Boost Your Quant AI Skills: Learn RAG Applications, Chroma DB & MCP Servers in 2025
- Bryan Downing
- 5 hours ago
- 6 min read
I hope this message finds you well and engaged in your personal and professional journeys. Today, I want to share some exciting updates with you about my growing presence on social platforms, particularly TikTok, and to invite your input on shaping the direction of upcoming downloadable and affordable programming quant ai courses that I am preparing to release. Thisl is a bit longer than usual because I want to be transparent about my vision, give you a sense of where things are headed, and most importantly, get your feedback.
Why TikTok?
Some of you may already know me from my YouTube channel, where I’ve been posting educational content around trading systems, programming, and more recently, artificial intelligence integrations. YouTube has been an incredible platform for deep dives and longer-form discussions. However, I’ve noticed that the way people consume content is rapidly evolving. Short-form video platforms like TikTok have exploded in popularity, and they’re not just about dance challenges or entertainment anymore. They’ve become powerful tools for micro-learning—quick bursts of knowledge that can inspire and educate in under a minute.
With this in mind, I decided to officially launch my TikTok account:
On this channel, I’ll be experimenting with short, focused videos that cover:
Concise programming tips: quick tricks, commands, or patterns that can save you hours of debugging.
AI concepts simplified: bite-sized explanations of key AI tools, frameworks, and workflows.
Motivational and practical insights: why learning certain tools matters, and how they can shape your career or side projects.
Sneak peeks of upcoming courses: I’ll give previews of new educational material before it goes live elsewhere.
The beauty of TikTok is that it allows me to condense a lot of value into very short, digestible pieces of content. If you’re the type of learner who enjoys fast insights or just wants to stay up-to-date without spending hours watching longer tutorials, I think you’ll find my TikTok channel really useful.
The Bigger Picture: Why Courses?
Beyond TikTok and YouTube, my long-term mission has always been to provide practical, affordable, and downloadable programming education. I know from experience that a lot of people are interested in advancing their technical skills, especially in cutting-edge areas like AI and data systems, but often face barriers:
High costs: Many courses in this space are priced at hundreds or even thousands of dollars, which makes them inaccessible to a large audience.
Overly theoretical teaching: A lot of academic or traditional platforms don’t focus enough on hands-on, real-world implementation.
Rapidly changing field: AI and emerging tech evolve so quickly that by the time some courses are published, parts of the content may already be outdated.
My approach is different. I want to create affordable, downloadable courses that focus on application and implementation. The goal is to take complex topics and break them down into clear, actionable steps you can follow—even if you don’t have an advanced computer science background.
The Poll: Choosing the Next Course Topics
On my YouTube community page (https://www.youtube.com/@quantlabs/posts), I recently posted a poll to ask all of you:
What downloadable and affordable programming course topics are you wanting to learn?
The options I put forward are:
Chroma Vector DB
MCP Servers
RAG Applications
Let me explain each of these topics in more detail, why they matter, and then I’ll share my personal answer to the poll.
1. Chroma Vector DB
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In today’s AI-driven world, vector databases have become essential for managing embeddings—the numerical representations of text, images, and other data. Chroma is one of the emerging players in this space, providing a lightweight, developer-friendly solution for handling embeddings.
Why this matters:
Traditional relational databases are not optimized for similarity search, which is at the heart of many AI applications (e.g., semantic search, recommendation engines, question-answering systems).
Chroma makes it easy to store and query embeddings, enabling developers to quickly integrate advanced AI features into their applications.
It’s relatively new and evolving, which means there’s a lot of opportunity for early adopters to gain a competitive edge.
If you’re looking to build apps that need to "understand" or "remember" context—such as chatbots, search tools, or intelligent assistants—Chroma could be a crucial piece of your toolkit.
2. MCP Servers
MCP (Multi-Channel Protocol) servers are less mainstream but still significant in the ecosystem of distributed computing and networking. They allow for the management of multiple streams of communication simultaneously, which is incredibly useful in high-performance systems.
Why this matters:
In industries like finance, logistics, and real-time analytics, being able to handle multiple data channels efficiently is critical.
Learning how to deploy, maintain, and scale MCP servers could open doors to working on infrastructure-level projects where performance and reliability matter most.
While it’s a more specialized skill set, it could be highly valuable for developers aiming to work on enterprise-level systems.
This option is a bit more niche, but it’s exactly the kind of topic that could set you apart from other programmers if you can master it.
3. RAG Applications
RAG stands for Retrieval-Augmented Generation, a cutting-edge method in AI that combines large language models (LLMs) with external knowledge sources. Instead of relying solely on what’s inside a model’s training data, RAG pipelines allow the model to fetch relevant information in real time.
Why this matters:
This is one of the hottest areas in AI right now, a
It addresses one of the biggest limitations of LLMs: outdated or incomplete knowledge.
With RAG, you can build systems that are both intelligent and up-to-date, pulling information from current databases, documents, or APIs.
Use cases include advanced chatbots, research assistants, customer support systems, and domain-specific knowledge tools.
And learning how to design and implement RAG applications could put you ahead of the curve.
My Answer to the Poll
While all three options are valuable, my personal vote goes to RAG Applications. Here’s why:
RAG directly ties into the strengths of large language models while overcoming their weaknesses.
It has immediate real-world applications across industries—from healthcare to finance to education.
It’s a skill set that almost every AI-focused company is looking for right now.
That being said, I see a progression here:
Start with Chroma Vector DB → learn how to store and search embeddings.
Build toward RAG Applications → integrate LLMs with external data sources.
Explore MCP Servers → understand distributed communication for scaling advanced systems.
So, while my top choice is RAG Applications, I think all three topics could eventually become part of a series of affordable, downloadable courses.
How You Can Help
Follow me on TikTok:
👉 https://www.tiktok.com/@bryan.downing4
Even if you’re not a TikTok user, consider checking it out. Following and engaging helps me grow the channel and ensures I can reach more learners with free bite-sized content.
Vote in the YouTube poll:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/@quantlabs/posts
Your vote will directly influence which course I prioritize first.
Reply to this email:
Let me know your thoughts. Do you prefer practical deep dives into databases like Chroma? Are you more interested in high-performance infrastructure like MCP servers? Or do you want to get ahead of the curve with RAG applications? Your feedback is invaluable.
Looking Ahead
I’m incredibly excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. TikTok will allow me to share fast, valuable content with you, while YouTube and downloadable courses will remain the platforms for deeper, structured learning. Together, these channels form a complete ecosystem:
TikTok: Quick tips, inspiration, micro-learning.
YouTube: Longer tutorials, live discussions, community interaction.
Downloadable Courses: In-depth, affordable, structured education with practical projects.
By combining these platforms, I hope to meet you where you are—whether you prefer quick insights on your phone, detailed walkthroughs on your desktop, or comprehensive course material you can study at your own pace.
Final Thoughts
I want to thank you for being part of this journey. None of this would be possible without your continued support, feedback, and curiosity. The world of programming and AI is moving faster than ever, and together, we have the opportunity to stay on the cutting edge.
If you only take away three things from this (admittedly long!) email, let it be these:
I’m now on TikTok at @bryan.downing4 → https://www.tiktok.com/@bryan.downing4.
Vote in the YouTube poll → https://www.youtube.com/@quantlabs/posts.
My personal pick is RAG Applications, but I want to hear from you.
Thank you again for your time, your attention, and your ongoing commitment to learning. I look forward to building, exploring, and growing with you.
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