Tag Archives: machine learning
Reducing Overfitting vs Models Complexity: Machine Learning
Last updated: 25th August, 2024 In machine learning, model complexity and overfitting are related in that the model overfitting is a problem that can occur when a model is too complex for different reasons. This can cause the model to fit the noise & outliers in the data rather than the underlying pattern. As a result, the model will perform poorly when applied to new and unseen data. In this blog post, we will discuss model complexity and how you can avoid overfitting in your models by handling the complexity. As data scientists, it is of utmost importance to understand the concepts related to model complexity and how it impacts …
Model Parallelism vs Data Parallelism: Examples
Last updated: 24th August, 2024 Model parallelism and data parallelism are two strategies used to distribute the training of large machine-learning models across multiple computing resources, such as GPUs. They form key categories of multi-GPU training paradigms. These strategies are particularly important in deep learning, where models and datasets can be very large. What’s Data Parallelism? In data parallelism, we break down the data into small batches. Each GPU works on one batch of data at a time. It calculates two things: the loss, which tells us how far off our model’s predictions are from the actual outcomes, and the loss gradients, which guide us on how to adjust the …
Overfitting & Underfitting in Machine Learning
Last updated: 24th August, 2024 The performance of the machine learning models on unseen datasets depends upon two key concepts called underfitting and overfitting. In this post, you will learn about these concepts and more. In addition, you will also get a chance to test your understanding by attempting the quiz. The quiz will help you prepare well for data scientist interviews. Introduction to Overfitting & Underfitting Assuming an independent and identically distributed (I.I.d) dataset, when the prediction error on both the training and validation dataset is high, and the difference between them is very minimal, the model is said to have underfitted. In this scenario, it becomes cumbersome to …
Self-Supervised Learning: Concepts, Examples
Last updated: 20th August, 2024 Self-supervised learning is an approach to training machine learning models primarily for large corpus of unlabeled dataset. It has gained significant traction due to its effectiveness in various applications related to text and image. Self-supervised learning differs from supervised learning, where models are trained using labeled data, and unsupervised learning, where models are trained using unlabeled data without any pre-defined objectives. Instead, self-supervised learning defines pretext tasks as training models to extract useful features from the data that can be later fine-tuned for specific downstream tasks. The potential of self-supervised learning has already been demonstrated in many real-world applications, such as image classification, natural language …
MSE vs RMSE vs MAE vs MAPE vs R-Squared: When to Use?
Last updated: 18th August, 2024 As data scientists, we navigate a sea of metrics to evaluate the performance of our regression models. Understanding these metrics – Mean Squared Error (MSE), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE), Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE), and R-Squared – is crucial for robust model evaluation and selection. In this blog, we delve into the intricacies of these different metrics while learning them based on clear definitions, formulas, and guidance on when to use which of these metrics. Different Types of Regression Models Evaluation Metrics The following are different types of regression model evaluation metrics including MSE, RMSE, MAE, MAPE, R-squared, and Adjusted …
K-Fold Cross Validation in Machine Learning – Python Example
Last updated: 16th Aug, 2024 In this post, you will learn about K-fold Cross-Validation concepts used while training machine learning models with the help of Python code examples. K-fold cross-validation is a data splitting technique that is primarily used for assessing the model accuracy given smaller datasets. This technique can be implemented with k > 1 folds where k is equal number of data splits. K-Fold Cross Validation is also known as k-cross, k-fold cross-validation, k-fold CV, and k-folds. The k-fold cross-validation technique can be implemented easily using Python with scikit learn (Sklearn) package which provides an easy way to implement training of k-fold cross-validation models. It is important to learn the …
Random Forest Classifier – Sklearn Python Example
Last updated: 14th Aug, 2024 A random forest classifier is an ensemble machine learning model which is used for classification problems, and operates by constructing a multitude of decision trees during training, and, predicting the class label (of the data). In general, Random Forest is popular due to its high accuracy, robustness to overfitting, ability to handle large datasets with numerous features, and its effectiveness for both classification and regression tasks. Random Forest and Decision Tree classification algorithms are different, although Random Forest is built upon the concept of Decision Trees. In this post, you will learn about the concepts of random forest classifiers and how to train a Random …
Decision Tree Regression vs Linear Regression: Differences
When it comes to building a regression model, one comes across the question such as whether to train the regression model using DecisionTree Regressor algorithm or linear regression algorithm? The following is the key differences you need to know in order to decide which algorithm is the most suitable one, and, why and when one can use one over the other? Linear vs Non-Linear Dataset: Which Algorithm to Use? Linear regression algorithm can be used when there exists linear relationship between the response and predictor variables in the given data set. For two or three dimensional datasets, it is as easy as draw scatter plot and find about the said …
Parametric vs Non-Parametric Models: Differences, Examples
Last updated: 11 Aug, 2024 When working with machine learning models, data scientists often come across a fundamental question: What sets parametric and non-parametric models apart? What are the key differences between these two different classes of models? What needs to be done when working on these models? This is also one of the most frequent questions asked in the interviews. Machine learning models can be parametric or non-parametric. Parametric models are those that require the specification of some parameters before they can be used to make predictions, while non-parametric models do not rely on any specific parameter settings and therefore often produce more accurate results. These two distinct approaches …
How to know if Linear Regression Model is Appropriate?
If you want to build a model for predicting a numerical value and wondering whether the linear regression model is most appropriate or valid, then creating the regression scatter plot is the most efficient way. And, this works best if the data set is two or three-dimensional. If a dataset is two-dimensional, it’s simple enough to plot the data to determine its shape. You can plot three-dimensional data too. The objective is to find whether the data set is relatively linear. When the plot is created, the data points fall roughly along a straight line as shown below. Whether Linear Regression Appropriate for High-dimension Datasets? The challenge comes when we …
Lasso Regression in Machine Learning: Python Example
Last updated: 10th Aug, 2024 Lasso regression, sometimes referred to as L1 regularization, is a technique in linear regression that incorporates regularization to curb overfitting and enhance the performance of machine learning models. It works by adding a penalty term to the cost function that encourages the model to select only the most important features and set the coefficients of less important features to zero. This makes Lasso regression a popular method for feature selection and high-dimensional data analysis. In this post, you will learn concepts, formulas, advantages, and limitations of Lasso regression along with Python Sklearn examples. The other two similar forms of regularized linear regression are Ridge regression and …
Python Pickle Security Issues / Risk
Suppose your machine learning model is serialized as a Python pickle file and later loaded for making predictions. In that case, you need to be aware of security risks/issues associated with loading the Python Pickle file. Security Issue related to Python Pickle The Python pickle module is a powerful tool for serializing and deserializing Python object structures. However, its very power is also what makes it a potential security risk. When data is “pickled,” it is converted into a byte stream that can be written to a file or transmitted over a network. “Unpickling” this data reconstructs the original object in memory. The danger lies in the fact that unpickling …
Pricing Analytics in Banking: Strategies, Examples
Last updated: 15th May, 2024 Have you ever wondered how your bank decides what to charge you for its services? Or, perhaps how do banks arrive at the pricing (fees, rates, and charges) associated with various banking products? If you’re a product manager, data analyst, or data scientist in the banking industry, you might be aware that these pricing decisions are far from arbitrary. Rather, these pricing decisions are made based on one or more frameworks while leveraging data analytics. They result from intricate pricing strategies, driven by an extensive array of data and sophisticated analytics. In this blog, we will learn about some popular pricing strategies banks execute to …
Machine Learning Lifecycle: Data to Deployment Example
Last updated: 12th May 2024 In this blog, we get an overview of the machine learning lifecycle, from initial data handling to the deployment and iterative improvement of ML models. You might want to check out this book for greater insights into machine learning (ML) concepts – Machine Learning Interviews. The following is the diagram representing the machine learning lifecycle while showcasing three key stages such as preparing data, ML development, and ML deployment. These three stages are explained later in this blog. Stage A: Preparing Data Preparing data for training machine learning models involves collecting data, constructing data pipelines for preprocessing, and refining the data to prepare it for …
Autoencoder vs Variational Autoencoder (VAE): Differences, Example
Last updated: 12th May, 2024 In the world of generative AI models, autoencoders (AE) and variational autoencoders (VAEs) have emerged as powerful unsupervised learning techniques for data representation, compression, and generation. While they share some similarities, these algorithms have unique properties and applications that distinguish them. This blog post aims to help machine learning / deep learning enthusiasts understand these two methods, their key differences, and how they can be utilized in various data-driven tasks. We will learn about autoencoders and VAEs, understanding their core components, working mechanisms, and common use cases. We will also try and understand their differences in terms of architecture, objectives, and outcomes. What are Autoencoders? …
Feature Engineering in Machine Learning: Python Examples
Last updated: 3rd May, 2024 Have you ever wondered why some machine learning models perform exceptionally well while others don’t? Could the magic ingredient be something other than the algorithm itself? The answer is often “Yes,” and the magic ingredient is feature engineering. Good feature engineering can make or break a model. In this blog, we will demystify various techniques for feature engineering, including feature extraction, interaction features, encoding categorical variables, feature scaling, and feature selection. To demonstrate these methods, we’ll use a real-world dataset containing car sales data. This dataset includes a variety of features such as ‘Company Name’, ‘Model Name’, ‘Price’, ‘Model Year’, ‘Mileage’, and more. Through this …
I found it very helpful. However the differences are not too understandable for me