Bootstrap aggregation, or bagging, is a popular ensemble method that fits a decision tree on different bootstrap samples of the training dataset. It is simple to implement and effective on a wide range of problems, and importantly, modest extensions to the technique result in ensemble methods that are among some of the most powerful techniques, […]
Archive | Ensemble Learning
A Gentle Introduction to Ensemble Diversity for Machine Learning
Ensemble learning combines the predictions from machine learning models for classification and regression. We pursue using ensemble methods to achieve improved predictive performance, and it is this improvement over any of the contributing models that defines whether an ensemble is good or not. A property that is present in a good ensemble is the diversity […]
A Gentle Introduction to Multiple-Model Machine Learning
An ensemble learning method involves combining the predictions from multiple contributing models. Nevertheless, not all techniques that make use of multiple machine learning models are ensemble learning algorithms. It is common to divide a prediction problem into subproblems. For example, some problems naturally subdivide into independent but related subproblems and a machine learning model can […]
Essence of Boosting Ensembles for Machine Learning
Boosting is a powerful and popular class of ensemble learning techniques. Historically, boosting algorithms were challenging to implement, and it was not until AdaBoost demonstrated how to implement boosting that the technique could be used effectively. AdaBoost and modern gradient boosting work by sequentially adding models that correct the residual prediction errors of the model. […]
Ensemble Machine Learning With Python (7-Day Mini-Course)
Ensemble Learning Algorithms With Python Crash Course. Get on top of ensemble learning with Python in 7 days. Ensemble learning refers to machine learning models that combine the predictions from two or more models. Ensembles are an advanced approach to machine learning that are often used when the capability and skill of the predictions are […]
How to Develop a Weighted Average Ensemble With Python
Weighted average ensembles assume that some models in the ensemble have more skill than others and give them more contribution when making predictions. The weighted average or weighted sum ensemble is an extension over voting ensembles that assume all models are equally skillful and make the same proportional contribution to predictions made by the ensemble. […]
Strong Learners vs. Weak Learners in Ensemble Learning
It is common to describe ensemble learning techniques in terms of weak and strong learners. For example, we may desire to construct a strong learner from the predictions of many weak learners. In fact, this is the explicit goal of the boosting class of ensemble learning algorithms. Although we may describe models as weak or […]
A Gentle Introduction to Mixture of Experts Ensembles
Mixture of experts is an ensemble learning technique developed in the field of neural networks. It involves decomposing predictive modeling tasks into sub-tasks, training an expert model on each, developing a gating model that learns which expert to trust based on the input to be predicted, and combines the predictions. Although the technique was initially […]
Growing and Pruning Ensembles in Python
Ensemble member selection refers to algorithms that optimize the composition of an ensemble. This may involve growing an ensemble from available models or pruning members from a fully defined ensemble. The goal is often to reduce the model or computational complexity of an ensemble with little or no effect on the performance of an ensemble, […]
Dynamic Ensemble Selection (DES) for Classification in Python
Dynamic ensemble selection is an ensemble learning technique that automatically selects a subset of ensemble members just-in-time when making a prediction. The technique involves fitting multiple machine learning models on the training dataset, then selecting the models that are expected to perform best when making a prediction for a specific new example, based on the […]