100+

Training Hours
Build an ML
Portfolio
30+
Hands-on Projects
Meet Regional
Recruiters

Benefit from
Career
Mentorship

ARTIFICIAL
INTELLIGENCE
CERTIFICATION
Become market-ready and join a Data
Science/Machine Learning team in 16 weeks
Table of Content
Everything you need to know.

I. Synopsis
II. Program Outcomes
III. What will you learn?
IV. Who is this for?
V. Program Format
VI. Detailed Curriculum
VII. Program Team
VIII. Enrollment Process
IX. Our Opportunities
X. Who are we?
XI. Why Zaka?
XII. Apply Today
 SYNOPSIS
In 16 intensive weeks, you will gain the skills necessary to speak
the Data Science or Machine Learning language, from building
and evaluating basic solutions to diving into research-driven,
advanced algorithms. Build the toolkit you need to enter the Data
Science/Machine Learning market and take your career to the
next level.

50+ Regional Candidates MENA Region 10+ Regional Recruiters

Become a Data Scientist/ML Engineer with 100+ hours

of training

Solve 30+ Real-world Challenges with guided advising

Build high-impact Capstone Projects

Access to Career Development & Mentoring

Connect with Recruiters & Opportunities in MENA

PROGRAM OUTCOMES
Upon completing the 16 weeks of lectures, labs, weekly
coding challenges, and a full-scale capstone project, as a
graduating participant you can gain the following outcomes:

Join a regional company or organization as a Data

Scientist/Machine Learning Engineer and use your
acquired skills to tackle large-scale, local challenges in
MENA.

Launch a startup project of your own through your

completed capstone project and connect to accelerators
for guided mentorship and potential seed funding
opportunities.

Advance in your current career role. Take charge and

introduce AI to your workplace, lead new innovations,
and push your role to the next level.

Become a Data Science / ML freelancer.

Work on different projects with a wide set of clients and
acquire the most diverse set of skills for today’s market.
WHAT WILL YOU
LEARN?
This program has been designed alongside industry and
academia experts with the full-stack skills you need to
become the perfect fit for today’s Data Science and
Machine Learning market. During the 16 weeks, you will:

Master fundamental concepts Learn how to best represent

and the language of Machine yourself to recruiters in the
Learning Machine Learning space

Design advanced Machine Work in a team to solve a

Learning solutions real-world, research-oriented
challenge

Become proficient with the Discover state of the art

foundational libraries for Data models and technique under
Science and Machine investigation in today’s
Learning in Python Machine Learning research
community

Gain the skills to become a Learn the best practices for

sufficient self-learner and Machine Learning in
investigator in the field of development and in research
Machine Learning settings

Be guided by AI instructors
and engineers to learn from
real-life practitioners

Gain the soft skills to become

a full-stack fit in a diverse Data
Science team in the job
market
WHO IS THIS FOR?
The ideal applicant for this program is:

A working professional who is looking to enter the

market as a full-time Data Scientist/Machine Learning
Engineer or advance in their current job role.

A fresh university graduate or a university student

with less than 6 months to graduate who is enthusiastic
about augmenting their university degree with the
necessary skills for today’s market requirements.

Program Pre-requisites
● Comfortable with programming foundations (any language)
● Familiar with fundamentals of the following areas:
○ Linear Algebra
○ Probability & Statistics
○ Data Structures

All are welcome to apply to the program. Only eligible profiles with
the necessary technical background and ability to commit to the
full program duration will be accepted.

APPLY NOW!
PROGRAM FORMAT
Duration: 16 weeks
Commitment: 30 hours/week, flexible schedule
Capacity: 30 participants

❖ Recorded sessions including lectures and coding labs

❖ Live instructor-led online sessions
❖ Invited online talks
❖ Weekly office hours
❖ Weekly coding challenges
❖ Capstone project with guided mentorship

Our Program Hub

The program hub is where all the learning material and
communication experience will take place throughout the 16 weeks.

What can I find on the hub?

● Recordings of all technical sessions
● 100+ hours of learning
● 30+ real world projects and coding challenges
● Instructor support
● Community discussion forum
 DETAILED CURRICULUM
Week Topic
0 Orientation & Prepwork
1 Data Science Foundations
2
Machine Learning Foundations
3
4 Statistical Model Validation & Testing
5 Career development week
Track Machine Learning Data Science
Neural Networks & Deep
6 Advanced Data Types
Learning
Neural Networks & Deep
7 Deep Learning in Advanced Learning
Data Types
8 Data Science Toolkit
9 Machine Learning in DS in Production
10 Production Storytelling with Data
11 Career development week
12 Research and Hot Topics
13
14 Capstone Projects
15
16 Career Fair Week
 Tools Covered

Soft-skill Development
Throughout the program, you will engage in activities and
instructor-led sessions that will prepare you for the soft-skills
needed in today’s engineering roles. You will discover how to
effectively communicate ideas, mindmap, manage projects,
design human-centered solutions, and more.
Specialization
Although Data Science and Machine Learning have a lot of
intersecting elements, a Data Scientist and a Machine Learning
Engineer are not supposed to have the exact same role within an
organization. It is true that both of them will operate under the
same cycle in any project they are involved in - which is why they
are supposed to have some kind of a common ground - but each
of them will put more focus on specific steps within this cycle.

During week 5 you will have the chance to pick your preferred
track and will either specialize in Machine Learning or Data
Science field.

Real-world Projects
Movie Review Insurance Medical Market Basket
Sentiment Analysis Cost Prediction Analysis

Household Power
Prediction
DETAILED CURRICULUM
Week 0 Orientation & Prepwork
Goal: Prepare for diving into your learning journey in MLC.

During orientation week, you will get onboarded to the program. You will
understand the full program overview, expected deliverables and outcomes
every week, how to get support, and how to engage with your peers.

This week also focuses on providing you with review material on preparatory
material you need to be comfortable with before you begin your journey in
MLC.

Preparatory material covers

- Python as a programming language and data science tool
- Mathematics
- Data Structures
- Algorithm Design

Week 1 Data Science Foundations

Goal: Get comfortable with Data Science foundations.

You will discover the Data Science lifecycle and explore its different aspects in
detail. You will also learn the basics of databases, different data types you will
encounter in your study, and different treatment methods for data.

Skills gained
- Data preparation
- Data visualization understanding &
tools
- Data manipulation and transformation
- Databases
- Dealing with varying data types
Week 2-3 Machine Learning
Foundations
Goal: Understand the foundation of supervised and unsupervised
machine learning algorithms.

You will focus on understanding what a machine learning algorithm is

composed of, get introduced to the most popular algorithms and explore their
mathematical formulations, and be able to select the best model to build and
train on different real-world problems.

Skills gained
- Machine learning algorithm design
- Working with supervised learning algorithms
- Working with unsupervised learning algorithms
- Choosing the best algorithm for a given problem

Week 4 Statistical Model Validation &

Testing
Goal: Evaluate, compare, and improve Machine Learning models
correctly.

You will discover common mistakes and mishaps in evaluation of machine

learning methods. You will learn different evaluation criteria as well as
statistical methods that guarantee your model comparisons are accurate and
statistically supported.
Skills gained
- Evaluation criteria for different types of
algorithms
- Statistical hypothesis testing
- Fair comparison of machine learning
models
- Improving machine learning models
Machine Learning Track
Pick your track

A Machine Learning Engineer will put more focus on the modeling

related tasks: training, testing, comparing and fine-tuning models to
deploy them into production at scale. Also, the Machine Learning
Engineer will be responsible for monitoring these models once in
production, and retraining them when necessary to make sure they
are performing as expected.

Week 6 Neural Networks & Deep

Learning
Goal: Understand the foundation of neural networks and deep
learning.

You will learn about neural networks’ mathematical foundations and why
neural networks have brought about great advancements to the field of
Machine Learning. You will get introduced to deep learning libraries in Python
and discover techniques for improving deep learning models’ performance.

Skills gained
- Neural network architecture and design
- Backpropagation algorithm
- Keras deep learning library in Python
- Debugging deep learning models
- Improving deep learning
 Machine Learning Track
Week 7-8 Deep Learning in Advanced
Data Types
Goal: Design deep learning models for advanced data types including
images, text, and time-series.

You will learn about new deep learning architectures suitable for different data
types. You will understand what makes these data types unique and why
there is a need to make use of advanced deep learning designs. You will
explore foundations of the Computer Vision, Natural Language Processing,
and Time-series signals fields.

Skills gained
- Data processing practices for images, text, and time-series
- Convolutional neural networks design and implementation practices
- Recurrent neural networks design and implementation practices

Week 9-10 Machine Learning in

Production
Goal: Design machine learning solutions for successful deployment and
beyond.
-
Now that your foundation is solid, you will explore machine learning in practice:
what are the challenges commonly faced when these models are deployed in
real-world and how to overcome them, what are some best practices to abide by,
and what are tools that can help you scale to real-world implementations.

Skills gained
- Best practices in machine learning development
- Machine learning deployment
- Maintaining & monitoring models after deployment
- How to scale model training and model deployment
- Machine learning solutions on the cloud
Data Science Track
Pick your track

A Data Scientist for instance will put more focus on the data-related
tasks: extracting, cleaning, transforming, and visualizing data to derive
valuable insights from it. Also, a Data Scientist can use this data to
build predictive models for testing purposes.

Week 6 Advanced Data Types

Goal: Processing and structuring different data types

You will explore different types of data and what kind of operations can
be performed on each in order to better extract useful information. You
will also learn how to structure sequential data to conduct your
analysis.

Skills gained
- Image processing and data augmentation
- Geospatial data processing
- Text data preparation and feature extraction
- Time-series analysis
 Data Science Track

Week 7 Neural Networks & Deep

Learning
Goal: Understand the foundations of deep learning and get introduced to
different neural network architectures.

You will learn about Deep Learning and discover its great advancements. You
will get introduced to deep learning libraries in Python and discover different
Neural Network architectures that help you build deep learning solutions when
dealing with different kinds of data.

Skills gained
- Deep Learning Foundations
- Keras deep learning library in Python
- Convolutional Neural Networks
- Recurrent Neural Networks and their variants

Week 8 Data Science Toolkit

Goal: Dive deeper into data scraping, data storage, and data transformation.

You will learn how you can scrape data from the web using python libraries. You
will get introduced to relational and non-relational databases for storing data, and
finally, you will learn about some data transformations.

Skills gained
- Basics of HTML for web scraping
- Python libraries for web scraping
- Relational databases
- Non Relational databases
- Data transformations.
 Data Science Track

Week 9 Data Science in Production

Goal: Understand the full process of a data science project in a production
environment.

Now that your foundation is solid, you will explore data science in practice. You
will revisit the data science lifecycle to know more about each of its steps in
production. You will learn about the challenges that might occur and the best
practices to overcome them, along with tools that help you scale to real-world
implementations.

Skills gained
- Data Collection and Labeling
- Data Processing and Analytics
- Model Training and Debugging
- Model deploying and monitoring

Week 10 Data Storytelling

Goal: Data visualization, dashboards building, and documentation.

You will learn how to effectively communicate insights from your dataset
using various types of visualizations. You will discover tools and techniques
to create an engaging and informative story.

Skills gained
- Choosing the appropriate type of graph for your situation
- Recognizing and eliminating the clutter clouding your
information
- Building dashboards to communicate with your audience
- Tips and tricks for a successful presentation
Week 12 Machine Learning in Research
Goal: Hone the skills needed to stay on top of state-of-the-art methods.

You will develop the skills needed to conduct successful research in machine
learning, from identifying top references to stay up to date with the latest
advancements to contributing back to the research community with your own
advancements. You will also get introduced to various foundational and hot
research topics in the field.
Skills gained
-Best practices in machine learning research
-Identify quality references and work
-Identify state of the art advancements
-Build reproducible solutions that contribute to the field’s development

Week 13-15 Capstone Projects

Goal: Put all your newly attained skills to the test on a full-scale project
of your choice.

You will dedicate these two weeks to finalizing your capstone project solution
with the support of guided, one-on-one mentorship from practitioners in the
field. At the end, you will present your project solution to a panel who will
assess your work as well as to recruiting firms working in the fields of Data
Science and Machine Learning.

Skills gained
-Define a Machine Learning or Data Science problem
and set the right framework
-Apply the gained knowledge into an end-to-end solution
-Work within a team
-Communicate goals and technical outcomes to a
non-technical audience
Week 16 Career Fair
This week is where you get a chance to meet recruiters and learn how to best
position yourself for the market.

Goal: Meet recruiting firms and secure your dream job.

You will present your capstone projects to and engage directly within
recruiting firms in the Middle East and North African region looking to hire
talent in the fields of Data Science and Machine Learning. As part of the
Career Fair, you will also get access to exclusive career training workshops
that will help you better prepare your work portfolio (resume, LinkedIn, etc.)
and your interviewing skills for Data Science and Machine Learning roles.

Skills gained
-Prepare a CV that showcases your unique skills
-Conduct a successful interview
-Approach recruiters for job roles
-Sell yourself through a strong profile

Our Partner Network

 PROGRAM TEAM

Christophe Zoghbi Reem Mahmoud Fouad Trad Amanda Hachem

Co-founder & CEO Co-founder & Education AI Instructor AI Instructor
Lead

Our team is excited to further support you towards a successful

journey throughout the program with access to:

Zaka AI Engineers
Guided mentorship provided by our own AI Engineers.
Zaka’s Expert Network
Invited instructors from academia and industry on
specialized topics.

Zaka’s Community
Invited talks by professionals in different fields and topics
to complement your technical learning journey.
ENROLLMENT
PROCESS

1
APPLICATION
Submit your program application with correct and
full information

2
INTERVIEW
Go through an interview round and a technical
evaluation to determine your eligibility

3 ACCEPTANCE
Receive an official acceptance for enrollment

4 CONFIRMATION
Confirm your seat upon acceptance to the program

APPLY NOW!
OUR OPPORTUNITIES
Meet Recruiters
At Career Fair week, you will get a chance to meet regional recruiters
seeking Machine Learning roles and engage with to secure your
interview.

Access Freelance Opportunities

Through our program partners and community access, you will gain
exposure to engage in freelance projects to grow your development
skills in the field.

Launch a Startup
Leverage your capstone project and our guided mentorship with
industry practitioners to launch a startup and get connected with
accelerator programs for potential seed funding.

Connect & Collaborate

Network & Learn Slack Groups

Belong to a global tech Get tips and advice from
community and have access to professional data scientists &
all program resources to keep machine learning engineers from the
learning and growing. MENA.

Tech Community
Benefit from the global City AI
community of >10,000 AI
enthusiasts, entrepreneurs,
developers and product managers
from all over the globe.
WHO ARE WE?
Zaka is a community driven AI education, consultancy, and team
augmentation startup that aims to provide the proper Artificial
Intelligence (AI) awareness to the community in the region to
prepare them for the new technological era and build a vibrant
MENA AI ecosystem. Zaka is on a journey to democratize
Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the MENA region and globally through
sharing knowledge, building solutions and connecting people!

2500+ graduates in less than 2 years

From the MENA to the MENA. Learn from local

talent and access local opportunities

Community extending to more than 10

countries across MENA

In AI education, we curate courses and training to best fit our

customers’ industry and workforce. We focus on culturing a
practical delivery of knowledge to allow our customer to exit the
learning experience with the knowledge and, most importantly, the
skills to grow while working on versatile AI projects.
WHY ZAKA?
Microsoft Global Training Partners
Zaka is a registered Microsoft Global
Training Partner as of May 2020. We have
partnered with Microsoft on multiple
occasions where they served as our
Educational Partners for 5+ AI Bootcamps
and sponsored Zaka’s recent AI Ready
programs tailored for our university student
audience, where we have upskilled 500
students this year alone.

Zaka programs have reached

Saudi Arabia UAE

Jordan Qatar Morocco
Tunisia
Egypt Kenya
Lebanon Ghana
Bahrain
 Let’s Stay Connected!

APPLY NOW!
For further inquiries, reach us at academy@zaka.ai