Gradient descent is an optimization algorithm that follows the negative gradient of an objective function in order to locate the minimum of the function. A limitation of gradient descent is that it uses the same step size (learning rate) for each input variable. AdaGradn and RMSProp are extensions to gradient descent that add a self-adaptive […]
Semi-supervised learning is a learning problem that involves a small number of labeled examples and a large number of unlabeled examples. Learning problems of this type are challenging as neither supervised nor unsupervised learning algorithms are able to make effective use of the mixtures of labeled and untellable data. As such, specialized semis-supervised learning algorithms […]
It can be challenging to develop a neural network predictive model for a new dataset. One approach is to first inspect the dataset and develop ideas for what models might work, then explore the learning dynamics of simple models on the dataset, then finally develop and tune a model for the dataset with a robust […]
Some prediction problems require predicting both numeric values and a class label for the same input. A simple approach is to develop both regression and classification predictive models on the same data and use the models sequentially. An alternative and often more effective approach is to develop a single neural network model that can predict […]
Iterated Local Search is a stochastic global optimization algorithm. It involves the repeated application of a local search algorithm to modified versions of a good solution found previously. In this way, it is like a clever version of the stochastic hill climbing with random restarts algorithm. The intuition behind the algorithm is that random restarts […]
It can be challenging to develop a neural network predictive model for a new dataset. One approach is to first inspect the dataset and develop ideas for what models might work, then explore the learning dynamics of simple models on the dataset, then finally develop and tune a model for the dataset with a robust […]
XGBoost is a powerful and effective implementation of the gradient boosting ensemble algorithm. It can be challenging to configure the hyperparameters of XGBoost models, which often leads to using large grid search experiments that are both time consuming and computationally expensive. An alternate approach to configuring XGBoost models is to evaluate the performance of the […]
Function optimization is a field of study that seeks an input to a function that results in the maximum or minimum output of the function. There are a large number of optimization algorithms and it is important to study and develop intuitions for optimization algorithms on simple and easy-to-visualize test functions. Two-dimensional functions take two […]
Machine learning algorithms have hyperparameters that allow the algorithms to be tailored to specific datasets. Although the impact of hyperparameters may be understood generally, their specific effect on a dataset and their interactions during learning may not be known. Therefore, it is important to tune the values of algorithm hyperparameters as part of a machine […]
XGBoost is a powerful and popular implementation of the gradient boosting ensemble algorithm. An important aspect in configuring XGBoost models is the choice of loss function that is minimized during the training of the model. The loss function must be matched to the predictive modeling problem type, in the same way we must choose appropriate […]
