Ask HN: Resources and tips for getting into Machine Learning Research

[YesMilord]

Hello again HN, I'm interested in getting into machine learning, but purely for the purpose of contributing to the field. Short term I have no plans of moving to a machine learning job or pursuing an academic career, so what I'd like to focus on instead is on building a solid knowledge foundation and eventually the ability to understand and contribute to on-going research.

I'm currently a software engineer with an electrical/computer engineer background. Had a few courses on signals and machine learning but they left a lot to be desired.

Currently I've started by going through the Fast.ai foundations course which seems like a good start.

I'd like some suggestions on the following: 1) Useful resources for the math background needed. I would prefer resources which actually go into the gritty details as I already have some math background, but also appreciate resources with good insight on how to learn about concepts eg. 3B1B.

2) What path would you suggest to get a decent overview and a solid foundation on the field? For example, suppose you were starting in the field with hindsight, what knowledge would you seek as a foundation and how would you get an overview of the field?

Thanks in advance