# Back to School After 10 Years

> Ten years after graduating, a Big Bang Theory joke sent me back to college to study AI engineering, the science behind the tools I use every day.

One day, I was watching my favorite show, *The Big Bang Theory* (again), when I saw the scene where Sheldon mocks Howard just for being an engineer (as he always does). Howard says, “I have a master’s degree,” and Gablehauser shoots back, “Who doesn’t?”

![Howard: “I have a master’s degree.” Reply: “Who doesn’t?”](/img/back-to-school/howard-masters-degree-meme.webp)

It hit me that I only have a bachelor’s degree. No master’s. I thought, “What? I’m irrelevant to these geeks!” So I searched the web for a program and decided my master’s would be in AI engineering.

Jokes aside, AI is becoming more and more essential to everything in our world. I felt I needed to study it at an academic level, not just use it: this LLM, that chat, blah, blah, blah. I really needed to understand the science behind it.

To be honest, I can’t force myself to watch a 10-hour course on probability, statistics, and mathematics at an expert++ level. I had to go back to college. That’s why, after 10 years, here I am again, carrying my notebook and backpack, heading back to school.

Yes, I graduated 10 years ago. Of course, I’m an old man now.

For two years, I kept putting off applying for the program (procrastination is my middle name). But I finally decided, with a very hard push from my wife, to join the program this year.

So now I’m studying AI while teaching others how to use it.

Here’s a fun story: my first class was online, and I hadn’t uploaded an avatar yet. Because my initials are AI (Abderahman Ismail), the professor kept calling me “AI.” “Can anyone answer this question? AI can.” Was it funny? I don’t know, but I liked it.

By the way, even though my master’s program is in AI, I teach people how to use AI, and my initials are literally AI, I didn’t use AI to write this post. These are my deep thoughts, and I didn’t want AI to take the human touch out of them. I only used it to fix my fatal grammar mistakes. 😇

I know I usually write about technical stuff, not personal things, but this is a very big milestone in my life. I hope that, in two years, I’ll share another post about how this experience has changed my life for the better. I really hope so.

Wait a second. Once I have my master’s, shouldn’t I get a PhD too, so people like Sheldon can’t mock me in situations like this?

![Amy: “I doubt you’d understand. Sheldon tells me you only have a master’s degree.”](/img/back-to-school/amy-only-masters-degree-meme.webp)

## References

- The program is the [Artificial Intelligence Engineering master’s degree](https://www.istinye.edu.tr/en/postgraduate/programs/artificial-intelligence-engineering-english-masters-degree-thesis) at İstinye University in Istanbul.