Archived Announcements

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Current announcements are available here.

  • There is a student in our class who needs copies of class notes as an approved accommodation. If you're interested in serving as a paid note taker, please reach out to DAS, at 617-253-1674 or das-student@mit.edu. More details of the job can be found here.

  • Friday Sep 20 is a student holiday. However, a live lecture will still be held (at 12pm in 45-230) to help you prepare for the upcoming week 4 content. Feel free to join us!

  • For both regular Monday and Wednesday class meetings, you may attend your assigned section only. Our section times/rooms can be found here. Section self-signup is open (till Wednesday Sep 18) for students who might wish to make any section changes.

  • Tip: Instructors' office hour sections have been added to the Office Hours page.

  • Tip: Use the Progress page for keeping track of assignments completed and partial progress.

Announcements for (Mon, Sep 9 - Fri, Sep 13)

  • Tip: Keep an eye out for 6.390 announcements on the 6.390 Home Page right here.

  • If you missed the Lab for week 1 on Wed, Sep 4, do not worry; you can still work the questions on the lab and have a checkoff in Office Hours for full credit before the lab checkoff due (Mon, Sep 9 at 11pm).

  • For both Monday and Wednesday class meetings, you may attend your assigned section only. Our section times/rooms can be found here.

    Section self-signup through Canvas is open (till Wednesday Sep 18) for students who might wish to make any section changes.

  • Use the Progress page for keeping track of assignments completed and partial progress.

## Announcements (semester-start matters) Welcome to 6.390! We're very much looking forward to working with you all this fall!

  1. First Class Meeting

    Our first class meeting is a lab on Wednesday, 4 Sep. Depending on when you registered for 6.390, the Registrar likely scheduled you into a section.

    Any Registrar assigned section info can be found here once log in. Our section times/rooms can be found here.

    If at all possible, please attend the section you are scheduled into by the Registrar for this first session (this helps ensure that everyone will have a seat/table). If you registered later and don't have a section, please come to Section 1, 3, 5, or 7, on 4 Sep to get started.

  2. Section Self-Switch

    After the first class meeting, section self-signup will be open for students who might wish to make any section changes on a first-come, first-serve basis. Starting Wednesday, 4 Sep at 5PM, you can visit the Canvas page, navigate to the Section Signup page in the left menu, and use the Lectures dropdown to pick your recitation/lab section. Please note that there may be a delay of up to 10 minutes for this change to sync back to introml.mit.edu. No need to contact us to request a change in section; all students should use the self sign-up mechanism instead.

    After the first class meeting, you will be expected to attend your assigned recitation/lab section.

  3. Course Syllabus

    Please refer to the Calendar page for the syllabus and course events.

  4. Course Information and Policies

    The pages linked from the top menu contain lots of important information about the subject. Please read them carefully.

  5. Getting help

    Office hours start on Sunday, 8 Sep. If you need help before then, please post on Piazza.

Pre-semester Information

👋 Hi there! Welcome to 6.390 -- we're very much looking forward to working with you all this fall!

1) Course Overview §

6.390 introduces the principles and algorithms of machine learning from an optimization perspective. Topics include linear and non-linear models for supervised, unsupervised, and reinforcement learning, with a focus on gradient-based methods and neural-network architectures. Enrollment may be limited.

2) Prerequisites §

Concretely, things we expect you to know (we use these constantly, but don’t teach them explicitly):

2.1) Programming §

  • Intermediate Python, including the notion of classes.
  • Exposure to algorithms – ability to understand & discuss pseudo-code, and implement in Python.

2.2) Linear Algebra §

  • Fundamental matrix concepts and manipulations, e.g., rank, multiplication, and inverse.
  • Points and planes in high-dimensional space.
  • Basic matrix calculus, e.g., gradients.

6.1010 or 6.1210 can serve as the programming prerequisite. 18.06, 18.C06, 18.03, or 18.700 can serve as the linear algebra prerequisite.

(For each of these courses above, a link points to a representative syllabus from some past semesters, for reference.)

3) Class Meeting and Sections §

We will be meeting on Mondays (Recitations), Wednesdays (Labs), and Fridays (Lectures).

3.1) Recitation and Lab sections §

Monday recitations focus on discussing examples and working through pen-paper problems. Wednesday labs engage students with each other in small teams (typically two to three students per team) and with staff, to explore fundamental concepts. Recitations and Labs will be held in small sections. We have seven sections planned. Each student will be assigned into one section; more details on section assignment below.

    Section Time Room Instructor
    1 Mon & Wed, 9:30am-11am 34-501 Ike Chuang
    2 Mon & Wed, 9:30am-11am 32-044 Bruce Tidor
    3 Mon & Wed, 11am-12:30pm 34-501 Tess Smidt
    4 Mon & Wed, 11am-12:30pm 32-044 Mardavij Roozbehani
    5 Mon & Wed, 1pm-2:30pm 34-501 Shen Shen
    6 Mon & Wed, 1pm-2:30pm 32-044 Alexandre Megretski
    7 Mon & Wed, 2:30pm-4pm 34-501 Pete Szolovits

3.1.1) First class meeting §

Our first class meeting will be a Recitation on Wednesday, 4 Sep.

Depending on when you registered for 6.390, the Registrar likely scheduled you into a section. If at all possible, please attend the section you are scheduled into by the Registrar for this first session (this helps ensure that everyone will have a seat/table).

If you do not have a section assignment yet. Please come to Section 1, 3, 5, or 7, on 4 Sep, to get started.

3.1.2) Permanent section assignment §

After the first class meeting, a self-switch mechanism will be open and linked here on the front-page, between Wednesday 4 Sep, 5PM, and Wednesday 18 Sep, 11:59PM for students who might wish to make any section changes. Section change will be first-come-first-served, and subject to section capacity.

After the first class meeting, you will be expected to attend your assigned recitation/lab section.

3.2) Friday Lectures §

Friday lectures focus to anchor the upcoming week's discussion, overview the technical contents, and tie together the high-level motivations, concepts, and stories. Along with lecture notes, they prepare students for the upcoming Monday recitations and Wednesday labs.

Lectures will be held class-wide, in Room 45-230, Fridays 12pm-1pm. Recordings will be made available shortly after live sessions. Our first lecture will be on Friday, 6 Sep.

4) Cross-registration §

  • This site is our course site and it uses MIT Kerberos for authentication. Cross-registered students will receive their Kerberos once the registration goes through; however, the process can take a while. We therefore strongly encourage you to cross register early if possible, to avoid delayed access to course materials.

  • We follow MIT's Academic Calendar, and do not have additional extensions or accommodations based on home university calendar. Especially important will be for you to plan ahead for our two in-person exams.

  • We'll have a midterm exam (on Wednesday 23 October, 2024, 7:30pm-9:30pm). We'll also have a final exam during MIT's final exam period, Monday, 16 December through Friday, 20 December. The final exam is to be scheduled by the Registrar.

  • If you're not familiar with MIT campus, you might find the whereis site helpful.

5) Listeners §

Due to capacity and other constraints, we will not accept Listener registrants in 6.390 this semester.

6) Course Number Change§

Since fall22, all MIT EECS (Course 6) subjects have been renumbered (rationale and details can be found here). This subject used to be called 6.036; moving forward, we'll refer to it internally as 6.390 ("six three-nine-oh"). But for registration purposes, please register for 6.3900 (note the extra zero).

7) Other Questions?§

Feel free to drop us an email at 6.390-inquiry@mit.edu. We'd love to hear from you!