Beginner Machine Learning Topics?

[Jesse B]

I'm looking for some personal projects to advance my current programming ability over the summer. I'm currently a student, and I just want to keep active over the break.

I've been absolutely fascinated by machine learning for quite some time now, and feel that my programming abilities are starting to get to the point that I can attempt to take on some more intricate subjects.

I'm proficient with C, Java, and Python (and have exposure to many others). I'm more than willing to take on a new language if need be.

I'm basically looking for some direction; this is a vast subject, and I'm not really sure where to start. Any suggestions as far as books/articles/etc. go? Any smaller topics that I should be looking into first?

Thanks,


- Jesse

 

[odoe]

I haven't finished it yet, but Machine Learning In Action from Manning pub has been an interesting read. I also started that free ML online course and still working through that when I get the time. The online course covered some detailed items (like the math behind it) that I didn't get out of the early chapters of that Manning book.

 

[Jesse B]

Thanks, I'll be sure to check out both. I assume by the online course you mean the Stanford one?

 

[Cod]

You should be able to pick up any computer architecture book and learn the topic. Also, check out http://www.atariarchives.org/mlb/, which provides a free textbook on learning machine language. There are a lot of other books out there, so just keep searching until you find something that stimulates your interests.

 

[mikeblas]

I'd be surprised to see machine learning in a computer architecture book. Which text are you thinking of?

Machine learning has some different applications. You can find some interesting texts on pattern matching and image recognition or computer vision applications. There's also lots of machine learning going on in data mining. The latter approaches are a bit more statistical, while the prior are often more algorithmic.

A book I've used in the past is Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques by Whitten, Hall, and Frank. I bought a copy of Machine Learning for Hackers from O'Reilly, but I haven't spent much time with it.

 

[Jesse B]

I'd be surprised to see machine learning in a computer architecture book. Which text are you thinking of?

Judging by the content of his post I think he was under the impression I was asking for material on Machine Language.

Machine learning has some different applications. You can find some interesting texts on pattern matching and image recognition or computer vision applications. There's also lots of machine learning going on in data mining. The latter approaches are a bit more statistical, while the prior are often more algorithmic.

A book I've used in the past is Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques by Whitten, Hall, and Frank. I bought a copy of Machine Learning for Hackers from O'Reilly, but I haven't spent much time with it.

Cheers, thanks for the suggestions. Looks like I'm gonna have a bit of reading ahead of me

 

[jimmyb]

I used this book a while ago when doing some work on pattern recognition algorithms:
http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-Learning-Information-Statistics/dp/0387310738

I don't have a lot to compare it with but it was quite useful for me in terms of theory, and giving me a good background to read and understand academic papers.

It requires a decent understanding of algebra, multivariable calculus, and probability/random-processes. It also tends to focus on pattern recognition and machine learning from a Bayesian perspective, which I understand is not the only approach.