Course Description

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to deep neural networks. Major topics include multilayer perceptrons, convolutional neural networks, sequence modeling with recurrent neural networks and transformers, practical aspects of training deep neural networks, and generative probabilistic modeling with deep neural networks. Students will learn basic concepts of deep learning and hands-on experience to solve real-life problems. This course requires a strong background in linear algebra, probability and statistics, and machine learning. Python will be used for all the assignments.

Optional Textbooks

Deep Learning: Foundations and Concepts

Probabilistic machine learning

Deep Learning Frameworks

PyTorch (Preferred)

Communication

All written communication should be directed through Piazza. Sign-up instructions will be sent to your email. You can post publicly or privately depending on your preference. Emails won’t be responded to. Except for the sign-up phase of the class, we will not be using D2L for anything else.

Assignments

We will be using GitHub Classroom for all the assignments in this course. Sign-up instructions will be sent to your email.

Course Policy

Details on course policies can be found here.

Navigating the Lecture Slides

1. The slides with audio work best on Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. I have not tested other browsers.
2. If you want a PDF of the slides, press the ‘e’ key. It should create a PDF that can be downloaded.
3. Hit the play button at the bottom of the screen. The slides should play the audio and auto advance.
4. On Chrome, you can select playback speed in the audio control bar at the bottom.
5. Press ‘n’ to manually navigate forward and ‘p’ to navigate backward. Do not use the left/right arrow keys.
6. You can skip to any slide you like and press the play button at the bottom to listen to the audio for that slide.
7. If the audio gets stuck or does not play, refresh that page. This is a known problem. It occurs when the browser does not fully load the audio file.

Tentative Schedule and Syllabus