Practical Predictive Analytics: Models and Methods

Statistical experiment design and analytics are at the heart of data science. In this course you will design statistical experiments and analyze the results using modern methods. You will also explore the common pitfalls in interpreting statistical arguments, especially those associated with big data. Collectively, this course will help you internalize a core set of practical and effective machine learning methods and concepts, and apply them to solve some real world problems.

Learning Goals: After completing this course, you will be able to:

1. Design effective experiments and analyze the results

2. Use resampling methods to make clear and bulletproof statistical arguments without invoking esoteric notation

3. Explain and apply a core set of classification methods of increasing complexity (rules, trees, random forests), and associated optimization methods (gradient descent and variants)

4. Explain and apply a set of unsupervised learning concepts and methods

5. Describe the common idioms of large-scale graph analytics, including structural query, traversals and recursive queries, PageRank, and community detection