Machine Learning

Introduction

Machine learning (ML) is a fast-evolving scientific field that effectively copes with big data explosion and forms a core infrastructure for artificial intelligence and data science. ML bridges the research fields of computer science and statistics and builds computational algorithms and statistical model-based theories from those fields of studies. These algorithms and models are utilized by automated systems and computer applications to perform specific tasks, with the desire of high prediction performance and generalization capabilities (Jordan and Mitchell 2015). Sometimes, ML is also referred to as a predictive analytics or statistical learning. The general workflow of a ML system is that it receives inputs (aka, training sets), trains predictive models, performs specific prediction tasks, and eventually generates outputs. Then, the ML system evaluates the performance of predictive models and optimizes the model parameters in order to obtain better predictions. In...