Last Friday, I handed in my final project for Stanford’s Machine Learning course, CS229. The class was great but also very hard. Even though I was already familiar with many of the topics, I found the homework assignments to be very challenging, especially the math proofs. I’m more interested in the application of Machine Learning algorithms than the underlying theory so, at times, the math seemed to be a distraction. But, by the end of the class, I enjoyed solving the hard math problems and appreciated the deeper insight they provided.

I had previously taken Andrew Ng’s Coursera Machine Learning class but there really isn’t a comparison. The on-campus version goes into much greater depth. The lectures for a prior session of CS229 are available online via iTunes and YouTube. They’re definitely worth watching but it’s the homeworks and project that really provide the depth.

I’m planning to discuss my class project in a future post. Now that I’m done with the course, I’m looking forward to blogging more frequently and working on Kaggle competitions. I hear Santa needs help packing his sleigh.