BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & SCIENCE, PILANI

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PROGRAMMES

Digital
Part A: Content Design

Course Title Machine Learning

Course No(s) DSECL ZG565

Credit Units 4

Credit Model

Content Authors Dr. Sugata Ghosal

Version 1.0

Date May 29th, 2019

Course Objectives

No

Introduce students to the basic concepts and techniques of Machine Learning.

CO1

To gain experience of doing independent study and research in the field of Machine Learning
CO2

To develop skills of using recent machine learning software tools to evaluate learning
CO3
algorithms and model selection for solving practical problems

Text Book(s)

T1 Tom M. Mitchell, Machine Learning, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. International

Edition 1997

(http://personal.disco.unimib.it/Vanneschi/McGrawHill_-_Machine_Learning_-Tom_Mitchell.pdf)
 T2 Christopher M. Bhisop, Pattern Recognition & Machine Learning, Springer, 2006
(http://www.rmki.kfki.hu/~banmi/elte/Bishop%20-%20Pattern%20Recognition%20and%20Machine%20Learning.pdf)

Reference Book(s) & other resources

R1 CHRISTOPHER J.C. BURGES: A Tutorial on Support Vector Machines for Pattern

Recognition, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 1–43.

Content Structure

1. Introduction
1.1. Objective of the course
1.2. Design a Learning System
1.3. Issues in Machine Learning

2. Mathematical Preliminaries
2.1. Linear Algebra, Calculus, Probability theory
2.2. Decision Theory
2.3. Information Theory

3. Bayesian Learning
3.1. MLE Hypothesis
3.2. MAP Hypothesis
3.3. Bayes Rule

4. Linear models for classification

4.1. Probabilistic Generative Classifiers
4.2. Naïve Bayes Classifier
4.3. Discriminant Functions
4.4. Probabilistic Discriminative Classifiers

5. Linear models for Regression

5.1. Linear basis function models
5.2. Bayesian linear regression
5.3. Bias-variance decomposition

6. Decision Tree
6.1. Avoiding Overfitting
6.2. Handling Continuous valued attributes, missing attributes
6.3. Random Forest
 7. Neural Networks
7.1. Perceptron
7.2. Back propagation network
7.3. Convolutional network
7.4. Recurrent network

8. Instance-based Learning
8.1. k-Nearest Neighbor Learning
8.2. Locally Weighted Regression (LWR) Learning
8.3. Radial Basis Functions

9. Ensemble Learning
9.1. Combining Classifiers
9.2. Bagging
9.3. Boosting

10. Support Vector Machine

10.1. Theory of SVM
10.2. Linearly separable data
10.3. Non-linearly separable data

11. Unsupervised Learning

11.1. Mixture Models
11.2. Expectation Maximization (EM) Algorithm
11.3. K-means Clustering

Learning Outcomes:

No Learning Outcomes

LO1 A strong understanding of the basics of Machine Learning algorithms

LO2 Able to solve Machine Learning problems using appropriate learning techniques

LO3 Evaluate machine learning solutions to problems

LO4 Identify appropriate tools to implement the solutions to machine learning problems and
implement solutions

Part B: Learning Plan

 Academic Term October 2019

Course Title Machine Learning

Course No DSECL ZG565

Lead Instructor Dr. Chetana Gavankar

Session No. Topic Title Study/HW Resource

Reference
1 Introduction
Objective, What is Machine Learning? Application
areas of Machine Learning, Why Machine Learning is T1 – Ch1
important? Design a Learning System, Issues in
Machine Learning

2 Mathematical Preliminaries
Linear Algebra, Calculus, Probability theory,
Probability Densities, Gaussian Distribution, Decision Lecture Notes,
Theory, Minimum Misclassification Rate, Information T2 – Ch2
Theory, Measure of Information, Entropy

3 Bayesian Learning
MLE Hypothesis, Bayes Rule, MAP Hypothesis, T1 - Ch. 6
Minimum Description Length (MDL) principle

4 Linear models for classification

Probabilistic Generative Classifiers, Bayes optimal T1 - Ch. 6
classifier, Naïve Bayes Classifier

5 Linear models for classification

T1 – Ch. 6
Discriminant Functions, Probabilistic Discriminative
T2 - Ch. 4
Classifiers, text classification model, image
classification
6 Linear models for Regression
T2 - Ch. 3
Linear basis function models, Bayesian linear
T1 – Ch. 6
regression, Bias-variance decomposition

7 Decision Tree
Handling overfitting, continuous attributes, missing T1 – Ch. 3
attributes, random forest
8 Review of Session 1 to 7 Books, Web references
and Slides

9 Neural Network T1 - Ch. 4

Perceptron, neural network architecture, Back propagation T2 - Ch. 5

10 Neural Network T1 - Ch. 4

Convolutional network, recurrent network T2 - Ch. 5

11 Instance-based Learning
K-Nearest Neighbor Learning, Locally Weighted Regression T1 - Ch. 8
(LWR) Learning, Radial Basis Functions

12 Ensemble Learning
T2 – Ch. 14
Combining classifiers, Bagging, Boosting, AdaBoost,
Lecture Notes
Gradient Boosting

13 Support Vector Machine -I R1

Theory of SVM, VC dimension, Linearly separable data

14 Support Vector Machine - II R1

Non-linearly separable data, Kernel Trick

15 Unsupervised Learning T1 - Ch. 6

Mixture Models, K-means Clustering, EM algorithm T2 - Ch. 9

16 Review of session 9 to 15 Books, Web references

and Slides
Detailed Plan for Lab work

Lab No. Lab Objective Lab Sheet Access Session

URL Reference
1 Linear Regression and Gradient Descent 6
2 Logistic Regression classifier 5
3 Single layer Back propagation NN 7
4 K-nearest Neighbour 11
5 SVM 13
6 K-means clustering 15

Evaluation Scheme:
Legend: EC = Evaluation Component; AN = After Noon Session; FN = Fore Noon Session
No Name Type Duration Weight Day, Date, Session, Time
EC-1 Quiz-I Online 5%
Assignment-I Take 13%
Home
Assignment-II Take 12%
Home
EC-2 Mid-Semester Test Closed 1.5 Hrs 30%
Book
EC-3 Comprehensive Exam Open Book 2.5 Hrs 40%

Note:
Syllabus for Mid-Semester Test (Closed Book): Topics in Session Nos. 1 to 8
Syllabus for Comprehensive Exam (Open Book): All topics (Session Nos. 1 to 16)
Important links and information:
Elearn portal: https://elearn.bits-pilani.ac.in or Canvas
Students are expected to visit the Elearn portal on a regular basis and stay up to date with the latest
announcements and deadlines.
Contact sessions: Students should attend the online lectures as per the schedule provided on the Elearn
portal.
Evaluation Guidelines:
1. EC-1 consists of either two Assignments or three Quizzes. Students will attempt them through
the course pages on the Elearn portal. Announcements will be made on the portal, in a timely
manner.
2. For Closed Book tests: No books or reference material of any kind will be permitted.
3. For Open Book exams: Use of books and any printed / written reference material (filed or
bound) is permitted. However, loose sheets of paper will not be allowed. Use of calculators
is permitted in all exams. Laptops/Mobiles of any kind are not allowed. Exchange of any
material is not allowed.
4. If a student is unable to appear for the Regular Test/Exam due to genuine exigencies, the
student should follow the procedure to apply for the Make-Up Test/Exam which will be made
available on the Elearn portal. The Make-Up Test/Exam will be conducted only at selected
exam centres on the dates to be announced later.
It shall be the responsibility of the individual student to be regular in maintaining the self study
schedule as given in the course handout, attend the online lectures, and take all the prescribed
evaluation components such as Assignment/Quiz, Mid-Semester Test and Comprehensive Exam
according to the evaluation scheme provided in the handout.