CN710: Comparative Analysis of Learning Systems

CN710 considers the systematic analysis of supervised learning systems from neural networks, statistics, and artificial intelligence. Supervised learning systems include multi-layer perceptrons (MLP), ARTMAP, support vector machines, and K-nearest neighbors (KNN). Working in collaboration, class members analyze many different algorithms and methods for pre- and post-processing data, with common benchmark problems and system evaluation criteria.

 

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Reading & discussion topics

  1. Sept 15   Finance
  2. Sept 22   Large-scale computations (systems neuroscience)
  3. Sept 29   Page rank & document classification  
  4. Oct 6       Neuroeconomics
  5. Oct 14     Biometric authentication
  6. Oct 20     Invariant object recognition
  7. Oct 27      Evolution of the brain
  8. Nov 3       Political forecasting
  9. Nov 10     Evolutionary algorithms
  10. Nov 17     Time series
  11. Dec 1       Biomedical spectroscopy
  12. Dec 8       Videogames & adaptive AI


710 book reports – Fall 2008

Ben Chandler

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2007) The Black Swan:  The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Random House.

 

Jeff Doon

Steven Johnson (2005) Everything Bad is Good for You:  How Today’s Popular Culture is Actually Making Us Smarter.  Penguin.

Gary Small (2008) Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. HarperCollins.

 

Todd Hay

Judea Pearl (2000) Causality:  Models, Reasoning, and Inference. Cambridge University Press.

 

Jeff Markowitz

Marvin L. Minsky & Seymour A. Papert (1969, 1987) Perceptrons – Expanded Edition:  An Introduction to Computational Geometry. MIT Press.

 

Yvonne Pu

Wolfgang Maass & Christopher M. Bishop (2001) Pulsed Neural Networks. MIT Press.

 

Melissa St. Hilaire

Steven Strogatz (2003) Synch:  The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. Hyperion.

John Anderson (2007) How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe? Oxford University Press.

 

Charles Wong

Jared Diamond (1992) The Third Chimpanzee:  The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. Harper.

Andy Clark (2003) Natural-Born Cyborgs:  Minds, Technology, and the Future of Human Intelligence. Oxford University Press.

 

Peifeng Zhang

Ian H. Witten & Eibe Frank (2005) Data Mining:  Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Second Edition. Morgan Kaufmann.

 

Leah Ziph-Schatzberg

Malcolm Gladwell (2005) Blink:  The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Little, Brown.

Stephen Jay Gould (1992) Ever Since Darwin:  Reflections on Natural History. W.W. Norton.