This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to Machine Learning techniques and algorithms. This Third Edition covers newer approaches that have become highly topical, including deep learning, and auto-encoding, introductory information about temporal learning and hidden Markov models, and a much more detailed treatment of reinforcement learning. The book is written in an easy-to-understand manner with many examples and pictures, and with a lot of practical advice and discussions of simple applications.
The main topics include Bayesian classifiers, nearest-neighbor classifiers, linear and polynomial classifiers, decision trees, rule-induction programs, artificial neural networks, support vector machines, boosting algorithms, unsupervised learning (including Kohonen networks and auto-encoding), deep learning, reinforcement learning, temporal learning (including long short-term memory), hidden Markov models, and the genetic algorithm. Special attention is devoted to performance evaluation, statistical assessment, and to many practical issues ranging from feature selection and feature construction to bias, context, multi-label domains, and the problem of imbalanced classes.
The main topics include Bayesian classifiers, nearest-neighbor classifiers, linear and polynomial classifiers, decision trees, rule-induction programs, artificial neural networks, support vector machines, boosting algorithms, unsupervised learning (including Kohonen networks and auto-encoding), deep learning, reinforcement learning, temporal learning (including long short-term memory), hidden Markov models, and the genetic algorithm. Special attention is devoted to performance evaluation, statistical assessment, and to many practical issues ranging from feature selection and feature construction to bias, context, multi-label domains, and the problem of imbalanced classes.
"Miroslav Kubat's Introduction to Machine Learning is an excellent overview of a broad range of Machine Learning (ML) techniques. It fills a longstanding need for texts that cover the middle ground of neither oversimplifying nor too technical explanations of key concepts of key Machine Learning algorithms. ... All in all it is a very informative and instructive read which is well suited for undergraduate students and aspiring data scientists." (Holger K. von Joua, Google+, plus.google.com, December, 2016)
"It is superbly organized: each section includes a 'what have you learned' summary, and every chapter has a short summary, accompanying (brief) historical remarks, and a slew of exercises. ... In most of the chapters, there are very clear examples, well chosen and illustrated, that really help the reader understand each concept. ... I did learn quite a bit about very basic machine learning by reading this book." (Jacques Carette, Computing Reviews, January, 2016)
"It is superbly organized: each section includes a 'what have you learned' summary, and every chapter has a short summary, accompanying (brief) historical remarks, and a slew of exercises. ... In most of the chapters, there are very clear examples, well chosen and illustrated, that really help the reader understand each concept. ... I did learn quite a bit about very basic machine learning by reading this book." (Jacques Carette, Computing Reviews, January, 2016)