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Advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for Large Language Models

Enhance AI models and scale your tech career with advanced RAG solutions from Pragmatic AI Labs.

Advanced Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) for Large Language Models

  • 5 weeks

  • 2 hours per week

  • Digital certificate when eligible

  • Advanced level

Find out more about how to join this course

  • Duration

    5 weeks
  • Weekly study

    2 hours
  • 100% online

    How it works
  • Unlimited subscription

    $244.99 for a whole yearLearn more

Learn to build RAG systems from scratch and lead LLMs with advanced solutions

Give yourself a leg up in the competitive world of tech by upskilling in one of AI’s most applied techniques: Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

On this five-week course from Pragmatic AI Labs, you’ll dive into the essential concepts and hands-on skills needed to master RAG and apply them in AI engineering for real-world solutions.

Apply advanced embedding strategies and chunking solutions

You’ll begin this course by exploring the basics of RAG, navigating its core processes and identifying its common pitfalls. With this foundation, you’ll soon move on to learning more advanced techniques, like document embedding and chunking.

Working through hands-on labs, you’ll apply these techniques to real-world data, experimenting with embedding models and refining your chunking strategies to improve document retrieval and alignment.

Create hybrid search systems

Next, you’ll dive into hybrid search in RAG, where you’ll learn how to combine semantic and keyword search to enhance retrieval performance.

You’ll work with both sparse indexing and dense encoding, mastering techniques like BM25 and Sentence Transformers to refine search results.

Plus, you’ll explore reranking strategies, using cross-encoders to improve the alignment of documents with user queries and boost retrieval accuracy.

Design multimodal retrieval applications

By the final week, you’ll explore multimodal RAG for image-based documents. You’ll integrate image encoders, apply quantisation for optimised storage, and build efficient indexing systems.

Through practical exercises and guided labs, you’ll create image embeddings using advanced models, improving search accuracy and optimising vector databases for efficient multimodal systems.

Syllabus

  • Week 1

    Introduction and Simple RAG Application

    • Never Summon a Power you can't control

      Course Introduction

      In the first video we present the overview of the course, and the main challenges of successfully implementing AI applications in enterprise companies.

    • Jupyter Notebook Setup

      Hands-on labs and homework exercises instructions

      Instructions to setup Jupyter notebook environment to execute the hands-on labs and exercises notebooks.

    • Simple RAG Application

      Simple RAG Introduction

      Introduction video to simple RAG applications

    • Simple RAG Notebook

      Hands-on lab walkthrough

      Video walkthrough of the hands-on lab building a simple RAG application.

    • Recall-Precision-Tradeoff

      Issues with Simple RAG

      Discussion on the recall-precision trade-off and its impact on the performance of RAG applications.

    • Week main key terms

      Lesson Reflection, Homework Exercise, and Quiz

      Review of the key points of the week, homework exercise on simple RAG notebook, and end-week quiz.

  • Week 2

    Document Embedding

    • Transformer Steps

      Embedding Introduction

      Introduction to text embedding

    • Token Similarity after context embedding

      Embedding - Hands-on Lab

      Walkthrough of the hands-on lab on the various aspects of embedding including tokenization, vocabulary and embedding visualization.

    • Embedding Lesson Key Terms

      Embedding Lesson Reflection and Quiz

      Lesson Reflection on the key terms and points covered in the lesson, and week-end quiz.

  • Week 3

    Document Chunking

    • Document Chunking Introduction

      Video presentation of the need for document splitting and chunking and the main methods used to perform it.

    • Chunking Hands-on Lab

      Video walkthrough of the hands-on on Semantic Chunking, one of the popular chunking methods.

    • Chunking Overview

      Deeper overview of chunking strategies

    • Contextual Indexing - Hands-on Lab

      Hands-on lab to chunking enrichment using document context and LLM models.

    • Query-Document Alignment Diagram

      Query-Document Alignment

      Discussion of the issue of misalignment of users' queries and document chunks.

    • Hands-on Lab - Reverse Hyde

      Hands-on lab on a powerful method to generate hypothetical questions for document chunks to improve query-document alignment.

    • Document Chunking Lesson Reflection

      Summary and review of the main key terms and points discussed this week.

    • Homework Exercise for Document Chunking

      Advanced exercise notebook to practice various topics and methods of document chunking.

    • Quiz Symbol

      Document Chunking Lesson Quiz

      Quiz to test the understanding of the main topics of document chunking.

  • Week 4

    Hybrid Search in RAG

    • Hybrid Search Introduction

      Introduction to Hybrid Search in RAG application to improve document recall in the retrieval step.

    • Hands-on Lab - Hybrid Search

      Hands-on lab to implement Hybrid Search in RAG application using sparse index with BM25.

    • Hands-on Lab - Reranking

      Hands-on lab to implement reranking of Hybrid-Search results in RAG application using a cross-encoder.

    • Hybrid Search Lesson Reflection

      Summary of key terms and points from the Hybrid Search lessons.

    • Homework Exercise - Hybrid Search

      Homework exercise to implement a more sophisticated Hybrid Search using SPLADE and Cohere reranking models.

    • Quiz Symbol

      Hybrid Search Quiz

      Quiz on the hybrid search week topics.

  • Week 5

    Multimodal RAG system to handle image based documents

    • Multimodal RAG Introduction

      Video introduction presentation of building RAG application for image based documents using Multimodal techniques.

    • Multimodal RAG Hands-on Lab

      Hands-on lab of building a multimodal RAG application on image based documents.

    • Multimodal RAG Lesson Reflection

      Overview of the main key points and terms covered in the Multimodal week.

    • Hybrid Search (AI generated)

      Multimodal RAG Quiz

      Test on the main topics covered in the Multimodal week lesson.

When would you like to start?

Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.

  • Available now

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Improve AI applications based on Large Language Models (LLM) using Retrieval-Augmented-Generation (RAG) advanced techniques.
  • Assess best use cases for RAG vs traditional GenAI

Who is the course for?

This course is for AI engineers, MLOps professionals, software developers, and data scientists eager to master advanced RAG systems and LLM applications. It’s perfect for those looking to expand their AI skills, integrate cutting-edge technologies into enterprise solutions, or transition into AI development roles.

Who will you learn with?

Who developed the course?

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Pragmatic AI Labs

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Choose the best way to learn for you!

Subscribe & save

$244.99 for a whole year

Automatically renews

Develop skills to further your career

  • Access to this course
  • Access to 1,000+ courses
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Digital certificate when you're eligible

Cancel for free anytime

Buy this course

$79/one-off payment

Fulfill your current learning need

  • Access to this course
  • Learn at your own pace
  • Discuss your learning in comments
  • Tests to boost your learning
  • Printed and digital certificate when you’re eligible

Limited access

Free

Sample the course materials

  • Access expires 13 Mar 2025

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

Find out more about certificates, Unlimited or buying a course (Upgrades)

Sale price available until 3 March 2025 at 23:59 (UTC). T&Cs apply.

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  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

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