Ali Cloud expert Mu Xuan “Nine-year Programmer training Manual in Hangzhou”

For a man from Inner Mongolia who has never been to the south, university in Beijing has always been the palace he dreamed of in middle school, while Zhejiang University, thousands of kilometers away from home, has never been considered. By chance, I was persuaded by a 70-year-old teacher from Zhejiang University to embark on a journey of “cultivation” in the south. In a twinkling of an eye, Hangzhou has become my second hometown for nine years.

On the occasion of 1024 Programmers Day, take a look back at the past and look back at your own “cultivation” process.

My relationship with computers began in college, when I was a newcomer to the village and had my own computer.

In the first year of undergraduate study, we did not subdivide majors, only major categories. The activity of choosing a major in sophomore year is like the second time to apply for the college entrance examination. In 2009, the telecommunication system was extremely popular, but I was more interested in the operating system, software and APP than the underlying hardware, and finally chose the computer.

However, the computer science department is more challenging. Many of the students who come in have already laid the foundation. In comparison, I was completely “cute” after learning how to write code from scratch. Therefore, after finishing my classes, I spent all day in the library: implementing the algorithms in “Introduction to Algorithms” one by one, researching and solving the same problems; Use different algorithms to reduce the complexity from N(N ^2) to N(N log N); ZOJ (Zhejiang University Online Judge)

As I became familiar with the knowledge of my predecessors, I was given a weapon to fight monsters. From the sophomore year, I gradually tried to realize my ideas with algorithms and calculations in different fields:

• As one of the first players to use Kinect in China, based on Kinect SDK, I made a set of gestures and body movements to operate the keyboard and mouse of PC, and completed a game of mine-sweeping with full body movement.

• Tried OBJ-C and developed a shooter for iPhone. Relying on this experience, I developed a classroom interaction system with my partner (supporting the classroom to assign homework and answer questions through APP) and won the AWARD of netease app Innovation Competition.

• Self-taught “Collective Intelligence Programming” and Andrew NG “Machine Learning”, gradually opened the “recommendation algorithm” and “machine learning” skill tree.

It was through these accumulated experience and knowledge that I got the internship offer from Alibaba Group in my senior year and graduated from the novice village.

From my internship to my first two years of work in Ali Group, I have been dealing with various algorithms. In alibaba in 2013, “algorithm engineer” was still a new position. We needed to make massive amounts of information readable, usable and valuable through machine learning and mining algorithms.

I started working in Taobao. How can I help buyers pick out what they want to buy from hundreds of categories and hundreds of millions of products on Taobao, or how to classify maternal and child products? I spent a whole month studying the maternal and infant categories of Taobao, from keywords to baby types, detailed descriptions, brand ownership, brand positioning… I used to be a single otaku and almost became an expert on maternal and infant products. Even in the following six months, my female colleagues would consult me on how to buy maternal and infant products.

During this period of taobao, I also grew and learned the fastest. Databases, machine learning algorithms, JAVA project building, GIT version management, every skill point has been greatly improved. From the algorithm Demo of several M data in the student days to the data processing of TB level, the traditional stand-alone algorithm has been far from meeting the needs.

Often optimizing the algorithm late into the night, I deeply realized the significance of the algorithm dropping from N(N ^2) to N(nlogn) : Maybe the algorithm Demo is just a little slower, but for the business, it may decide whether the business can be done, whether the cost can be controlled, whether the business can be really implemented, I also feel more responsibility.

Work is not only about completing tasks, but also about constantly researching and solving problems. The experience of breaking through obstacles and overcoming difficulties has also trained me with strong internal skills.

Youth, go where the motherland needs it most! Later in aliyun days, quite some of this taste.

Three years ago, due to the team adjustment, we came to Ali Cloud, which also prompted me to complete the change from my own algorithm to help users to realize the digital transformation of users. The perspective of the problem from the local to the whole, and even the whole industry.

There are more things to do and more challenges. The first product I worked on in Aliyun was a recommendation engine for the new media industry. In this project, I participated in the whole process of the birth of a commercial product for the first time: project approval, research and development, testing and release. The boundaries of personal competence are further extended to project management, product operation and maintenance, and algorithms.

In 2017, another embrace of change, is to turn to the transportation industry. In the wave of catching up with the urban brain, I came into contact with the transportation industry of Hangzhou, only to find that MY understanding of the city I have been staying in for 8 years is far from enough. Hangzhou is known as the “first traffic jam”, and I, who need to drive an hour to work every day, gradually pay more attention to every traffic context, every new planning and change in this city. Roads are like the “blood vessels” of Hangzhou. Through the application of algorithms, we dredge every inch of “meridians and blood vessels” of the city and inject energy.

Every link that such work actually solves is closely related to our life. I feel the satisfaction of knowing that every bit of my effort helped the city. If the algorithm can be optimized to improve traffic efficiency by just one point, we can save everyone hundreds of hours of time. If we can effectively reduce congestion and put forward suggestions, we can also reduce the waste of human resources.

How to make the city smarter in the future? And it became my new target.

In the two years of Taobao, I focused on how to use algorithms to do a good job. In Aliyun, I am more concerned about what kind of products and cloud platform can help users better realize the linkage of algorithms and realize the value that cannot be calculated.

This year is exactly the fifth year I have been in Ali and the ninth year I have been in Hangzhou.

And this “cultivation” is still in progress…

For students who are interested in becoming algorithm engineers, there are also some suggestions for “cultivation” : First, keep learning and try different subdivisions to find the direction they like best and are good at. Of course, I think liking is relatively important. Second, we hope that we can focus on solving problems, no matter what framework or algorithm we use, solving problems efficiently is the king. Third, we must understand the calculation logic, and the ability of algorithm development is also very important. In the process of development, it can help to sort out ideas and evaluate the cost of algorithms.