Statistical Pattern Recognition
Prof. Thomas BroxStatistical pattern recognition, often better known under the term "machine learning", is a key element of modern computer science. Its goal is to find, learn, and recognize patterns in complex data, for example in images, speech, biological pathways, the internet. In contrast to classical computer science, where the computer program, the algorithm, is the key element of the process, in machine learning we have a learning algorithm, but in the end the actual information is not in the algorithm, but in the representation of the data processed by this algorithm.
This course gives an introduction in all tasks of machine learning: classification, regression, and clustering. In the case of classification, we learn a decision function from annotated training examples (e.g., a set of dog and non-dog images). Given a new image, the classifier should be able to tell whether it is a dog image or not. In regression we learn a mapping from an input function to an output function. Again this mapping is learned from a set of input/output pairs. Both classification and regression are supervised methods as the data comes together with the correct output. Clustering is an unsupervised learning method, where we are just given unlabeled data and where clustering should separate the data into reasonable subsets. The course is based in large parts on the textbook "Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning" by Christopher Bishop. The exercises will consist of theoretical assignments and programming assignments in Python.
The content of this course is complementary to the Machine Learning course offered by Joschka Boedecker and Frank Hutter. It absolutely makes sense to attend both courses if you want to specialize in Machine Learning. It also complements the Deep Learning course.
The lecture will be provided as online course. There is recorded class material, which will be augmented by a weekly online meeting in Zoom, which provides additional updates (the state of the art is changing rapidly) and allows you to ask questions about the material. Be aware that the online meetings will not be recorded. The exercises will be also handled online via an online forum, where you can seek the help of other students, and by weekly Zoom meetings, where you can interact with the advisors for the excercises. Access information will be provided in the first lecture week via email. Ensure that you are registered for the course before that week.
Those, who were not registered in time, for whatever reason, can login to the Discussion Forum and find the information there.
Note: This semester we will provide exercise material in Python (Jupyter notebook format). They will be available in this Github repository. All exercises in Python are not available immediately as they are currently under development, but they will be added as the course progresses. Please check the Github repository for updates.
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Slides and Recordings
Additional information and some helpful hints regarding the exercises can be found here.