Machine Learning, Spring 2026

Schedule is updated dynamically throughout the semester

DATE TOPIC READING OUT DUE
1 Fri, Jan 9 Background & probability review KM Ch2-3.2
Tue, Jan 13 Background & probability review continued KM Ch2-3.2 Hw1 out
Fri, Jan 16 Statistical learning; one-variable linear regression, least squares, regression vs correlation JW 2.1;3.1
HT 2.1-2.4, 2.6, 3.2-3.2.2
Tue, Jan 20 Gaussian one-variable regression: maximum likelihood, gradient descent CB 3.1.1-3.1.2
JW Ch 2, 5.1, 6.3
Fri, Jan 23 Gradient descent, continued
Tue, Jan 27 Multi-variable regression: categorical predictors, unequal variance, robust regression JW 3.2-3.3 Hw1 due
Fri, Jan 30 Overfitting, bias/variance tradeoff, variable selection, cross-validation JW 5.1, 6.1,
HT 3.3, 7.2-7.3, 7.10, CB 3.2
Hw2 out
Tue, Feb 3 Guest lecture: Prof. Eric Gerber Regression in high dimensions: curse of dimensionality, regularization JW 6.1-6.2,
HT 3.4.1-3.4.3, CB 3.1.4
Fri, Feb 6 Guest lecture: Prof. Eric Gerber Regression in high dimensions
continued
Tue, Feb 10 k-NN, perceptron, logistic regression, multinomial/softmax regression JW 4.2-4.3, HT 4.2-4.4
CB 2.2, 4.1.7, 4.3
Proj group due
Fri, Feb 13 Logistic regression continued
2 Tue, Feb 17 Bayes learning, MAP estimation, Naive Bayes HT 6.6.3,
CB 2.3.9; 2.5.2
Fri, Feb 20 LDA, regularized LDA, diagonal LDA, nearest shrunken centroids JW 4.4, HT 4.3, 18.2
CB 4.1.1-4.1.6, 4.2
Hw2 due
Tue, Feb 24 Midterm exam
(Cancelled, snow day instead)
Fri, Feb 27 Project pitches
(Postponed, midterm instead)
Tue, Mar 3 No class, Spring break
Fri, Mar 6 No class, Spring break
Mon, Mar 9 Project pitches on zoom
Tue, Mar 10 PCA, k-means, EM algorithm, mixtures of Gaussians JW 10; HT 14.3, 14.5;
CB 9.1-9.2
3 Fri, Mar 13 PCA continued Hw3 out
Tue, Mar 17 Kernels and kernel density estimation JW 7.6,
HT 6.1-6.3, 6.6,
CB 2.5.1
Project proposals due
Fri, Mar 20 Support vector machines JW 9.1-4,
HT 4.5, 12.1-12.3.4, CB 7.1
Tue, Mar 24 Support vector machines continued
Fri, Mar 27 Classification/regression trees JW 8.1-8.2,
HT 9.2, 15.1-15.3, CB 1.6
Hw4 out Hw3 due
Tue, Mar 31 Bagging, random forest;
Boosting, model interpretation
JW 8.2
HT 10.1-10.2
4 Fri, Apr 3 Neural networks: representation HT 11.3, CB 5.1-5.2
Tue, Apr 7 Neural networks: training HT 11.4-11.7
CB 5.3-5.5.5
Fri, Apr 10 Convolutional neural networks CB 5.5.6 Hw4 due
Tue, Apr 14 Final exam
Fri, Apr 17 Project presentations
Overflow 2-3:30pm on zoom
Mon, Apr 20 Project reports due
Wed, Apr 22 Project reviews due