UNIT – I

INTRODUCTION TO MACHINE LEARNING

 UNIT 1 INTRODUCTION TO MACHINE LEARNING

Machine LearningApplications - Types of Machine Learning Training, Testing, - Machine Learning

process Variance Bias - Training Error Testing Error - Overfitting Under fitting Gradient Descent
Accuracy Precision Recall Confusion Matrix

Introduction

Machine Learning is a field of study that gives the computers to Learn Without Being
Explicitly Programmed” "A computer program is said to learn from experience E with
respect to some class of tasks T and performance measure P, if its performance at tasks
in T, as measured by P, improves with experience E."(Tom Michel)

"Field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly
programmed". Learning = Improving with experience at some task
- Improve over task T,

- with respect to performance measure P,

- based on experience

- .E.g., Learn to lay checkers

- T : Play checkers

- P : % of games won in world tournament

- E: opportunity to play against self

Model
A model of machine learning is a set of programs that can be used to find the pattern and
make a decision from an unseen dataset. It can be any one of the following
- • Mathematical Equation
- • Relational Diagrams Like Graphs/Trees
- • Logical If/Else Rules
- • Groupings Called Clusters Learning
Training set, Test set and Validation set

• Divide the total dataset into three subsets:

– Training data is used for learning the parameters of the model.

– Validation data is not used of learning but is used for deciding what type of
modeland what amount of regularization works best.

– Test data is used to get a final, unbiased estimate of how well the network
works. We expect this estimate to be worse than on the validation data.

We could then re-divide the total dataset to get another unbiased estimate of the true error rate.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL PROGRAMMING VS MACHINE

LEARNING
 Types of Machine Learning

Supervised learning

Supervised learning is defined as when a model gets trained on a “Labelled Dataset”.

Labelled datasets have both input and output parameters.

In Supervised Learning algorithms learn to map points between inputs and correct outputs.
It has both training and validation datasets labelled.

Example: Consider a scenario where you have to build an image classifier to differentiate
between cats and dogs. If you feed the datasets of dogs and cats labelled images to the
algorithm, the machine will learn to classify between a dog or a cat from these labeled images.
When we input new dog or cat images that it has never seen before, it will use the learned
algorithms and predict whether it is a dog or a cat. This is how supervised learning works,
and this is particularly an image classification.
There are two main categories of supervised learning that are mentioned below:

Classification- deals with predicting categorical target variables, which represent discre
numerical values. For example, predicting the price of a house based on its size,
location, and amenities, or forecasting the sales of a product.

Unsupervised learning

Unsupervised learning is a type of machine learning technique in which an

algorithm discovers patterns and relationships using unlabeled data.
Unlike supervised learning, unsupervised learning doesn’t involve providing the
algorithm with labeled target outputs.
The primary goal of Unsupervised learning is often to discover hidden patterns,
similarities, or clusters within the data, which can then be used for various purposes,
such as data exploration, visualization, dimensionality reduction, and more.

Example: Consider that you have a dataset that contains information about the
purchases you made from the shop. Through clustering, the algorithm can group the
same purchasing behavior among you and other customers, which reveals potential
customers without predefined labels. This type of information can help businesses
get target customers as well as identify outliers.

There are two main categories of unsupervised learning that are mentioned below:

Clustering - Clustering is the process of grouping data points into clusters based on
their similarity. This technique is useful for identifying patterns and relationships in
data without the need for labeled examples.
Association - Association rule learning is a technique for discovering relationships
between items in a dataset. It identifies rules that indicate the presence of one item
implies the presence of another item with a specific probability.

Semi-supervised learning

o It is the combination of supervised and un supervised learning models.

o Training data includes a few desired outputs

Reinforcement learning

Reinforcement machine learning algorithm is a learning method that interacts with

the environment by producing actions and discovering errors.

Trial, error, and delay are the most relevant characteristics of reinforcement
learning. In this technique, the model keeps on increasing its performance using
Reward Feedback to learn the behavior or pattern.

These algorithms are specific to a particular problem e.g. Google Self Driving car,
AlphaGo where a bot competes with humans and even itself to get better and better
performers in Go Game.

Each time we feed in data, they learn and add the data to their knowledge which is
training data. So, the more it learns the better it gets trained and hence experienced.

Example:Consider that you are training an AI agent to play a game like chess. The
agent explores different moves and receives positive or negative feedback based on
the outcome. Reinforcement Learning also finds applications in which they learn to
perform tasks by interacting with their surroundings.

Examples of machine learning

Recognizing patterns:
 – Facial identities or facial expressions

– Handwritten or spoken words

– Medical images

• Generating patterns:

– Generating images or motion sequences (demo)

• Recognizing anomalies:

– Unusual sequences of credit card transactions

– Unusual patterns of sensor readings in a nuclear power plant or unusual

sound in your car engine.

• Prediction:

-Future stock prices or currency exchange rates

• The web contains a lot of data. Tasks with very big datasets often use
machine learning
– especially if the data is noisy or non-stationary.

• Spam filtering, fraud detection:

• Recommendation
systems:

– Lots of noisy data.

Applications of machine learning

1. Image Recognition
Image recognition is one of the most common applications of machine
learning. It is used to identify objects, persons, places, digital images, etc. The
popular use case of image recognition and face detection is, Automatic friend
tagging suggestion:
Facebook provides us a feature of auto friend tagging suggestion. Whenever we
upload a photo with our Facebook friends, then we automatically get a tagging
suggestion with name, and the technology behind this is machine learning's face
detection and recognition algorithm.

2. Speech Recognition
Speech recognition is a process of converting voice instructions into text, and it is
also known as "Speech to text", or "Computer speech recognition." At present,
machine learning algorithms are widely used by various applications of speech
recognition. Google assistant, Siri, Cortana, and Alexa are using speech recognition
technology to follow the voice instructions.

3. Traffic prediction
It predicts the traffic conditions such as whether traffic is cleared, slow-moving,
or heavily congested with the help of two ways:
Real Time location of the vehicle form Google Map app and sensors Average
time has taken on past days at the same time.
Everyone who is using Google Map is helping this app to make it better. It takes
information from the user and sends back to its database to improve the performance.

4. Email Spam and Malware Filtering

Whenever we receive a new email, it is filtered automatically as important,
normal, and spam. We always receive an important mail in our inbox with the
important symbol and spam emails in our spam box, and the technology behind this
is Machine learning. Below are some spam filters used by Gmail:
1. Content Filter

2. Header filter

3. General blacklists filter

4. Rules-based filters

5. Permission filters

5. Product recommendations
Machine learning is widely used by various e-commerce and entertainment
companies such as Amazon, Netflix, etc., for product recommendation to the user.
Whenever we search for some product on Amazon, then we started getting an
advertisement for the same product while internet surfing on the same browser and
 this is because of machine learning.

Machine Learning process

Machine Learning Lifecycle is a structured process that defines how machine
learning (ML) models are developed, deployed and maintained. It consists of a series of
steps that ensure the model is accurate, reliable and scalable.

1. Data Collection: Laying the Foundation

The first and most crucial stage of machine learning is data collection. Just like human
learning relies on experience, machine learning depends on data. The quality, volume, and
relevance of data significantly influence the model’s performance.
Sources of Data:
Databases: Enterprise systems like SAP, Oracle, or CRM platforms
APIs: Public and private APIs (e.g., Twitter API, OpenWeather API)
Web Scraping: Extracting data from websites
IoT Devices and Sensors: In manufacturing, smart homes, or wearables
Manual Entry or Surveys: Useful in early-stage research

2. Data Preparation: Cleaning and Understanding

Raw data is messy. It often contains missing values, duplicates, inconsistencies, and noise.
Before you can train a model, data must be cleaned, structured, and transformed. A process
that can take up to 80% of the total ML project time.

Key Steps in Data Preparation:

a. Data Cleaning:
Handling Missing Values: Imputation (mean, median, or model-based), or removal
Dealing with Outliers: Using statistical methods (Z-score, IQR) or domain knowledge
Removing Duplicates: Ensures no bias from repeated entries

b. Data Transformation:
Encoding Categorical Variables: One-hot encoding, label encoding
Normalization/Scaling: StandardScaler, MinMaxScaler, RobustScaler for numerical
features
Feature Engineering: Creating new variables (e.g., age from date-of-birth)

c. Data Exploration:
Use visualizations like histograms, boxplots, pairplots
Study correlations and feature distributions
Tools: Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Plotly, Tableau

d. Data Augmentation:

In domains like computer vision and NLP, data augmentation techniques improve model
generalization. Techniques include image rotation, flipping, scaling, cropping, and even
synthetic data generation (e.g., SMOTE for imbalanced classification problems).
These techniques are especially useful when data is scarce or expensive to collect.

3. Choosing the Right Model: Strategy Meets Statistics

Choosing the appropriate model is like selecting the right tool for a job. The model
determines how the system interprets data and learns patterns.

Factors That Influence Model Choice:

Type of Problem: Classification, Regression, Clustering, Recommendation, etc.
Size and Structure of Data: Linear vs. nonlinear, small vs. big data
Interpretability Needs: Decision Trees vs. Black-box Neural Networks
Speed and Scalability: Real-time inference or batch processing

Common Algorithms by Problem Type:

4. Training the Model: Teaching the Machine to Learn
Once the model is selected, it’s time to feed it data so it can “learn.” This is the phase
where the machine builds relationships between input features and target outputs.
How It Works:
Data is split into training and validation/test sets (e.g., 80/20)
The algorithm uses the training set to adjust internal parameters (like weights in a neural
network)
The aim is to minimize the error or loss function (e.g., MSE, cross-entropy)
Techniques:
Cross-validation: Reduces overfitting by validating on multiple subsets
Early Stopping: Prevents overfitting by halting training when performance stops improving
Regularization: Penalizes complex models (L1, L2) to encourage simplicity
Tools: Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch, XGBoost, LightGBM
Outcome: A trained model capable of making predictions on data it has seen during
training.

5. Evaluating the Model: How Good Is It, Really?

Training is only half the battle. The real test lies in evaluating how well the model
performs on unseen data.
Key Evaluation Metrics:
a. For Classification:
b. For Regression:

c. For Clustering:
Silhouette Score
Davies-Bouldin Index

Visualization Tools:
Confusion Matrix
ROC Curves
Residual Plots

6. Improving the Model: Iterate and Elevate

Very rarely is the first model the best. Model improvement is an iterative process that
involves fine-tuning and optimization.
Common Strategies:
a. More Data:
Adds diversity and helps reduce bias
Improves generalization in deep learning models
b. Feature Engineering:
Adding or transforming features can dramatically impact performance

c. Hyperparameter Tuning:
Use Grid Search or Random Search for exhaustive tuning
Modern tools like Optuna and Bayesian Optimization are more efficient

d. Ensemble Learning:
Combines multiple models to improve performance
Techniques: Bagging (Random Forest), Boosting (XGBoost, LightGBM), Stacking

e. Transfer Learning:

Leverage pre-trained models and fine-tune on your data (common in NLP and image tasks)

Tip: Keep a log of all experiments, metrics, and versions for reproducibility.

7. Prediction and Deployment: From Experiment to Production

Once the model performs well on evaluation, it’s ready to be deployed. Deployment means
integrating the model into a real-world system where it can make predictions on new,
unseen data.

Bias and Variance

Bias

Bias is simply defined as the inability of the model because of that there is some
difference or error occurring between the model’s predicted value and the actual
value. These differences between actual or expected values and the predicted values
are known as error or bias error or error due to bias. Bias is a systematic error that
occurs due to wrong assumptions in the machine learning process.

Let Y be the true value of a parameter, and let be an estimator of Y based on a

sample of data. Then, the bias of the estimator is given by:

Where is the expected value of the estimator . It is the measurement of the
model that how well it fits the data.

Low Bias: Low bias value means fewer assumptions are taken to build the target
function. In this case, the model will closely match the training dataset.
High Bias: High bias value means more assumptions are taken to build the target
function. In this case, the model will not match the training dataset closely.

Variance

Variance is the measure of spread in data from its mean position. In machine
learning variance is the amount by which the performance of a predictive model
changes when it is trained on different subsets of the training data. More specifically,
variance is the variability of the model that how much it is sensitive to another subset
of the training dataset. i.e. how much it can adjust on the new subset of the training
dataset.

Let Y be the actual values of the target variable, and be the predicted values of
the target variable. Then the variance of a model can be measured as the expected
value of the square of the difference between predicted values and the expected value
of the predicted values.

Where is the expected value of the predicted values. Here expected value is
averaged over all the training data.
Variance errors are either low or high-variance errors.

Low variance: Low variance means that the model is less sensitive to changes in the
training data and can produce consistent estimates of the target function with
different subsets of data from the same distribution. This is the case of underfitting
when the model fails to generalize on both training and test data.
High variance: High variance means that the model is very sensitive to changes in
 the training data and can result in significant changes in the estimate of the target
function when trained on different subsets of data from the same distribution. This is
the case of overfitting when the model performs well on the training data but poorly
on new, unseen test data. It fits the training data too closely that it fails on the new
training dataset.

Training error

Training error is the error measured on the training dataset, i.e., the data used to
train the machine learning model. It shows how well the model has learned the patterns in
the training data.
 Calculated only on training data
 Indicates how well the model fits the training set
 Lower training error means better fit on training data

Training error is the difference between the actual output and the predicted output of a
model on the training data.
Formula
For regression:

Training Error ̂

(Mean Squared Error – MSE)

For classification:
Number of incorrect predictions
Training Error
Total training samples
Advantages
 Helps check whether the model is learning

 Useful for debugging model training

Limitation
 A very low training error does not guarantee good performance on new (unseen)
data

Testing error

Testing error is the error measured on the test dataset, which consists of unseen data
not used during training. It indicates how well a machine learning model generalizes to
new data.
 unseen (test) data

model performance and generalization

-world prediction

Formula

For regression:

Testing Error ̂

(Mean Squared Error – MSE)

For classification:

Number of incorrect predictions

Testing Error
Total test samples

Training Error vs Testing Error

Aspect Training Error Testing Error

Definition Error calculated on training data Error calculated on test (unseen) data
Dataset used Training dataset Testing dataset
Measures how well the model fits training Measures how well the model
Purpose
data generalizes
Data visibility Seen by the model during training Not seen by the model during training
Error value Usually lower Usually higher than training error
Indicates Learning capability of the model Real-world performance
Used for Checking model fit Model evaluation and selection
Overfitting sign Very low training error High testing error

Underfitting sign High training error High testing error

Reliability Less reliable for real-world use More reliable for prediction
Example metrics MSE, MAE, training accuracy MSE, MAE, test accuracy
Exam
Shows learning performance Shows generalization ability
importance
Overfitting
Overfitting occurs when a machine learning model learns the training data too
well, including noise and minor details, and therefore performs poorly on new (unseen)
data.
Definition:
Overfitting is a condition where a model has very low training error but high testing
error.
Characteristics
 Excellent performance on training data

 Poor performance on test/real-world data

 Model becomes too complex

Causes of Overfitting
 Too many features

 Very complex model (deep trees, large neural networks)

 Small training dataset

 Training for too many epochs

Underfitting
Underfitting occurs when a machine learning model is too simple to capture the
underlying patterns in the data, resulting in poor performance on both training and
testing data.
Definition:
Underfitting is a condition where a model has high training error and high testing error.
Characteristics
 Model is overly simple

 Fails to learn important relationships

 Poor accuracy on all datasets

Causes of Underfitting
 Insufficient or irrelevant features

 Very simple model (e.g., linear model for complex data)

 Too few training iterations

 Excessive regularization

Aspect Overfitting Underfitting

Model learns training data too well, Model is too simple to learn data
Definition
including noise patterns

Model complexity Very high Very low

Training error Very low High

Testing error High High

Generalization Poor Poor

Too many features, complex Insufficient features, simple

Cause
model, small dataset model, poor training

Performance on new
Poor Poor
data
Aspect Overfitting Underfitting

Bias Low bias High bias

Variance High variance Low variance

Example Deep decision tree Linear model for complex data

Regularization, cross-validation, Increase complexity, add

Solution
simplify model features

Gradient Descent

Gradient Descent is a widely used optimization algorithm in machine learning and

deep learning. It is used to minimize the cost (loss) function by iteratively adjusting
model parameters in the direction of steepest descent.

Gradient Descent is a fundamental optimization algorithm that plays a crucial role in

training machine learning models by minimizing error through iterative updates.

Definition

Gradient Descent is an iterative optimization technique that updates model parameters by

moving in the negative direction of the gradient of the loss function to reach the
minimum error.

Objective of Gradient Descent

 To find the optimal values of parameters

 To minimize the loss function
 To improve model accuracy

Mathematical Equation

Where:

 = model parameter
 = learning rate
 = cost function
Steps in Gradient Descent

1. Initialize parameters with random values

2. Compute the cost function
3. Calculate the gradient of the cost function
4. Update parameters using the learning rate
5. Repeat steps until convergence

Diagram 1: Gradient Descent on Cost Function

Learning Rate ( )

 Controls the step size of parameter updates

 Small learning rate → slow convergence
 Large learning rate → may overshoot minimum

Diagram 2: Effect of Learning Rate

Types of Gradient Descent

Type Description
Batch Gradient Descent Uses entire dataset per update
Stochastic Gradient Descent Uses one data point at a time
Mini-batch Gradient Descent Uses small batches of data

Advantages

 Simple and easy to implement

 Works well with large datasets
 Efficient for continuous optimization

Limitations

 Can converge to local minima

 Sensitive to learning rate
 Slow for complex cost functions

Applications

 Linear regression
 Logistic regression
 Neural network training

Confusion Matrix
Confusion matrix is a simple table used to measure how well a classification model
is performing. It compares the predictions made by the model with the actual results and
shows where the model was right or wrong. This helps you understand where the model is
making mistakes so you can improve it. It breaks down the predictions into four categories:

True Positive (TP): The model correctly predicted a positive outcome i.e the actual
outcome was positive.
True Negative (TN): The model correctly predicted a negative outcome i.e the actual
outcome was negative.
False Positive (FP): The model incorrectly predicted a positive outcome i.e the actual
outcome was negative. It is also known as a Type I error.
False Negative (FN): The model incorrectly predicted a negative outcome i.e the actual
outcome was positive. It is also known as a Type II error.

Metrics based on Confusion Matrix Data

1. Accuracy
Accuracy shows how many predictions the model got right out of all the
predictions. It gives idea of overall performance but it can be misleading when one class is
more dominant over the other. For example a model that predicts the majority class
correctly most of the time might have high accuracy but still fail to capture important
details about other classes. It can be calculated using the below formula:

Measures overall correctness of the model.

2. Precision
Precision focus on the quality of the model’s positive predictions. It tells us how
many of the "positive" predictions were actually correct. It is important in situations where
false positives need to be minimized such as detecting spam emails or fraud. The formula
of precision is:
Measures how many predicted positives are actually positive.

3. Recall
Recall measures how how good the model is at predicting positives. It shows the
proportion of true positives detected out of all the actual positive instances. High recall is essential
when missing positive cases has significant consequences like in medical tests.

Measures how many actual positives are correctly identified.

4. F1-Score
F1-score combines precision and recall into a single metric to balance
their trade-off. It provides a better sense of a model’s overall performance particularly for
imbalanced datasets. It is helpful when both false positives and false negatives are
important though it assumes precision and recall are equally important but in some
situations one might matter more than the other.

Problem

A spam classifier produces the following confusion matrix:

Actual \ Predicted Spam Not Spam

Spam 90 10
Not Spam 20 80

Find:
a) Accuracy
b) Precision
c) Recall

Solution

TP = 90, FN = 10, FP = 20, TN = 80