SS 2006

Neural Networks and Machine Learning

Lecture : Dr. Laurenz Wiskott
Exercises : Henning Sprekeler

News: All participants have passed the exam. You can pick up your "Schein" at my office.
Important: The lecture on the July, 17 is canceled.
Important : The final exam will be written during the exercise on the 13th of July, i.e. at 10am in the seminar room of the biophysics department, Invalidenstr. 42. Passing this exam is the prerequisite for the "Schein". The conditions will be the same as in the test exam (see below).
Informations for the test exam:
There will be a test exam in the exercises on Thursday, 8.6.06.

The exam is scheduled to last 90 minutes and consists of two parts. The first one will consist of general questions, while the second one will test the mathematical side of the lecture.

You may use a formula collection (one double-sided handwritten A4-page) and a pocket calculator.

For those of you who want to get the 'Schein' we highly recommend taking the test exam, as it will provide you with a feeling for the difficulties of the final exam.

Times and Places:
Lecture: Monday 4-6pm in the "Beratungsraum" of the biological department, Invalidenstr. 43. The first lecture will take place on the 24.4.
Exercises: Thursday, 10-12am in the seminar room of the biophysics department, Invalidenstr. 42.

Target group:
The course is designed for students of biology, biophysics, physics, mathematics and computer science after the "Vordiplom". Prerequisite is a solid background in linear algebra and calculus. The course will be mathematically more demanding than the parts of the "Computational Neuroscience" courses that were taught by L. Wiskott!

Topics :
The course will focus on topics in supervised and unsupervised learning. Apart from standard techniques from the neural network paradigm (backpropagation, reinforcement learning, self-organizing maps) more abstract methods in machine learning (support vector machines, graphical models) will be introduced. The emphasis will lie on the theory and technical applications.

Criteria for the "Schein":
There will be a final written exam.

Henning Sprekeler, http://itb.biologie.hu-berlin.de/~sprekeler/