Machine Learning in Action

Summary

Machine Learning in Action is unique book that blends the foundational theories of machine learning with the practical realities of building tools for everyday data analysis. You'll use the flexible Python programming language to build programs that implement algorithms for data classification, forecasting, recommendations, and higher-level features like summarization and simplification.

A machine is said to learn when its performance improves with experience. Learning requires algorithms and programs that capture data and ferret out the interesting or useful patterns. Once the specialized domain of analysts and mathematicians, machine learning is becoming a skill needed by many.

Machine Learning in Action is a clearly written tutorial for developers. It avoids academic language and takes you straight to the techniques you'll use in your day-to-day work. Many (Python) examples present the core algorithms of statistical data processing, data analysis, and data visualization in code you can reuse. You'll understand the concepts and how they fit in with tactical tasks like classification, forecasting, recommendations, and higher-level features like summarization and simplification.

Readers need no prior experience with machine learning or statistical processing. Familiarity with Python is helpful.

Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

• A no-nonsense introduction
• Examples showing common ML tasks
• Everyday data analysis
• Implementing classic algorithms like Apriori and Adaboos

PART 1 CLASSIFICATION

1. Machine learning basics
2. Classifying with k-Nearest Neighbors
3. Splitting datasets one feature at a time: decision trees
4. Classifying with probability theory: naive Bayes
5. Logistic regression
6. Support vector machines
7. Improving classification with the AdaBoost meta algorithm

PART 2 FORECASTING NUMERIC VALUES WITH REGRESSION

8. Predicting numeric values: regression
9. Tree-based regression

PART 3 UNSUPERVISED LEARNING

10. Grouping unlabeled items using k-means clustering
11. Association analysis with the Apriori algorithm
12. Efficiently finding frequent itemsets with FP-growth

PART 4 ADDITIONAL TOOLS

13. Using principal component analysis to simplify data
14. Simplifying data with the singular value decomposition
15. Big data and MapReduce

Peter Harrington holds a Bachelors and a Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering. He is a professional developer and data scientist. Peter holds five US patents and his work has been published in numerous academic journals.