Week 1, 21–25 September
Welcome to week 1! After some general introduction, the main aim of this week is to get everyone set up with the tools we’re using, and to be able to use a particular model: “linear regression with basis functions”.
If you’ve done some machine learning before, and know Python, this material could be straightforward, but do quickly work through it all to make sure. If you’re up for it, there is some further reading, and we’re happy to discuss it. We also hope you’ll help others in the class. Please remember that this material may be “easy” if you already understand it, but not until then. Be respectful, understanding and helpful if you see anyone struggling.
Outside your studies, Ed Intelligence, the student-run machine learning society, have two events that you might be interested in:
- Sunday 20 Sep 7pm-9pm BST AI Movie Night
- 24 Sep 2pm-3:30pm BST Intro to Kaggle Workshop
Here is what you need to do in Week 1:
- Background test: If you haven’t done so yet, do our self test to check whether you should take this class or something else.
- Welcome Form: Please fill in the MLPR Welcome Form.
- Lecture notes: Work through the rest of the background and Week 1 notes. Answer all questions in the Week 1 notes (these will not contribute towards your final grade).
- Forum: Try out the Hypothesis forum/annotation system that we are using for MLPR. Please make sure you post to the correct group!
Video demonstration and discussion. - Virtual Meet-up: We have four optional Week 1 meet-up and questions events: Tuesday 22 September and Friday 25 September at 9:30 AM and 4:30 PM UK time (BST, UTC+1) for meeting MLPR students and staff via Microsoft Teams. We have meet-up instructions for this event. You must fill out the welcome form to be included in these events.
In this week and the next, there are no hard deadlines. However, from Week 3 on, you must have submitted the questions to the week’s notes, among other things, by Friday. We recommend that you submit everything by Thursday, so you should already get in the habit by completing this week’s questions by Thursday if you can.