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Home / Introduction to Machine Learning (Spring 2023)

Introduction to Machine Learning

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Announcements for the Midterm Week (Mon, Mar. 20 - Fri, Mar. 24)

  • The midterm exam will be held on Thursday, March 23, 7:30pm-9:30pm. You should review midterm logistics, including about selecting your exam room, and practice midterms.

  • There are no Monday/Wednesday classes scheduled this week.

  • All regular office hours will be held as usual this week.

  • On Monday March 20, we will hold optional informal instructors office hours during the normal class times (9:30am-12:30pm, and 1-4pm) in 34-501 (and only 34-501). Please feel free to bring any questions you may have while preparing for the midterm.

  • Assignments due this week:

  • Assignments releases this week:

    • Exercises for week 7 will release at 9am, Friday, March 24. (They will be due Monday, April 3, 9am.)

Announcements for Week 6 (Mon, Mar. 13 - Fri, Mar. 17)

  • The midterm exam will be held on Thursday, March 23, 7:30pm-9:30pm. You should review midterm logistics, including about selecting your exam room, requesting conflict exam or accommodations by March 13, and practice midterms.

  • Assignments due this week:

  • Assignments releases this week:

    • Homework for week 6 will release at 9am, Monday, March 13. (It is due Wednesday, March 22, 11pm.)

    • Lab for week 6 will release in lab sessions on Wednesday, March 15. (Checkoffs are due Monday, March 20, 11pm.)

Announcements for Week 5 (Mon, Mar. 6 - Fri, Mar. 10)

  • The midterm exam will be held on Thursday, March 23 2023, 7:30pm-9:30pm. You should review midterm logistics, including about selecting your midterm room, deadline for requesting conflict exam or accommodations, and practice midterms.

  • The Registrar has posted the MIT Final Exams Schedule. The 6.390 final will be held on Tuesday, May 23 2023, 1:30pm-4:30pm, in Johnson Track. The Registrar will also schedule a Conflict Exam for 6.390, and will announce that schedule after Drop Date (April 25). For cross-registered 6.390 students who have a schedule conflict with the May 23 final exam, we expect to make the 6.390 conflict exam time (as scheduled by the MIT Registrar) available as well.

  • 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.

  • Assignments due this week:

  • Assignments releases this week:

    • Homework for week 5 will release at 9am, Monday, March 6. (It is due Wednesday, March 15, 11pm.)

    • Lab for week 5 will release in lab sessions on Wednesday, March 8. (Checkoffs are due Monday, March 13, 11pm.)

    • Exercises for week 6 will released at 5pm, Wednesday, March 8. (They are due Monday, March 13, 9am.)

  • We have enabled psetpartners for 6.390, for those of you interested in being matched up with other classmates to work on course materials/assignments. It looks like the next match date for 6.390 is Friday, March 10.

Announcements for Week 4 (Mon, Feb. 27 - Fri, Mar. 3)

  • The Registrar has posted the MIT Final Exams Schedule. The 6.390 final will be held on Tuesday, May 23 2023, from 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM Eastern Time, in Johnson Track. The Registrar will also schedule a Conflict Exam for 6.390, and will announce that schedule after Drop Date (April 25). For cross-registered 6.390 students who have a schedule conflict with the May 23 final exam, we expect to make the 6.390 conflict exam time (as scheduled by the MIT Registrar) available as well.

  • 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.

  • Assignments due this week:

  • Assignments releases this week:

    • Homework for week 4 will release at 9am, Monday, Feb 27. (It is due Wednesday, March 1, 11pm.)

    • Lab for week 4 will release in lab sessions on Wednesday, March 1. (Checkoffs are due Monday, March 6, 11pm.)

    • Exercises for week 5 will released at 5pm, Wednesday, March 1. (They are due Monday, March 6, 9am.)

  • We have enabled psetpartners for 6.390, for those of you interested in being matched up with other classmates to work on course materials/assignments. It looks like the next match date for 6.390 is Friday, March 3.

Announcements for Week 3 (Mon, 20 Feb - Fri, 24 Feb)

  • Related to the Institute Holiday on Monday Feb 20, we will be meeting on Tuesday Feb 21 for our recitation sessions.

  • Office hours schedules are adjusted this week:

    • Regular Monday office hours (7-9pm and 9-11pm) will be held on Tuesday Feb 21 (7-9pm in 32-044 and 9-11pm virtually).

    • Regular Tuesday office hours (4-6pm and 7-9pm) will be cancelled on Feb 21.

  • Assignments due this week:

  • Assignments releases this week:

    • Homework for week 3 will release at 9am, Monday, Feb 20 (It is due Wednesday, March 1, 11pm)

    • Lab for week 3 will release in lab sessions on Wednesday, Feb 22. (Checkoffs are due Monday, Feb 27, 11pm.)

    • Exercises for week 4 will released at 5pm, Wednesday, Feb 22. (They are due Monday, Feb 27, 9am).

  • Tips: Keep an eye out for 6.390 announcements on 6.390 Home Page. Use the Calendar for release and access to all of the assignments and content. Use the Progress page for keeping track of assignments due and progress.

  • For both regular Monday and Wednesday class meetings, you may attend your assigned section only. If you need to change your permanent section assignment, you will be able to self-switch with "Section Signup" through Canvas, subject to section capacity constraints. Self-switching will be open between Feb 6, 5:00pm and Feb 20, 11:59pm; changes made on Canvas will be synced to our site here every 10min.

  • We have enabled psetpartners for 6.390, for those of you interested in being matched up with other classmates to work on course materials/assignments. It looks like the next match date for 6.390 is Friday, Feb 24.

Announcements for Week 2 (Mon, 13 Feb - Fri, 17 Feb)

  • Tip: Keep an eye out for 6.390 announcements on 6.390 Home Page. Use the Calendar for release and access to all of the assignments and content. Use the Progress page for keeping track of assignments due and progress.

  • Exercises for week 2 have been released (as of Wednesday, Feb. 8, 5pm). They are due 9am Monday morning before recitation on Feb. 13.

  • If you missed the Lab for week 1 on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 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 (Monday, Feb. 13 at 11pm).

  • Homework for week 1 is due by Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 11pm.

  • Homework for week 2 will release at 9am on Monday, Feb. 13; it will be due Wednesday, Feb. 22, at 11pm.

  • For both Monday and Wednesday class meetings, you may attend your assigned section only. If you need to change your permanent section assignment, you can self-switch with "Section Signup" through Canvas, subject to section capacity constraints. Self-switching is open between Feb. 6, 5:00pm and Feb. 20, 11:59pm; changes made on Canvas will be synced to our site here every 10min.

  • We have enabled psetpartners for 6.390, for those of you interested in being matched up with other classmates to work on course materials/assignments. It looks like the next match date for 6.390 is Friday, Feb. 17.

Announcements for Week 1 (Mon, 6 Feb - Fri, 10 Feb)

  • After the first class meeting, you may attend your assigned section only. If you need to change your permanent section assignment, you will be able to self-switch with "Section Signup" through Canvas, subject to section capacity constraints. Self-switching will be open between Feb 6, 5:00pm and Feb 20, 11:59pm; changes made on Canvas will be synced to our site here every 10min.

  • We have enabled psetpartners for 6.390, for those of you interested in being matched up with other classmates to work on course materials/assignments.

  • If you cross-registered late and do not have an MIT Kerberos yet to login to our website; do not worry. All week 1 course materials will be made publicly viewable, through links on Calendar. Feel free to follow along and submit when your account is ready.

First Class Meeting

Our first class meeting is a recitation on Monday, Feb. 6. If you pre-registered for 6.390, the Registrar likely scheduled you into a section. Our seven section time/room 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 ensuring everyone would have a seat/table). If you registered later and don't have a section, please come to Section 1, 3, 5, or 7, on Feb 6 to get started.

Pre-semester Information

👋 Hi there! Welcome to 6.390! We're very much looking forward to working with you all this spring!

1. Course Overview

6.390 introduces principles, algorithms, and applications of machine learning from the point of view of modeling and prediction. Topics include e.g. formulation of learning problems; representation, over-fitting, generalization; classification, regression, reinforcement learning, sequence learning, clustering; classical and neural-network methods.

For reference, here is our fall22 syllabus.

2. Prerequisites

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

Programming

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

Linear Algebra

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

6.1010 [6.009] or 6.1210 [6.006] can serve as the programming prerequisite. 18.06, 18.C06, 18.03, or 18.700 can serve as the linear algebra prerequisite.

3. Useful Background

Things it helps to have prior exposure to, but we don’t expect (we use these in 6.390, but will discuss as we go):

  • numpy (Python package for matrix/linear algebra).
  • pytorch (Python package for neural networks).
  • Basic discrete probability, e.g., random variables, conditioning, and expectation.

4. Class Meeting and Sections

We will be meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays. We have seven sections and you can meet our staff here.

    Section Time Room Instructor
    1 Mon & Wed, 9:30am-11am 34-501 Shen Shen
    2 Mon & Wed, 9:30am-11am 32-044 Vince Monardo
    3 Mon & Wed, 11am-12:30pm 34-501 Tomas Lozano-Perez
    4 Mon & Wed, 11am-12:30pm 32-044 Marzyeh Ghassemi
    5 Mon & Wed, 1pm-2:30pm 34-501 Wojciech Matusik
    6 Mon & Wed, 1pm-2:30pm 32-044 Ashia Wilson
    7 Mon & Wed, 2:30pm-4pm 34-501 Shen Shen

Our first class meeting will be on Monday, Feb. 6. If you pre-registered for 6.390, the Registrar will likely schedule you into a section during the registration week. Towards the end of that week, we'll provide info here on where to see your assigned section and what-to-do if you don't have one.

If at all possible, please attend the section you are scheduled into by the Registrar for this first session. Subsequently, we'll have a mechanism through which you can make changes in your scheduled section. Self-switching will be first-come-first-served and subject to section capacity constraints; the process will be detailed here.

5. 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).

6. 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 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 March 23 (in the week before MIT's Spring Break). We'll also have a final exam during MIT's final exam week, Friday May 19 through Wednesday May 24; the final is to be scheduled by the Registrar.

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

7. Listeners

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

8. Other Questions?

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