Detailed Explanation of Lab 2: Machine Learning Terms, Metrics, and Data
Augmentation (Comprehensive & Structured)
This guide explains every concept, model, and process in Lab 2, incorporating all your follow-up
questions and using simple examples. It is organized into clear sections for easy understanding,
just like the structure used for Module 1.
Section 1: Core Machine Learning Terms and Concepts
Key Terms
Term Meaning Example
Feature A measurable property of data Pixel value in an image, house age
Target/Label The value or class the model tries to predict Digit (0-9), “Apple” or “Orange”
Classification Predicting a category/class for each input Is this an apple or an orange?
Regression Predicting a continuous value What is the house price?
Classifier An algorithm/model that assigns a class label KNN, Decision Tree
A system that learns from data to make
Model 1-NN classifier
predictions
Training set Data used to teach the model 80% of your dataset
Validation Data used to tune/check the model before final
10% of your dataset
set testing
Data used to evaluate the model’s final
Test set 10% of your dataset
performance
Metric A way to measure model performance Accuracy, precision, recall
Model memorizes training data but fails on new High train accuracy, low validation
Overfitting
data accuracy
Underfitting Model fails to learn patterns from data Low train and validation accuracy
Section 2: Models Used and How They Work
1. K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) Classifier
Purpose: Assigns a class to a new data point based on the classes of its ‘k’ closest
neighbors in the training set [1] [2] .
How it works (with k=1, “1-NN”):
1. For a new data point, calculate its distance to every point in the training set.
2. Find the single closest point (“nearest neighbor”).
3. Assign the class of that neighbor to the new point.
Simple Example
Suppose you have these fruits:
Fruit Roundness Diameter Class
Apple 8 7 Apple
Orange 6 8 Orange
A new fruit has roundness 7, diameter 8.
Calculate distance to each fruit.
The closest is Orange (distance = 1).
So, classify the new fruit as Orange.
How to Find the Closest Neighbor
Euclidean distance:
Repeat for all points, pick the smallest value.
2. Random Classifier
Purpose: Assigns a random label to each data point, without learning from data.
Why use it: It’s a baseline to show what accuracy you’d get just by guessing.
Example:
If you have 4 fruits (2 apples, 2 oranges) and guess randomly, you’ll be correct about 50%
of the time.
Section 3: Measuring Model Performance
Train Accuracy vs. Validation Accuracy
Metric How It’s Calculated Example
Train Accuracy Correct predictions on training data 5/6 correct → 83.3%
Validation Accuracy Correct predictions on validation data 3/4 correct → 75%
Why both?
High train but low validation accuracy means overfitting.
Both low means underfitting.
Both high and close means good generalization [3] .
Section 4: How Images Are Represented for the Model
Flattened Pixel Values
What does “flattened” mean?
An image is a grid (e.g., 28x28 pixels). Flattening means turning this grid into a single long
list of numbers (784 values for MNIST).
Why flatten?
Most models expect a single list (vector) of features, not a 2D grid.
Example
A 3x3 image:
0 255 0
255 0 255
0 255 0
Flattened: ``
Section 5: Data Augmentation
What is Data Augmentation?
Definition:
Creating new data samples by making small, realistic changes to the originals (e.g., rotating,
shearing, flipping images) [4] [5] [6] [7] .
Why:
Increases dataset size, reduces overfitting, helps model generalize better.
Simple Example
If you have 5 images of a cat, you can:
Flip them horizontally
Rotate them a few degrees
Adjust brightness
Now you have many more images for training, even though you started with just 5.
How Shear Changes an Image
Shearing slants the image sideways, turning straight vertical lines into slanted lines, like
pushing the top of a square sideways while keeping the bottom fixed.
Why use shear?
It helps the model learn to recognize digits that are written at an angle.
Visual Example
Original:
+-----+
| |
| |
+-----+
After horizontal shear:
+-----+
/ /
/ /
+-----+
Section 6: Model and Evaluation Process
Step-by-Step Workflow
1. Train the 1-NN classifier on original (flattened) images.
Measure baseline accuracy (e.g., 80%).
2. Apply data augmentation (rotate, shear, etc.) to create new images.
Retrain the model on the expanded dataset.
Measure new accuracy (e.g., 85%).
3. Hyperparameter Tuning (Grid Search):
Hyperparameters: Settings you choose before training (e.g., angle of rotation, amount
of shear).
Grid search: Try different values (e.g., rotate by 10°, 20°, 30°) and see which gives the
best accuracy [8] .
For two hyperparameters (e.g., angle and shear), try all combinations.
4. Visualize Results with Graphs:
One hyperparameter:
X-axis: Value (e.g., angle in degrees)
Y-axis: Test accuracy
Plot to see which value works best.
Two hyperparameters (e.g., angle and shear):
Use a heatmap (colored grid):
X-axis: Angle
Y-axis: Shear
Color: Accuracy
Simple Example of the Whole Process
Suppose you want to train a model to recognize handwritten digits (like "3" and "8"):
1. Baseline:
You train your model on the original images.
Test accuracy: 80% (model gets 8 out of 10 test images right).
2. Augmentation:
You rotate each image by a small angle (say, 10°) and add these to your training data.
Retrain the model.
Test accuracy: 85% (now gets 8.5 out of 10 right on average).
3. Hyperparameter Tuning (Grid Search):
Try rotation angles: 5°, 10°, 15°, 20°
For each angle, retrain the model and measure accuracy.
Plot angle (X-axis) vs. accuracy (Y-axis). The best angle is where accuracy is highest.
4. Combined Augmentation:
Try all combinations of angle (5°, 10°, 15°) and shear (2, 4, 6).
For each pair, retrain and measure accuracy.
Show results as a heatmap: X-axis is angle, Y-axis is shear, color is accuracy.
Section 7: Why Use a Random Classifier as a Baseline?
A random classifier just guesses the class for each data point.
If your model can't do better than random, it means it isn’t learning any useful patterns.
Example:
For a binary task (apple/orange), random guessing gives you about 50% accuracy. Your
model should do better than this.
Section 8: Summary Table of All Concepts
Concept Explanation/Example
Classification Sorting data into categories (e.g., “cat” or “dog”)
Regression Predicting continuous values (e.g., house price)
1-NN Classifier Assigns class of the closest training example to a new data point
Flattened Pixel Values Turning image grid into a single list of numbers
Data Augmentation Creating new samples by changing originals (rotate, shear, etc.)
Shear Slanting an image sideways
Train/Validation Accuracy Accuracy on training/validation data
Random Classifier Assigns classes randomly, used as a baseline
Hyperparameter Tuning Trying different settings to find the best model performance
Grid Search Systematically trying combinations of hyperparameters
Graphs/Heatmaps Visualizing how accuracy changes with different settings
Section 9: Lab 2 in a Nutshell
1. Understand and use key ML terms and models (classification, regression, KNN, random
classifier).
2. Represent images as flattened pixel values for the model.
3. Augment data (rotate, shear) to help the model learn better.
4. Evaluate model using train and validation accuracy.
5. Tune hyperparameters (like angle/shear) using grid search.
6. Visualize results with graphs and heatmaps to pick the best settings.
7. Compare with a random classifier to ensure your model is actually learning.
If you need any section explained even more simply or visually, let me know!
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