Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783281936 ISBN 13: 9781783281930

Publisher: Packt Publishing, 2013

Incorporating machine learning in your applications is becoming essential. As a programmer this book is the ideal introduction to scikit-learn for your Python environment, taking your skills to a whole new level.

Overview

• Use Python and scikit-learn to create intelligent applications
• Apply regression techniques to predict future behaviour and learn to cluster items in groups by their similarities
• Make use of classification techniques to perform image recognition and document classification

In Detail

Machine learning, the art of creating applications that learn from experience and data, has been around for many years. However, in the era of “big data”, huge amounts of information is being generated. This makes machine learning an unavoidable source of new data-based approximations for problem solving.

With Learning scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python, you will learn to incorporate machine learning in your applications. The book combines an introduction to some of the main concepts and methods in machine learning with practical, hands-on examples of real-world problems. Ranging from handwritten digit recognition to document classification, examples are solved step by step using Scikit-learn and Python.

The book starts with a brief introduction to the core concepts of machine learning with a simple example. Then, using real-world applications and advanced features, it takes a deep dive into the various machine learning techniques.

You will learn to evaluate your results and apply advanced techniques for preprocessing data. You will also be able to select the best set of features and the best methods for each problem.

With Learning scikit-learn: Machine Learning in Python you will learn how to use the Python programming language and the scikit-learn library to build applications that learn from experience, applying the main concepts and techniques of machine learning.

What you will learn from this book

• Set up scikit-learn inside your Python environment
• Classify objects (from documents to human faces and flower species) based on some of their features, using a variety of methods from Support Vector Machines to Naïve Bayes
• Use Decision Trees to explain the main causes of certain phenomenon such as the Titanic passengers’ survival
• Predict house prices using regression techniques
• Display and analyse groups in your data using dimensionality reduction
• Make use of different tools to preprocess, extract, and select the learning features
• Select the best parameters for your models using model selection
• Improve the way you build your models using parallelization techniques

Approach

The book adopts a tutorial-based approach to introduce the user to Scikit-learn.

Who this book is written for

If you are a programmer who wants to explore machine learning and data-based methods to build intelligent applications and enhance your programming skills, this the book for you. No previous experience with machine-learning algorithms is required.

About the Author:

Raúl Garreta

Raúl Garreta is a Computer Engineer with much experience in the theory and application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), where he specialized in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP).

He has an entrepreneur profile with much interest in the application of science, technology, and innovation to the Internet industry and startups. He has worked in many software companies, handling everything from video games to implantable medical devices.

In 2009, he co-founded Tryolabs with the objective to apply AI to the development of intelligent software products, where he performs as the CTO and Product Manager of the company. Besides the application of Machine Learning and NLP, Tryolabs' expertise lies in the Python programming language and has been catering to many clients in Silicon Valley. Raul has also worked in the development of the Python community in Uruguay, co-organizing local PyDay and PyCon conferences.

He is also an assistant professor at the Computer Science Institute of Universidad de la República in Uruguay since 2007, where he has been working on the courses of Machine Learning, NLP, as well as Automata Theory and Formal Languages. Besides this, he is finishing his Masters degree in Machine Learning and NLP. He is also very interested in the research and application of Robotics, Quantum Computing, and Cognitive Modeling. Not only is he a technology enthusiast and science fiction lover (geek) but also a big fan of arts, such as cinema, photography, and painting.