How did your Dreams AI journey start?
I originally heard about the company at one of the career fairs that Cambridge University was hosting. And then I was listening to the projects that Dreams AI was working on for example the Natural Language Chatbot to SQL query bot and I also had a 1 to 1 chat with Bryan about the company and that was quite interesting to see, especially the start up environment.
Because I myself wasn’t interested in the big companies because I don’t really like the corporate environment and the freedom on projects and the ability to have an idea and start working on it was very appealing at Dreams AI. Also, on the 1 on 1 talks Bryan mentioned that every year Dreams AI hosts the CMP projects and I thought I would just apply for that and see what it is like working here.
Unfortunately, I was not able to present the CMP project on the day, however, Isaac and James (two of the other CMP students) did a great job.
What are the main changes in terms of projects and responsibilities that you are seeing now as a full timer rather than a CMP intern?
Now I am working mostly on the Horse Racing AI and in between on other projects, such as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University Physics Department Project and the SQL chat bot. However, so far there aren’t many changes but that is probably because of the freedom that Dreams AI offers their interns and from the beginning I was working on bits of the bigger projects in the company. Even for the CMP project I had a more of a managing role, kind of keeping the whole project together.
What will be most beneficial for your Full-Time job that you learned from the CMP project?
I think it is mostly how to handle a software project with other people and collaborating with them. Like getting it all together into a software system because essentially we all work on different stuff – James was working on the Open version of the game (Chinese Poker), Isaac was working on the closed version and I was working on the overall system of putting it all together into a functional version.
What new tech stack did you learn during your CMP?
I learned how to use TypeScript because I had to do the whole backend for the project. What I found most challenging about learning TypeScript was the web development part of it because I haven’t really done web development before, mostly systems. Overall, the language was quite simple to pick up but it was working with the web that was challenging, especially the web socketing - learning the protocols and how the communication worked.
The most rewarding part of learning TypeScript was that I could actually put together a functional bit at the end – a functional system that people can connect to from anywhere. And it was very rewarding that I managed to get it functioning and put it together to allow you to play against the robot.
Are you excited about going to Hong Kong?
I think I will be going Hong Kong at the middle of November together with Bryan – he has been upselling it quite a bit! It sounds quite interesting with all the company activities and the collaboration that is happening. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity of meeting the team there and working alongside and learning from Dreams AI more senior engineers.
What are your goals to achieve in your first year as a full timer as in things that you want to learn and do?
I would like to see what I can contribute with my current experience because I think I am somewhat capable but I haven’t worked on any commercial projects yet so I am lacking a bit on that side so I would very much like to actually work on a bigger project with a lot of people on it and be an impactful part of the team. Bringing the knowledge that I have from university and combining it with what I’ve learned about collaboration during the CMP project and putting it to a bigger scale. So yeah, I would say that being a useful part in a large team rather than just doing an individual bit is my main goal.
Anything that you want to add?
The Horse Racing Project started off as a hobby project and I am quite proud that based on the work that I’ve done on it – it can actually be somewhat profitable and I felt like I had a good contribution to it, which is ultimately my goal to contribute to a bigger team and project.
