Propulsion Academy

My background is neuroscience research and I hoped to change my career from academia to industry. The course at Propulsion Academy is a perfect fit for me because it has a final project from a partner company, enough to have the feeling of industry experience.... Read More Even if the course itself was quite tough and challenging, I could enjoy and be relaxed because I knew the course covers almost all of the knowledge of any field of data science. The course material and personal notes are a big asset for my professional career. Out of the course itself, I really liked the overall atmosphere of Propulsion Academy. Staff are highly motivated and teaching assistants are always there to answer any questions. I also appreciate a lot for supporting job applications after the course. I can definitely say that I might not be able to achieve my career plan without joining Propulsion Academy. I’m sure that it was one of the best decisions in my life. If you’re serious about changing your career into data science and ready to dedicate yourself for 12 weeks, I highly recommend this course.

I have attended the 6 weeks Python programming bootcamp (twice a week, 3 hours each session, plus one tutoring session). To start off, although having average experience with other softwares/programming languages, I had very little knowledge about Python.... Read More The first two classes were the hardest in my view, as they presented a lot of topics; they gave a very valuable overview, also introducing concepts which became more prominent in the second part of the bootcamp. Each session consisted of approximately 50 minutes of theory and 2 hours of exercises about the topics taught that day. The exercises were in my view the most useful part of the bootcamp, as they provided me with sort of hands on guided experience, also leveraging on the support of the trainer and the assistant who were available even beyond the class time. I would definitely recommend this bootcamp to someone with little to none Python experience, even to someone with no programming knowledge at all, as these classes cover a broad range of topics related to Python which on one hand will already enhance your skills set for your day-to-day work while on the other will provide you the basis for further development on the subject. Side remark: I did not use the job support therefore I left it unrated.

I still remember the day I decided to contact Propulsion Academy to apply for their Full-Stack course, only a few months ago. I was determined to become a programmer, after working for many years in a different field, but I was very unsure as to how or... Read More where to begin. I can now say, without a doubt, I couldn't have chosen a better way to start. Propulsion Academy is one of those rare places where you get much more than you pay for. Their curriculum is so well organized that it is hard to believe how a person can absorb so much knowledge in so little time, and everything you are taught is carefully chosen so that the students can already apply to competitive jobs with confidence after graduating. The teachers and mentors will be there for you, and they will take you through every step of the way so that you make the most of your time. And, more importantly, they will make sure that you stay motivated and keep up the hard work throughout the course. I honestly don't know how I would have survived such an intensive challenge without the support of every single person there. I joined Propulsion Academy with a smile on my face, and I left with an even bigger one. And now I'm ready for my life as a programmer :) PS: I managed to find a great and very rewarding job just 1 month after graduating.

I've attended the Online Python Programming course at Propulsion Academy Zürich in December 2020. This was a 6-week-long part-time course, offered on two evenings every week. I've participated to one or two self-paced MOOC courses already before this... Read More course and I can tell, that this was on another level. The curriculum was comprehensive, coming from the very basics (as the audience was everyone with no prior coding knowledge) but covering everything from data types, looping, conditions, OOP and also touching base on database manipulation, APIs and basic web backend development with Flask and web scraping with Python. The Data Analysis part (numpy, pandas) was very well accentuated and covered through several lectures. The delivery of the lectures was in a very practical manner, more or less the following way: approx. 1 hour instructor-led live coding and 2 hours individual exercises with a support from a teaching assistant. The lecturer was well prepared and there was a good opportunity for Q&A and individual support during the live coding sessions. The number of participants were around 10-12 people, which was a good group size. There were a lot of additional resources and material offered, which are still a good reference to lookup whenever I have to have a refresher in the field. I would definitely recommend this course as a very comprehensive introductory course in Python, also for someone who are completely knew to programming, but to have a maximal learning effect out of the course, it is best to have a very basic knowledge in either Python or another programming language.

I participated to the Applied Machine Learning Part-Time Bootcamp (online, 6-Weeks, 2 Evening sessions per week) and it was the best decision I've made by selecting this course over an MOOC at a known global provider. The curriculum was extremely comprehensive,... Read More covering everything from supervised and unsupervised learning, all the known models and their implementation, creating ML-Pipelines, cross-validation, model-tuning and even Automated ML and Explainable AI as well as model deployment in production. The lectures were 3-hours long, consisting of a theoretical part, which was presented in an effective way, always with examples, but also giving the opportunity to learn about the statistical and mathematical background of the models and their evaluation. The theoretical part was followed by first an instructor-led and then an individual or group-based live coding session with an always available teaching assistance support. The lecturer was very well prepared, an expert in the field and the course was delivered in a concise way, always focusing on the "applied" side of machine learning, giving real-world examples and also mentioning the pitfalls of productive implementation and how these problems can be tackled. The group size was around 10-12 participants, which also allowed to have limited Q&A rounds and one-to-one support during the live coding exercises. The course was a compact version of the longer ML curriculum, which is part of their Data Science Bootcamp, therefore it sure had to pack a lot of material into the 6-week long course. Therefore sometimes there were less time for individual coding than it could have been, but still it didn't impact the overall learning experience. Also with the project work, which had to be submitted at the end of the course, depending on the topic selection, a lot of the learnings could be put into practice. I would definitely recommend this course to anybody who wants to have a comprehensive overview and good implementation examples with the possibility of real practice (not just limited, guided exercises) with support from experts in the field of ML.

I took the Python Programming course at Propulsion Academy to get my coding in this language up to speed. I initially selected the course for convenience reasons, because was offered twice a week in the evenings in an online format and was, therefore,... Read More easy to attend while working. However, I quickly became convinced by the quality of the course - so much so that I took a follow-up course in Applied Machine Learning right afterwards. The Python course was well-structured and covered a broad range of topics - from fundamentals and advanced programming concepts to libraries needed for data science and visualization to linking Python with SQL databases, creating Web Apps, and automating reporting. The concepts were introduced in very well-designed lectures and could then be delved into in programming sessions with access to tutors. Code notebooks for the examples covered in class as well as model solutions for the exercises done in the coding sessions were provided, offering a great learning tool and a nice library to draw on for future reference. Despite the broad range of topics, they were covered thoroughly enough to allow immediate implementation. At the end of the course, mini-projects enabled students to apply their knowledge to actual practical examples. The teachers giving the course were absolute experts in their fields. Their enthusiasm for the topics was tangible and they went the extra mile to ensure that participants got the most out of the engagement. I can highly recommend this course (as well as the Machine Learning one). Propulsion Academy offers a great learning environment and has really high-calibre teachers. There aren't really any cons to mention.

The Full-Stack boot camp at Propulsion delivered everything they promised. The curriculum was quite demanding and covered enough of all major parts of web development to enable me to create useful web applications and let them run. When I graduated I... Read More was not done learning about the technologies and tools but I had a solid basis to build on. Also, more importantly, through my final project, I got an internship as a software engineer. My experience at Propulsion allowed me to quickly getting up to speed with the (completely different) tech-stack at my new position and I got hired as Junior Software Engineer after the internship.

I decided to attend Propulsion Academy in the winter of 2020, during the height of the pandemic. I chose this boot camp because of its location in Zurich, and because they seemed to screen the applicants well before accepting them into the program. I... Read More had been looking for a position as a data engineer in Zurich for most of 2020 without much success., After completing Propulsion I was able to land a job through Propulsion’s professional network. I have a background working in the data industry, and I have a master’s degree in Information Science. I was hesitant to join the program because of my background, but I ended up learning so much and I came out of the program as a better engineer. This course is for you if you have a background in a science or engineering related field. My cohort was a group of 12, and everyone had a graduate degree from a diverse range of backgrounds. The bootcamp consists of a lot of collaborative group projects, and since our backgrounds were so different, everyone solved problems with a different perspective. Collaborative group projects were one of my favorite parts about this program -- it was such a confidence booster and skill building exercise. (Nothing like college group projects :-) The coursework itself is very demanding, and you will not have time to do much else. Due to the pandemic, our classes were 100% online; everyone was disappointed about this, but you know, that kind of sums up 2020. All things considered, I really enjoyed the online format. I have taken a lot of online college classes and was never a fan, but Propulsion managed to keep all of us engaged through active participation during lectures and interesting slides. I felt like I got to know my peers and instructors personally, despite never meeting them in person. At the end of the course there is a 3 week capstone project that is often in collaboration with an organization. It was really cool to see how much the class had learned in the last 12 weeks. I would absolutely recommend Propulsion Data Science to anyone with the appropriate background. You will come out with more technical skills, a better ability to perform technical interviews, and the opportunity to become involved in Zurich’s data technology professional network.

Being already in the field of data analytics, I took this course since was keen on deepening my understanding in applied data science and related best practices. The course is definitely an intense unique experience composed of applied knowledge, exercises... Read More and group challenges. The learning-by-doing approach allows you to develop a solid skill set in a short time. Furthermore I appreciated the opportunity to learn from experts in the field about best practices and trends, especially in the constantly evolving field of deep learning! Additional sessions were provided to either cover related topics such as ethics in data science, or where experienced data scientists shared their career journey with us, returning a broad context of the data scientist role in different industries. Finally, this course is also a great chance to build a local professional network in data science and software engineering.

I took part in the Propulsion Academy data science Bootcamp from May to July 2020. It was worth every penny. I cannot recommend enough for any person looking to upskill or take the first steps toward a data science career to contact the propulsion team.... Read More What I liked most is the team. They simply do care about you and your learning and career objectives. It is a complementary team with strong industry expertise which you can sense at every interaction. The curriculum is up to date and does not focus on the buzz words but rather on building expertise bottom-up from the foundations to the latest applications. To my surprise, my favorite module was Stats as it helped us ask the right questions, design the right experiences and use the adequate tools for the problems at hand and believe me the solution is not always machine or deep learning. Last but not least is the end-of-program project done in collaboration with a company that guarantees real-world application and tons of fun, stress, and a steep learning curve. A word about my cohort which was just a fantastic gender-equal group of students eager to learn, collaborate and share. The Bootcamp selection process definitely works. Proud of those that made it to Google or eBay but also of those contemplating the entrepreneurial path. Best,