DS412
Faculty Profiles

Yevgeniy Ilyin
Senior Solutions Architect at Databricks

Nikita Fedkin
Senior Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Course length
Duration
Total hours
Credits
Language
Course type
Fee for single course
Fee for degree students
Skills you’ll learn
This immersive, hands-on course spans three weeks and introduces participants to the design and development of modern machine learning platforms, emphasizing the deployment and operationalization of generative AI systems. It provides comprehensive guidance on every stage of the machine learning lifecycle—from project scoping and exploratory data analysis to feature engineering, model training, and selection, as well as production workflows, monitoring, and MLOps/LLMOps practices.
Participants will gain practical expertise working with essential components of modern ML platforms, including feature stores, model registries, ML pipelines, monitoring systems, and CI/CD automation for machine learning workflows. The course will also explore key architectures for generative AI, such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent Connect Protocol (ACP), and other generative AI paradigms.
The course focuses on giving hands-on experience in designing modern generative AI and learning emerging architectures like RAG, MCP, ACP, and others. The course provides a foundation for understanding and implementing modern approaches for generative AI solution productization with MLOps and LLMOps.
As the course main deliverable, you’re required to implement a capstone project. The capstone project will integrate critical elements of MLOps and LLMOps, such as reproducible data and ML pipelines, scalable data processing, experiment tracking, observability, model registries, and event-driven workflows. You will emerge equipped to efficiently design, deploy, and manage generative AI solutions in real-world contexts.
15 classes
ML and generative AI refresher. Models, foundational models, data preparation and processing, prompt engineering, model customization and evaluation, model serving.
Generative AI use cases. Use case taxonomy, business benefits, industry-specific use case.
Generative AI architectures. Guiding principles and motivation. Foundational architectures: prompt libraries, RAG, tools and agentic workflows, MCP. Introduction into responsible AI.
Setting up the capstone project. Use case presentation and selection. Team building.
Design document for the capstone project. Scope and design document structure. Start working on the project design and deliverables.
Introduction into data platforms. Modern data management end-to-end.
Generative AI development. Structure, approaches, software, and tools for generative AI development.
ML pipelines. End-to-end ML pipeline for generative AI workloads. ML pipeline architectures.
CI/CD for ML. Automation and reproducibility for ML workflows. Applying the best software development practices to ML.
Onboarding to the development environment. Environment and playground setup, start notebook development.
Data ingestion. Choose and ingest data for your capstone project.
Project development in teams
Productization of generative AI solutions. Model management, customisation, and evaluation. FMOps/LLMOps fundamental principles and patterns. Scalability and robustness.
Project development in teams.
Project development in teams.
Guest lecture: TBD
Project development in teams.
Responsible AI. Bias mitigation, fairness, transparency, data security, ethical AI, robustness and reliability, governance, and regulations. Risks of generative AI.
Security of AI and AI Security. Access control and data governance, threat modeling and mitigation approaches.
Project development in teams.
Project development in teams.
Project development in teams.
Project development in teams.
Final project presentations - graded. Each team or individual presents own project, 40 min per team: 20 min demo + 20 min Q&A.
Books
Media
Students should have foundational knowledge of basic Python programming and an understanding of machine learning (ML) and generative AI concepts, including familiarity with common models, basic ML development processes, quantitative metrics, and model serving.
A basic understanding of large language models (LLMs) and foundational generative AI architecture patterns like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Model Context Protocol (MCP), and guardrails is also required.
Additionally, while prior experience or understanding of modern application development concepts such as microservices, serverless computing, event-driven architectures, containers, and DevOps is not mandatory, it would be beneficial for learners in this course.
MANDATORY COURSE PROJECT.
Students are expected to dedicate approximately 20-30 hours to the capstone project. The project work is self-guided and is strongly recommended to be completed in groups. On-demand office hours are provided to support project work and address questions. Students are encouraged to select one of the proposed generative AI use cases or develop their own ML idea, implementing it using MLOps design principles. The primary objective of the project is to demonstrate the ability to transition an ML solution from experimentation to production while showcasing a solid understanding of generative AI architectural patterns.
Project completion milestones:
Week 1: M1 - Project definition, scope, and design - graded. Hand-in by Friday June 13th 20:00 CET.
Week 2: M2 - Project working MVP - graded. Hand-in by Friday June 20th 20:00 CET.
Week 3: M3 - Project demo - graded. Live demo on Friday June 27th 9:00 CET.
Yevgeniy Ilyin is a Sr. Solutions Architect at Databricks in Zurich. He received his master degree in mathematics at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and graduated with a Certificate Programme in Computer Science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich. Yevgeniy is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.
He has collected over 20 years of end-to-end experience working in the Financial Services Industry (FSI) in different verticals, such as asset and fund management, trading systems and order management, core banking and front end.
See full profileNikita Fedkin is a Solution Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Munich. He graduated from the Russian State University of Oil and Gas with a master's degree in applied mathematics. Since his career began, Nikita utilised his academic knowledge to solve cutting-edge business problems.
He started as a Data Science developer more than 10 years ago. Afterwards, he moved to the compute infrastructure field, became a System Architect of distributed payment gateway system, and finally became Head of Infrastructure of an International Auction house. Now he shares his knowledge with the world as a Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services.
See full profileApply for this course
by Yevgeniy Ilyin, Nikita Fedkin
Total hours
45 Hours
Dates
Jun 09 - Jun 27, 2025
Fee for single course
€1500
Fee for degree students
€750
How to secure your spot
Complete the form below to kickstart your application
Schedule your Harbour.Space interview
If successful, get ready to join us on campus
FAQ
Will I receive a certificate after completion?
Yes. Upon completion of the course, you will receive a certificate signed by the director of the program your course belonged to.
Do I need a visa?
This depends on your case. Please check with the Spanish or Thai consulate in your country of residence about visa requirements. We will do our part to provide you with the necessary documents, such as the Certificate of Enrollment.
Can I get a discount?
Yes. The easiest way to enroll in a course at a discounted price is to register for multiple courses. Registering for multiple courses will reduce the cost per individual course. Please ask the Admissions Office for more information about the other kinds of discounts we offer and what you can do to receive one.