Practical Machine Learning
Enrollment in this course is by invitation only

The world is being transformed by the application of Machine Learning to different fields. This is a time of tremendous career and business opportunity for those who invest in this new and rapidly expanding field. This course will give you a practical understanding of Machine Learning. If you want to understand central ideas in the field of Machine Learning and practice how to use available tools and algorithms to solve real world problems, this course is for you

Enrollment for this course is currently closed

About This Course

Data Science is the science that enables us to extract meaning, understanding and predictive power from Data through transformation, visualization, algorithmic processing and mathematical analysis. -VJ

The world is being transformed by the application of Data Science to different fields. This is a time of tremendous career and business opportunity for those who invest in this new and rapidly expanding field. This course will give you a practical understanding of Data Science. If you want to understand central ideas in the field of Data Science and practice how to use available tools and algorithms to solve real world problems, this course is for you.

No matter what background you may come from, if you put in the effort and have the passion, motivation and focus, this course is designed to enable you to succeed.

Key features of this course on Machine Learning:

ACADS live Experiences - we will use the newly designed interactive, student focused ACADS learning platform for this course.
Focus on giving you a practical understanding of how to evaluate models and tune them for better performance.
Develop familiarity with industry standard packages that will help you learn and apply concepts related to Machine Learning to real world examples
Use models built in libraries (Scikit-learn, Numpy) to focus on developing an understanding of models rather than on writing a model (which can take too long and needs mathematics)
No hard core mathematics will be discussed. We will build intuition and understanding of Machine Learning models by analyzing illustrative examples and using visualization. We will develop in you the desire to learn the math which will be delivered in a subsequent course, Mathematics for Data Science
Practice using exercises based on real world datasets to develop a better understanding.
Consolidate and apply all the ideas you learned in this course by working on a Machine Learning project based on a topic of your choosing. You will receive valuable support and feedback from your instructor on your project.

Course Outline

Introduction
Regression
- Linear Regression models
- Multi-dimensional Linear Regression
- Non-linear transformations of Predictors
Classification
- Logistic Regression
- Multi-dimensional Logistic Regression
- Decision Trees
Model Evaluation and tuning
- Accuracy, Sensitivity and Specificity
- Bias Variance TradeOff
- Feature Selection
- Model Parameter tuning
Dimensionality Reduction
- Principle Component Analysis
Unsupervised Learning
- Clustering
- Building Machine Learning Pipelines

What you will learn?

master essential concepts related to Data Science by writing interesting programs applied to real world datasets
write programs to access, process, manage, analyze, visualize and report on Data
get practical hands-on experience with industry standard algorithms and Python packages by writing code to solve Data Science problems
structure your thoughts, develop programming skills and computational thinking and solve interesting Machine Learning related problems

ACADS Experience: What our students say

The interactive elements were really helpful. I could raise a question and stop the instructor wherever I felt like I wasn't able to understand things. Also the ability to write code during live sessions and the concern of the instructor to stop at every point and check on all the students was just great.
I had a great experience writing code during the sessions and after the sessions as well. It was well paced and very interactive.
Audio, video and practical/real time walkthrough - It was a 3D experience, in short!
It was amazing learning from VJ. His explanation methods really helps to clear concepts. Let it be Python or math or logic. Great teacher!
This was great. Very interactive. Usually a student would share their screen during a class and VJ would take us through the steps which was very helpful in following along.
I really appreciate the way you [VJ] always give time and help me catch up ! I have attended so many online classes but have never had this experience ever. Thanks so much for your support !
Wonderful and very dedicated instructor. Takes the time to help and mentor each student. Inspires us to keep on working through problems and challenges, not just in code, but in all areas.
Auto-grading is cool and it help to learn on my feet
I have learned and practiced more python, which was a goal. But it has also gone beyond my expectations in all the interesting problems and applications we were shown and got to work on. It was also an inspiring course in terms of building discipline and determination.
This one is a real class room session with VJ! Its quite different from other courses in two ways: 1.All the queries are heard and answered. 2.Classes are customized, redone, extended based on participants inputs.
It instills a lot of confidence in me in terms of knowing Python, writing code and understanding Python code written elsewhere. It also has empowered me to solve complex problems : If I can understand the problem - I can also write code to solve/address it.

Prerequisites

A basic understanding of Python is essential for you to be successful in this course. If you do not have the Python knowledge or strong programming foundations, please take the ACADS courses, Python for Beginners and Practical Python, to ensure that you have the right conceptual foundations and the programming techniques to make you successful in this course. We will also assume familiarity with Data Management at the level of our course Introduction to Data Management with Python so that we can focus on applications of Data Science in this course.

Length: 8 Weeks

Effort: 1.5 hours lecture + 4 hours study, review and practice hours per week

Live Lectures: Sunday 10:00 AM EST(7:30 PM India Time) 90 minutes

Course Staff

Dr. Varghese John

Dr. Varghese John (VJ) is an experienced technologist with a scientific research background and a love for learning and teaching science, technology and mathematics. He has led large technology teams delivering innovative solutions to complex problems for leading financial service organizations. VJ is passionate about STEM education and has worked with people from diverse backgrounds enabling them to discover a love for learning and helping them achieve their educational goals.