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This site contains all material relevant for the course on Applied Data Analysis and Machine Learning, FYS-STK3155/4155 at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Introduction

Probability theory and statistical methods play a central role in science. Nowadays we are surrounded by huge amounts of data. For example, there are about one trillion web pages; more than one hour of video is uploaded to YouTube every second, amounting to years of content every day; the genomes of 1000s of people, each of which has a length of more than a billion base pairs, have been sequenced by various labs and so on. This deluge of data calls for automated methods of data analysis, which is exactly what machine learning aims at providing.

Learning outcomes

This course aims at giving you insights and knowledge about many of the central algorithms used in Data Analysis and Machine Learning. The course is project based and through various numerical projects, normally three, you will be exposed to fundamental research problems in these fields, with the aim to reproduce state of the art scientific results. Both supervised and unsupervised methods will be covered. You will learn to develop and structure large codes for studying different cases where Machine Learning is applied to, get acquainted with computing facilities and learn to handle large scientific projects. A good scientific and ethical conduct is emphasized throughout the course. More specifically, after this course you will

Learn about basic data analysis, statistical analysis, Bayesian statistics, Monte Carlo sampling, data optimization and machine learning;
Be capable of extending the acquired knowledge to other systems and cases;
Have an understanding of central algorithms used in data analysis and machine learning;
Understand linear methods for regression and classification, from ordinary least squares, via Lasso and Ridge to Logistic regression;
Learn about various neural networks and deep learning methods for supervised and unsupervised learning;
Learn about about decision trees, random forests, bagging and boosting methods
Learn about support vector machines and kernel transformations
Reduction of data sets, from PCA to clustering, supervised and unsupervised methods
Work on numerical projects to illustrate the theory. The projects play a central role and you are expected to know modern programming languages like Python or C++.

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge in programming and mathematics, with an emphasis on linear algebra. Knowledge of Python or/and C++ as programming languages is strongly recommended and experience with Jupiter notebook is recommended. Required courses are the equivalents to the University of Oslo mathematics courses MAT1100, MAT1110, MAT1120 and at least one of the corresponding computing and programming courses INF1000/INF1110 or MAT-INF1100/MAT-INF1100L/BIOS1100/KJM-INF1100. Most universities offer nowadays a basic programming course (often compulsory) where Python is the recurring programming language.

The course has two central parts

Statistical analysis and optimization of data
Machine learning

These topics will be scattered thorughout the course and may not necessarily be taught separately. Rather, we will often take an approach (during the lectures and project/exercise sessions where say elements from statistical data analysis are mixed with specific Machine Learning algorithms.

Statistical analysis and optimization of data

The following topics will be covered

Basic concepts, expectation values, variance, covariance, correlation functions and errors;
Simpler models, binomial distribution, the Poisson distribution, simple and multivariate normal distributions;
Central elements of Bayesian statistics and modeling;
Gradient methods for data optimization
Monte Carlo methods, Markov chains, Metropolis-Hastings algorithm;
Linear methods for regression and classification;
Estimation of errors using cross-validation, blocking, bootstrapping and jackknife methods;
Principal Component Analysis and its mathematical foundation

Machine learning

The following topics will be covered

Linear Regression and Logistic Regression;
Neural networks and deep learning;
Decisions trees and nearest neighbor algorithms
Support vector machines
Bayesian Neural Networks
Boltzmann Machines
Dimensionality reduction, from PCA to cluster models

Hands-on demonstrations, exercises and projects aim at deepening your understanding of these topics.

Computational aspects play a central role and you are expected to work on numerical examples and projects which illustrate the theory and varous algorithms discussed during the lectures. We recommend strongly to form small project groups of 2-3 participants.

Practicalities

Four lectures per week, Fall semester, 10 ECTS;
Four hours of laboratory sessions for work on computational projects;
Three projects which are graded and count 1/3 each of the final grade;
A selected number of weekly assignments;
The course is part of the CS Master of Science program, but is open to other bachelor and Master of Science students at the University of Oslo;
Grading scale: Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail;
The course is offered as a FYS-MAT4155 (Master of Science level) and a FYS-MAT3155 (senior undergraduate) course;
We use Piazza for course communication, a special link on how to register to Piazza can be found at the official University of Oslo page for the course. Slack is also used for course communication. The Slack link is machinelearninguio.slack.com ;

Possible textbooks

Recommended textbooks:

Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, Jerome H. Friedman, The Elements of Statistical Learning, Springer
Aurelien Geron, Hands‑On Machine Learning with Scikit‑Learn and TensorFlow, O'Reilly

General learning book on statistical analysis:

Christian Robert and George Casella, Monte Carlo Statistical Methods, Springer
Peter Hoff, A first course in Bayesian statistical models, Springer

General Machine Learning Books:

Kevin Murphy, Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective, MIT Press
Christopher M. Bishop, Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning, Springer
David J.C. MacKay, Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms, Cambridge University Press
David Barber, Bayesian Reasoning and Machine Learning, Cambridge University Press

Links to relevant courses at the University of Oslo

The link here https://www.mn.uio.no/english/research/about/centre-focus/innovation/data-science/studies/ gives an excellent overview of courses on Machine learning at UiO.

STK2100 Machine learning and statistical methods for prediction and classification http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/math/STK2100/index-eng.html.
IN3050 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/IN3050/index-eng.html. Introductory course in machine learning and AI with an algorithmic approach.
STK-INF3000/4000 Selected Topics in Data Science http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/math/STK-INF3000/index-eng.html. The course provides insight into selected contemporary relevant topics within Data Science.
IN4080 Natural Language Processing https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/IN4080/index.html. Probabilistic and machine learning techniques applied to natural language processing.
STK-IN4300 Statistical learning methods in Data Science https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/math/STK-IN4300/index-eng.html. An advanced introduction to statistical and machine learning. For students with a good mathematics and statistics background.
INF4490 Biologically Inspired Computing http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/INF4490/. An introduction to self-adapting methods also called artificial intelligence or machine learning.
IN-STK5000 Adaptive Methods for Data-Based Decision Making https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/IN-STK5000/index-eng.html. Methods for adaptive collection and processing of data based on machine learning techniques.
IN5400/INF5860 Machine Learning for Image Analysis https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/ifi/IN5400/. An introduction to deep learning with particular emphasis on applications within Image analysis, but useful for other application areas too.
TEK5040 Deep learning for autonomous systems https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/its/TEK5040/. The course addresses advanced algorithms and architectures for deep learning with neural networks. The course provides an introduction to how deep-learning techniques can be used in the construction of key parts of advanced autonomous systems that exist in physical environments and cyber environments.
STK4051 Computational Statistics https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/math/STK4051/index-eng.html
STK4021 Applied Bayesian Analysis and Numerical Methods https://www.uio.no/studier/emner/matnat/math/STK4021/i

JoeBargo / MachineLearning