In a previous article, we had a little introduction to the big picture of machine learning. More than what is it is, we focused on what it is not. Today we explore the category of supervised learning that opens the door to our understanding of advanced machine learning techniques. To see how supervised learning is proliferating in all walks of life, consider a few examples below. Insurance companies can predict the costs of storms damages for the future years due to climate change and adjust their premiums accordingly. During an interview, companies can classify the candidates with high and low
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k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) – A Man is Known by the Company He Keeps
Aesop was a Greek storyteller who created lots of short stories more than 2500 years ago (such as the hare and the tortoise), now collectively known as Aesop’s Fables. "A man is known by the company he keeps" is a quote also attributed to him that has survived through the ages and has proven to be a timeless truth. The k-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) algorithm is essentially based on the same idea. It suggests that when a machine needs to classify a new data point in an application, examining its neighboring data points is an effective strategy. In the spirit of
Continue readingLogistic Regression in Machine Learning
A hundred thousand years ago, our ancestors used to roam in the savannas and jungles. It was absolutely necessary for them to judge (or classify) everything they encounter: a movement in the bushes could be due to a harmless rabbit or a dangerous tiger, a fruit on a plant could be nutritious or poisonous, and so on. Then came the wizards who invented language and then people developed agriculture, writing and industry. The advancement in civilization and the quest for scientific knowledge revealed the benefits of a wide spectrum and viewing shades of gray instead of of simple black and
Continue readingMachine Learning – The Big Picture
Machine learning is probably the defining technology of the past decade. As with all walks of life, it is playing an increasingly significant role in existing and future wireless networks. In this article, we explore the big picture of this exciting field. Nature vs Man Humans have always been interested in the workings of a mind, replicated by machines in many science fiction stories. During their investigations on Artificial Intelligence (AI, of which machine learning is a subset), many scientists observed that the machines need not copy the exact brain but a functional level performance is good enough that can
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