A lot of people ask me how to get started with deep learning. In this post I’ve listed a few resources I recommend for getting started. I’ve only chosen a few because I’ve found precise recommendations to be more helpful. Let me know if you have any comments or suggestions! Prelude: If you’re new to machine learning Deep learning is … Read More
How to use pickle to save and load variables in Python
pickle is a module used to convert Python objects to a character stream. You can (1) use it to save the state of a program so you can continue running it later. You can also (2) transmit the (secured) pickled data over a network. The latter is important for parallel and distributed computing. How to save variables to a .pickle file: … Read More
Getting Started with Kaggle #1: Text Data (Quora question pairs, Spam SMSes)
Kaggle is a platform for data science competitions and has great people and resources. But how do you get started? It can be overwhelming with so many competitions, data sets and kernels (notebooks where people share their code). One kernel may contain over ten new concepts, so if you’re new to machine learning (or even if you’re not), you may … Read More
Comparing Model Performance with Normalised vs standardised input (Traffic Sign Classifier)
In the previous post, we explained (1) what normalisation and standardisation of data were, (2) why you might want to do it and (3) how you can do it. In this post, we’ll compare the performance of one model on unprocessed, normalised and standardised data. We’d expect using normalised or standardised input to give us higher accuracy, but how much better … Read More
How to use AWS EC2 GPU instances with BitFusion
If you want to train neural networks seriously, you need more computational power than the typical laptop has. There are two solutions: Get (buy or borrow) more computational power (GPUs or servers) or Rent servers online. GPUs cost over a hundred dollars each and top models like the NVIDIA TESLA cost thousands, so it’s usually easier and cheaper to rent … Read More
How to use Google AppsScript in Google Sheets to clean text data
Two weeks ago I finally finished cleaning a pile of debating topics data. And now I’ve imported it all into HelloMotions.com ‘s database so it now has over 3500 debating topics! When I first tried to use Google AppsScript a few months ago, I got a lot more confused than I should have been. The aim of this post is … Read More
Discovering and Curating Data on Data.World
To solve problems – particularly if you want to use statistical approaches or AI – you need data. Data is evidence or descriptive information. We usually deal with quantitative data or quantitative representations of e.g. text or images because they are easier to handle. The good news is there’s tons of data out there. The bad news is it’s often hidden … Read More
Analyse Text and CSVs easily with DataBasic.io
In today’s post I’m going to explore a fun data analysis tool for beginners – DataBasic.io. I had a great time trying it out – you should have a go too! DataBasic performs simple but insightful operations on data. No technical expertise (beyond being able to navigate a webpage) is required. DataBasic comprises three tools to help you understand textual and … Read More
Machine Learning in Trading – Project Takeaways
People have used machine learning in trading for decades. Hedge funds, high-frequency trading shops and sole traders use all sorts of strategies, from Bayesian statistics to physics related strategies. In my final project for Udacity’s Machine Learning Nanodegree, I investigating using machine learning in trading stocks, specifically to predict British Petroleum (BP) stock prices on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) … Read More
Ian Goodfellow: Generative Adversial Networks
The second talk I went to at AI WithTheBest 2016 was Ian Goodfellow’s talk on Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), which he invented. Ian is a researcher at OpenAI. GANs are generative models based on supervised learning and game theory. They learn to generate realistic samples and have mostly been used to generate images. For example, you can feed it images … Read More