About this course: This course will introduce the learner to applied machine learning, focusing more on the techniques and methods than on the statistics behind these methods. The course will start with a discussion of how machine learning is different than descriptive statistics, and introduce the scikit learn toolkit. The issue of dimensionality of data will be discussed, and the task of clustering data, as well as evaluating those clusters, will be tackled. Supervised approaches for creating predictive models will be described, and learners will be able to apply the scikit learn predictive modelling methods while understanding process issues related to data generalizability (e.g. cross validation, overfitting). The course will end with a look at more advanced techniques, such as building ensembles, and practical limitations of predictive models. By the end of this course, students will be able to identify the difference between a supervised (classification) and unsupervised (clustering) technique, identify which technique they need to apply for a particular dataset and need, engineer features to meet that need, and write python code to carry out an analysis. This course should be taken after Introduction to Data Science in Python and Applied Plotting, Charting & Data Representation in Python and before Applied Text Mining in Python and Applied Social Analysis in Python.

Who is this class for: This course is part of “Applied Data Science with Python“ and is intended for learners who have basic python or programming background, and want to apply statistics, machine learning, information visualization, social network analysis, and text analysis techniques to gain new insight into data. Only minimal statistics background is expected, and the first course contains a refresh of these basic concepts. There are no geographic restrictions. Learners with a formal training in Computer Science but without formal training in data science will still find the skills they acquire in these courses valuable in their studies and careers.

Created by: University of Michigan

Taught by: Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Associate Professor
School of Information

Basic Info	Course 3 of 5 in the Applied Data Science with Python Specialization.
Level	Intermediate
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.6 stars Average User Rating 4.6See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Module 1: Fundamentals of Machine Learning - Intro to SciKit Learn

This module introduces basic machine learning concepts, tasks, and workflow using an example classification problem based on the K-nearest neighbors method, and implemented using the scikit-learn library.

6 videos, 2 readings

Graded: Module 1 Quiz

Graded: Assignment 1 Submission

WEEK 2

Module 2: Supervised Machine Learning - Part 1

This module delves into a wider variety of supervised learning methods for both classification and regression, learning about the connection between model complexity and generalization performance, the importance of proper feature scaling, and how to control m...

12 videos, 2 readings

Graded: Module 2 Quiz

Graded: Assignment 2 Submission

WEEK 3

Module 3: Evaluation

This module covers evaluation and model selection methods that you can use to help understand and optimize the performance of your machine learning models.

7 videos, 1 reading

Graded: Module 3 Quiz

Graded: Assignment 3 Submission

WEEK 4

Module 4: Supervised Machine Learning - Part 2

This module covers more advanced supervised learning methods that include ensembles of trees (random forests, gradient boosted trees), and neural networks (with an optional summary on deep learning). You will also learn about the critical problem of data leak...

10 videos, 10 readings

Graded: Module 4 Quiz

Graded: Assignment 4 Submission

FAQs

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Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

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University of Michigan

The mission of the University of Michigan is to serve the people of Michigan and the world through preeminence in creating, communicating, preserving and applying knowledge, art, and academic values, and in developing leaders and citizens who will challenge the present and enrich the future.

Pricing

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Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.6 out of 5 of 119 ratings

Insightful and hands on course

Excellent course.

This is a great course. Content is highly organized. The amount of lecture material was just about right. The professor is an excellent lecturer. Assignments and quizzes really helped reinforce my learning. If the Autograder is less demanding, this course would have been better in my opinion.

A great introduction to the practical side of machine learning, particularly if you have already taken Andrew Ng's course. It covers a *lot* of material and the pacing is *very* fast. Week 2 is particularly long, and if you are still a student/working it may take an extra week to complete the course. Quizzes and assignments are not terribly difficult, but be careful of the project assignment in Week 4 (though the bar for a 100% is quite low!). Finally, the accompanying Jupyter Notebooks are very helpful and there are many helpful links to outside resources as well.

A few of the lecture videos feel like an early draft rather than production-quality, with lots of time spent on repeating phrases. The instructor mentions things to be covered "later," but that "later" never comes (for example, in discussing Grid Search). For some background, this course appears to have been repeatedly delayed before its release. To me, is understandable that the creators wanted to get this course out given the demand, but the rush is felt.

Ultimately, however, this is still an excellent introduction to Python Machine Learning, and I do feel the course is well worth taking. Just be prepared to do some more individual learning; however, shouldn't one always be for an online class?)

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Applied Machine Learning in Python

Applied Machine Learning in Python

Applied Machine Learning in Python