Monday, May 26, 2025

Free Power BI Classes Week 4

Just now completed the Power BI Class for week 4

We continued with Lab 2.

The participants learnt about creating hierarchy, difference between calculated column and measures, DAX formulas for calculating Previous year sales and % Growth.  

Then we started with Lab 3 which mainly is focused on Data Visualisation.  They learnt about conditional formatting,  formating options in each visual, Themes and formating slicers.

Here is the recording of the class for week 4


Free Power BI Classes 2025 Week 4


Tuesday, May 20, 2025

Free Power BI Classes Week 3

Successfully completely the free Power BI classes for week 3

We continued with Lab 2.

The participants learnt about creating stacked column charts by using legend functionality, creating groups, creating filters on the visual and page level filters as well creating drill down charts based on date hierarchy.  They also created slicers.

Some interesting questions also arose as now the participants started thinking of how to analyse the data at hand.


Here is the recording of the class for week 3

Free Power BI classes 2025 Week 3 


Monday, May 12, 2025

Free Power BI Classes for Week 2

Successfully completely the free Power BI classes for week 2

We completed Lab1 and started on Lab 2.

The participants learnt about data modelling, facts/measures and dimensions

They also learn about Relationsips -- 1 to Many and Many to Many relationships and how to create them in Power BI


Here is the recording of the class for week 2

Power BI Classes Week 2


Sunday, May 11, 2025

Setting Up Your First Project in Azure AI Foundry: Step-by-Step Guide

Are you ready to get your hands dirty with Azure AI Foundry? 

In this blog, I will walk you through everything you need to get started,  from creating your Azure account to launching your first AI project. I will start of with the pre-requisites required before giving you the detailed steps.

Prerequisites

An active Azure subscription (free tier works for getting started)

Basic familiarity with cloud concepts

A web browser and internet connection

Step 1: Access Azure AI Studio

Navigate to https://ai.azure.com/  and sign in with your Microsoft account or Azure credentials. You'll be greeted by the Azure AI Foundry home screen, which serves as your central hub.

Step 2: Create a Hub

A Hub is the top-level organisational unit in Azure AI Studio. Think of it as your enterprise workspace container. To create one:

Click 'New Hub' from the home screen

Provide a name, select your Azure subscription, and choose a resource group

Select a region closest to your users for lower latency

Configure networking settings (for enterprise, choose private endpoint)

Click 'Create' and wait for deployment (typically 2-3 minutes)




Step 3: Create a Project

Within your Hub, create a Project  which is where your actual AI work lives. Projects are isolated environments that can have their own resources, team members, and configurations.

Navigate into your Hub and click 'New Project'

Name your project and optionally add a description

Assign team members with appropriate roles (Owner, Contributor, Reader)

Click 'Create Project'


Step 4: Explore the Model Catalog

With your project open, head to the Model Catalog in the left navigation. Here you'll find hundreds of models organized by category. For your first exploration:

Search for 'GPT-35' and click on it

Review the model card and see it includes benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities

Click 'Deploy' to create a model endpoint


Step 5: Try the Playground

The Playground is your sandbox for testing models. Select your deployed model and start chatting. You can adjust system prompts, temperature, and max tokens to see how they affect outputs.

Step 6: Create Your First Prompt Flow

Prompt Flow is where the real power lies. 

Navigate to Prompt Flow and click 'New Flow'. 

Choose a template like 'Chat with Wikipedia' to see a pre-built example of a RAG pipeline in action.

Below video shows you how to create a project and deploy and model and try the playground





Best Practices for New Users

Start with a well-defined use case before choosing a model

Use the evaluation tools to benchmark model quality early

Tag your resources consistently for cost management

Set up budget alerts to avoid unexpected charges


Conclusion

In just a few steps, you now have a fully functional Azure AI Studio project ready for development. The platform's intuitive interface makes it easy to go from zero to experimenting with state-of-the-art AI models in minutes.


Tuesday, May 06, 2025

Free Power BI Classes Week 1

Yesterday I have started free Power BI classes for adults.

These classes are aimed at people who are new to Power BI.  I will be covering the Dashboard in a Day labs over 6 weeks.

We started off with Lab 0 and Lab 1.

Here is the recording for yesterday's one for those who would like to start off with Power BI

https://youtu.be/tvVkdmMOSJU


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