Last Updated on July 31, 2020 A large part of applied machine learning is about running controlled experiments to discover what algorithm or algorithm configuration to use on a predictive modeling problem. A challenge is that there are aspects of the problem and the algorithm called confounding variables that cannot be controlled (held constant) and must be controlled-for. An example is the use of randomness in a learning algorithm, such as random initialization or random choices during learning. The solution […]

Last Updated on August 8, 2019 The choice of a statistical hypothesis test is a challenging open problem for interpreting machine learning results. In his widely cited 1998 paper, Thomas Dietterich recommended the McNemar’s test in those cases where it is expensive or impractical to train multiple copies of classifier models. This describes the current situation with deep learning models that are both very large and are trained and evaluated on large datasets, often requiring days or weeks to train […]

Last Updated on August 8, 2019 Perhaps one of the most widely used statistical hypothesis tests is the Student’s t test. Because you may use this test yourself someday, it is important to have a deep understanding of how the test works. As a developer, this understanding is best achieved by implementing the hypothesis test yourself from scratch. In this tutorial, you will discover how to implement the Student’s t-test statistical hypothesis test from scratch in Python. After completing this […]

Last Updated on August 8, 2019 Statistics for Machine Learning Crash Course. Get on top of the statistics used in machine learning in 7 Days. Statistics is a field of mathematics that is universally agreed to be a prerequisite for a deeper understanding of machine learning. Although statistics is a large field with many esoteric theories and findings, the nuts and bolts tools and notations taken from the field are required for machine learning practitioners. With a solid foundation of […]