Machine Learning: 2016-2017

Lecturer

Varun Kanade

Degrees

Schedule B2 (CS&P) — Computer Science and Philosophy

Schedule B2 — Computer Science

Schedule B2 — Mathematics and Computer Science

Schedule B — MSc in Advanced Computer Science

Term

Michaelmas Term 2016 (16 lectures)

Overview

Machine learning techniques enable us to automatically extract features from data so as to solve predictive tasks, such as speech recognition, object recognition, machine translation, question-answering, anomaly detection, medical diagnosis and prognosis, automatic algorithm configuration, personalisation, robot control, time series forecasting, and much more. Learning systems adapt so that they can solve new tasks, related to previously encountered tasks, more efficiently.

This course will introduce the field of machine learning, in particular focusing on the core concepts of supervised and unsupervised learning. In supervised learning we will discuss algorithms which are trained on input data labelled with a desired output, for instance an image of a face and the name of the person whose face it is, and learn a function mapping from the input to the output. Unsupervised learning aims to discover latent structure in an input signal where no output labels are available, an example of which is grouping web-pages based on the topics they discuss. Students will learn the algorithms which underpin many popular machine learning techniques, as well as developing an understanding of the theoretical relationships between these algorithms. The practicals will concern the application of machine learning to a range of real-world problems.

N.B. There is no past paper for the 2016-17 Machine Learning Course. Whilst you may refer to the 2015-16 Machine Learning exam in preparation, please note that the content and scope of the 2016-17 version will be different.

Prerequisites

Machine learning is a mathematical discipline and it is helpful to have a good background in linear algebra, calculus, probability and algorithms. If you have not take the following courses (or their equivalents) you should talk to the instructor prior to registering for the class.

Continuous Mathematics
Linear Algebra
Design and Analysis of Algorithms

Syllabus

Introduction to different paradigms of machine learning
Linear prediction, Regression
Maximum Likelihood, MAP, Bayesian ML
Regularization, Generlization, Cross Validation
Basics of Optimization
Linear Classification, Logisitc Regression, Naïve Bayes
Suppor Vector Machines
Kernel Methods
Neural Networks, Back Propagation
Convolutional Neural Networks
Unsupervised Learning, Clustering, k-means
Mixture Models: EM Algorithm, Topic Modelling
Dimensionality Reduction, PCA

Reading list

Kevin P. Murphy. Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective. MIT Press 2012
Christopher M. Bishop. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Springer 2007
Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, Jerome Friedman. The Elements of Statistical Learning. Springer 2011

Taking our courses

This form is not to be used by students studying for a degree in the Department of Computer Science, or for Visiting Students who are registered for Computer Science courses

Other matriculated University of Oxford students who are interested in taking this, or other, courses in the Department of Computer Science, must complete this online form by 17.00 on Friday of 0th week of term in which the course is taught. Late requests, and requests sent by email, will not be considered. All requests must be approved by the relevant Computer Science departmental committee and can only be submitted using this form.