COMP-551: Topics in Computer Science: Applied Machine Learning

Schedule for Fall 2017

Lec.
Date
Topic
Lecture Material and Readings
Projects
1
Sep. 6

Introduction to machine learning.

Mandatory reading: This paper.
Suggested readings:
Bishop, Ch.1-2. Hastie et al., Ch.1. Shalev-Schwartz et al., Ch.2.
Slides
2
Sep. 11

Linear regression.

Suggested readings:
Bishop, Ch.3. Hastie et al., Ch.2 (Sec.2.1-2.4, 2.9).
Shalev-Schwartz et al., Ch.9
Slides
3
Sep. 13

Linear regression.

Suggested readings:
Ch.3 (Sec.3.1-3.4, 3.9) of Hastie et al.
Ch.3 of Bishop (Sec.3.1-3.2).
Ch.5 and 11 of Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
Project 1 instructions and sample file available
Tutorial 1 (in class)
4
Sep. 18

Linear classification.

Suggested readings:
Ch.4 of Hastie et al.
Ch.4 of Bishop (Sec.4.1-4.3).
Sec.9.3 of Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
5
Sep. 20

Linear classification.

Suggested readings:
Sec. 6.6.3 of Hastie et al.
Ch.4 of Bishop (Sec.4.1-4.3).
Sec.24.1-24.3 Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
6
Sep. 25

Performance analysis and error estimation.

Suggested readings:
Ch.7 of Hastie et al.
Wagstaff (2012) paper
Slides
7
Sep. 27

Decision trees

Suggested readings:
Sec.14.4 of Bishop.
Sec.9.2 of Hastie et al.
Slides
Project 1 due.
Tutorial 2: Thursday Sept.28, TR3120, 4-5pm.
8
Oct. 2

Instance-based learning

Suggested readings:
Sec.2.5 of Bishop.
Sec.13.3 of Hastie et al.
Ch.19 of Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
9
Oct. 4

Feature construction and selection
Slides
Project 2 instructions now available
Oct. 9

Thanksgiving (no class)
10
Oct. 11

Ensemble methods

Suggested readings:
Sec.8.7, Ch.10 of Hastie et al.
Ch.14 of Bishop Ch.10 of Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
11
Oct. 16

Support vector machines

Suggested readings:
Ch.7 of Bishop.
Ch.12 (Sec.12.1-12.4) of Hastie et al.
Ch.15 of Shalev-Schwartz
For more on convex optimization: see book by S. Boyd and L. Vandenberghe
Slides
12
Oct. 18

Support vector machines (cont'd)

Suggested readings:
See lecture 9.
Slides
13
Oct. 23

Unsupervised learning
Slides
Project 2 due.
14
Oct. 25

Neural networks

Suggested readings
Ch.11 of Hastie et al.
Ch.5 of Bishop
Ch.14 of Shalev-Schwartz
Slides
Project 3 instructions now available
Tutorial 3, TR3120, 6-7pm
15
Oct. 30

Neural networks (cont'd)
Slides
16
Nov. 1

Deep learning
Slides
17
Nov. 6

Deep learning (cont'd)
Slides
18
Nov. 8

Semi-supervised learning / Generative Models
Slides
19
Nov. 13

Bayesian Inference
Suggested reading
Bishop 1.2.3, 1.2.6, 2.3.6
Possibly Shalev-Scharz 24.5, Hastie 8.3
Slides
Project 3 due.
20
Nov. 15

Gaussian Processes
Suggested reading:
Bishop 3.3, 6.4.1, 6.4.2
Rasmussen & Williams, chapter 2
Slides
Project 4 instructions now available
21
Nov. 20

Bayesian Optimization
Suggested reading:
Bishop 6.4.3, 6.4.4
Rasmussen & Williams, chapter 5.1-5.4
Snoek & Larochelle, paper
Slides
Tutorial 4, TR3120, 7-9pm (2 * 1-hour sessions)
22
Nov. 22

No class. Midterm (confirmed, 6-8pm, in Leacock 132).
23
Nov. 27

Parallelization for large-scale ML
Slides
24
Nov. 29

Missing data
Slides
25
Dec. 4

Final project presentation session with TAs
26
Dec. 6

Final project presentation session with TAs
Project 4 report due (can be submitted until Dec.15 without late penalty).