

Gershgorn, D., Grisworld, A., Murphy, M., Coren, M. J., & Kessler, S. (2017, August 20). What

is Amazon, Really? Retrieved January 14, 2019, from

https://qz.com/1051814/what-is-amazon-really/

Marr, B. (2019, January 14). What Is The Difference Between Artificial Intelligence And

Machine Learning? Retrieved January 14, 2019, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2016/12/06/what-is-the-difference-between-artificial-i

ntelligence-and-machine-learning/#33d8fb342742

Officers and Directors

https://ir.aboutamazon.com/board-of-directors
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Schlosser, K. (2018, February 01). Amazon now employs 566,000 people worldwide — a 66

percent jump from a year ago. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from

https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon-now-employs-566000-people-worldwide-66-percent-ju

mp-year-ago/

SCHNEIDER, L. (2018, February 18). Overview of Amazon.com's History and Workplace

Culture. Retrieved from

https://www.thebalancecareers.com/amazon-com-company-research-2071316

Top 10 Machine Learning Projects for Beginners. (2018, July 17). Retrieved January 14, 2019,

from https://www.dezyre.com/article/top-10-machine-learning-projects-for-beginners/397

Yurieff, K. (2018, December 03). Amazon HQ2 sites have been decided. Now the real work

begins. Retrieved January 14, 2019, from

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/03/tech/amazon-hq2-next-steps/index.html