"Seven weapons" in the "treasure chest" of machine learning: Zhou Zhihua leads the publication of the new book "machine learning theory guide"

source ： Almost Human

There are several classic introductory books in every subject field , In the field of machine learning , Mr. Zhou Zhihua's 「 Watermelon book 」（《 machine learning 》） It is a very rare introductory Chinese textbook . Not long ago , With it 「 Pumpkin book 」（「 Watermelon book 」 Formula derivation ） Has also come out , Study for the students 「 machine learning 」 Provides more assistance .

 

But for students who want to go deep into the field of machine learning , Nibble only 「 Watermelon book 」 It's not enough. , It can only let you know something about machine learning , Play the role of getting started . For this part of the students , What you need may be 「 Treasure chest book 」.

 

「 Treasure chest book 」 What is it? ？ It's zhouzhihua 、 Wang Wei 、 Gao Wei 、 Zhang Lijun, a primer on machine learning theory jointly written by four professors of Nanjing University , from 2016 Preparations began in , The middle is polished for four years , It has just been finished recently , It aims to change the current situation of the lack of Chinese machine learning theory reading materials .

 

「 Treasure chest book 」 Your real name is 《 Machine learning theory guides 》, It aims to provide an introductory guide for readers who are interested in machine learning theory learning and research .

 

Why call 「 Treasure chest book 」 Well ？ Obviously , and 「 Watermelon book 」 There is a watermelon on the cover of ,「 Treasure chest book 」 There is also a treasure chest on the cover of . This 「 Treasure chest 」 Hidden in it are seven important concepts or theoretical tools of machine learning theory , namely 「 Learnability 、（ Hypothetical space ） Complexity 、 Generalization boundary 、 stability 、 Uniformity 、 Convergence rate and regret bound 」. The author calls it 「 Seven weapons 」, It has the same name as a martial arts novel by Gu Long .

 

The leading author is a martial arts enthusiast , It's hard to refuse to salute 《 Seven weapons 》 The temptation of , Moreover, the generalization world itself is really a little like Mr. Gu Long's unfinished legend 「 Anything can be loaded in 」 The seventh weapon of 「 The box 」.（ Excerpt from 《 Machine learning theory guides 》 Preface ）

 

Each chapter of the book focuses on one of the above concepts , Quite a kind of charm of writing martial arts novels .

 

 

In addition to introducing basic concepts , The author also gives some analysis examples in the book , Show how to apply different theoretical tools to analyze specific machine learning technologies .

 

Reason for completion of the book

 

With the continuous development and application of artificial intelligence technology , Machine learning has attracted much attention in recent years , More and more professionals are interested in machine learning theory .

 

The main content of machine learning theory is to analyze the difficult nature of learning tasks , Provide theoretical guarantee for learning algorithm , And guide the algorithm design according to the analysis results . Although machine learning theory is very important for a deep understanding of machine learning technology , But because the content is difficult and vast , And the source schools are quite different , It's very difficult to learn .

 

There are few professional books on machine learning theory in the world , It often focuses on understanding the specific technology of machine learning from a theoretical perspective , Or focus on a specific learning theory , Lack of comprehensiveness and systematicness .

 

《 Machine learning theory guides 》 It attempts to provide an introductory guide for readers interested in machine learning theory learning and research . The author thinks , For theoretical study and research , It is particularly important to understand the basic concepts and tools . therefore , This book is organized in a different way from the above books , Sort out the machine learning theory 「 Treasure chest 」 Seven important concepts or theoretical tools in .

 

When readers analyze specific machine learning problems or technologies in the future , Applicable concepts or theoretical tools can be selected according to conditions .

 

Target audience

 

And previous 「 Watermelon book 」 Different , This book 「 Treasure chest book 」 It may be much more difficult , Mainly for college artificial intelligence 、 Computer 、 Students majoring in machine learning in automation and other related majors , Researchers and teachers in the field of machine learning in academia , And professionals and engineers who are interested in machine learning theory in industry .

 

The author said in the preface , In the four-year preparatory process , Due to the difficulty of students' reflection , This book has been revised after several rounds of trial lectures . until 2019 After being taught in the postgraduate elective course in the spring semester of , Students' feedback can roughly meet expectations , So in 2019 Mid year ruling .

 

Although the difficulty has been reduced as much as possible , But this one 「 Treasure chest book 」 There is still a certain threshold ：

 

Readers of this book must have a relatively solid mathematical knowledge of senior undergraduates majoring in science and Engineering , At least there should be good linear algebra 、 Mathematical analysis 、 probability statistics 、 The basis of optimization method . Readers of this book must also have the basic knowledge of machine learning , At least you should have systematically studied the specialized textbooks of machine learning . It is not easy to learn the content of machine learning theory , And unlike machine learning technology tools that can be applied immediately , There is inevitably a sense of anxiety in the learning process , Self study is especially easy to fall into trouble , Readers must be fully prepared .（ Excerpt from 《 Machine learning theory guides 》 Preface ）

 

Of course , The more difficult it is , The greater the sense of achievement after eating it down . Author expresses ,「 Study deeply , It is not only helpful to understand the important idea of machine learning , It is more helpful to feel and experience the beauty of this discipline , All efforts are worth it in the end .」

 

The authors introduce

 

This book is led by Professor zhouzhihua, a famous scholar in the field of machine learning, Nanjing University LAMDA The team is co authored by four professors . Teacher zhouzhihua planned the content structure of the book and wrote chapter 1-2 Chapter , Teacher Wang Wei wrote chapter 3-4 Chapter , Teacher Gao Wei wrote chapter 5-6 Chapter , Teacher Zhang Lijun wrote chapter 7-8 Chapter , Finally, teacher zhouzhihua revised and unified the style of the whole book .

 

 

《 Machine learning theory guides 》 Four authors of . From left to right ： zhou 、 Wang Wei 、 Gao Wei 、 Zhang Lijun .

 

Teacher zhouzhihua is the dean of the computer department of Nanjing University 、 Dean of School of artificial intelligence , Foreign academician of the European Academy of Sciences , Five major international societies related to artificial intelligence ACM、AAAI、AAAS、IEEE、IAPR All of them were selected Fellow The first Chinese scholar . Besides , He is also the Chinese computer society 、 Chinese society of artificial intelligence , Once obtained IEEE The computer society Edward J. McCluskey Technical achievement award 、CCF Wang Xuan award, etc .

 

Mr. Wang Wei is an associate professor in the Department of computer science, Nanjing University , The main research direction is machine learning theory , He has won the Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award of the Chinese computer society 、 Jiangsu Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award 、CCF Youth talent development plan .

 

Mr. Gao Wei is an associate professor of the College of artificial intelligence, Nanjing University , The main research direction is machine learning theory , He has won the Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award of the Chinese computer society 、 Jiangsu Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, etc .

 

Mr. Zhang Lijun is an associate professor in the Department of computer science, Nanjing University 、 Doctoral supervisor , The main research direction is large-scale machine learning and optimization , Won the first green orange award of Dharma academy 、 China Association for science and technology youth talent promotion project 、CCF Honors such as youth talent development plan .