Lectures

Lecture topics calendar

This is a preliminary weekly topic plan adapted from a recent evening offering of CSEP 546. Topics and readings may shift during the quarter.
HW0 due: Wednesday, April 8, 2026 at 11:59pm UPDATED: Thursday, April 9, 2026 at 6:25pm (just before class).
Date Content Reading Slides
Introduction to ML, Maximum Likelihood, Linear Methods, Overfitting, Regularization, Optimization
04/02 Welcome/Overview, MLE, Linear regression Probability review: Murphy 2.1-2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.1-3.2
Statistics review: Murphy 4.2
Linear algebra review: Murphy 7.1-7.3
Matrix calculus review: Murphy 7.8
Maximum likelihood regression: Murphy 4.2
Linear regression: Murphy 11-11.2
Week 1 slides (PDF)
04/09/2026 HW0 due (11:59pm Wed UPDATED: 6:25pm Thu, before class) See assignments page for details.
04/09 Linear regression with basis functions, Overfitting Linear regression: Murphy 11-11.2
Cross validation: Murphy 4.5.5, 5.4.1.2, 5.4.2
Week 2 slides (PDF)
04/16 Bias-variance, Ridge regression, Lasso Bias-variance trade-off: Murphy 4.7.6
Regularized linear regression: Murphy 11.3-11.4
Week 3 slides (PDF)
04/23 Prediction pitfalls, Gradient descent, Convexity, Logistic regression Gradient descent: Murphy 8-8.2.1
Logistic regression: Murphy 10-10.2.4, 10.3-10.3.3
TBD
04/30 SGD, Logistic regression, Neural networks Stochastic gradient descent: Murphy 8.4-8.4.4
Logistic regression: Murphy 10-10.2.4, 10.3-10.3.3
Neural networks: Murphy 13-13.4.3
TBD
05/07 Neural networks, non-parametric methods Neural networks: Murphy 13-13.4.3
Nearest neighbors: Murphy 16.1
Trees, random forests, gradient boosting trees: Murphy 18
TBD
05/14 Non-parametric methods Trees, random forests, gradient boosting trees: Murphy 18
Kernels: Bishop 6-6.2
Bootstrap: Efron and Hastie 10.2, 11-11.2
TBD
Unsupervised learning, feature learning
05/21 Unsupervised learning, PCA PCA, Autoencoders: Murphy 20.1, 20.3, 20.4.6, 22.1 TBD
05/28 Clustering, feature generation, domain-specific models K-means, GMM: Murphy 21.3-21.5
Kernel density estimation: Murphy 16.3
Self-supervised and transfer learning: Murphy 19
CNNs: ZLLS 7-8
Sequence models: ZLLS 9-11
TBD
06/04 Domain-specific models, online learning Self-supervised and transfer learning: Murphy 19
CNNs: ZLLS 7-8
Sequence models: ZLLS 9-11
Online learning: Shalev-Shwartz, Ben-David
TBD