Machine Learning and Machine Learning Extended

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Important note
For homework problems or programming assignments you are allowed to discuss the problems or assignments verbally with other class members, but under no circumstances can you look at or copy anyone else's written solutions or code relating to homework problems or programming assignments. All problem solutions submitted must be material you have personally written during this term. Failure to adhere to this policy can result in a student receiving a failing grade in the module.

Handing in procedure
Submit your work on paper. Written assignments must be submitted before the corresponding tutorial session, but you can hand in the practical assignments any time during the term, until the last day of the term. Don’t forget to put your ID number on any work submitted.

Practical Assignments

Details of the practical assignments are here. These assignments all have a deadline of 12^th December 2008.

Marks

Written assignment marks will appear here.

Practical assignment marks are will appear here.

Office hour

My office hour for this module is Thursday 14.00 – 15.00. (Note that this is a change from the Monday slot originally notified as that turned out to conflict with many students’ other modules.)

Introduction to MatLab

Many Machine Learning methods and algorithms are readily implemented and downloadable.  As new solutions are continuously being designed, most of this stuff is written in MatLab. MATLAB^® is a high-performance language for technical computing. It is easy to use. The name MATLAB stands for matrix laboratory. This is because in MatLab the basic type is the matrix. A scalar number is just a 1 x 1 matrix! You can do operations with matrices in a single line of code.

To use MatLab, login into your unix account and start MatLab by typing

matlab nojvm

You will get a prompt like this:

>>

To get general help, type

>> help

To get help on a <command>, type

>> help <command>

To quit, type

>> quit

Here is a simple MatLab tutorial. It contains all you need for this module.
http://www.cyclismo.org/tutorial/matlab/
Here is another one -- in case you are still not convinced that MatLab is easy.
http://users.rowan.edu/~shreek/networks1/matlabintro.html

Here is a complete online MatLab help
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/techdoc/learn_matlab/learn_matlab.html

Here is the MatLab manual. This is a 184 pgs book (especially chapters 2 and 4).
http://www.mathworks.com/access/helpdesk/help/pdf_doc/matlab/getstart.pdf

By the end of the practical work in this module you will be able to:
- use Machine Learning methods available as MatLab programs
- know how to apply them to real data analysis problems
- know how to look for help on a program or on a method