Data Science with R:
Machine Learning

Took the weekend course for Machine Learning with R. Course was very helpful in helping me understand the basics of Machine Learning, different models. My instructor was Luke. He was very helpful and would spend enough time covering each topic. He even took an additional class because he didn't want to rush through the material. Overall I am quite satisfied with the results. Would recommend Luke to anyone else who is interested to venture into Machine Learning field.

I studied mechanical engineering and physics for my undergrad at a top university and work in product management with a focus on search. I took this class to satisfy a personal interest in the subject matter and familiarize myself enough with the fundamentals of machine learning to be able to explore the field more deeply on my own. I was also motivated by a career interest: the subject matter is highly relevant to my domain, and I feel that developing an understanding of the concepts and how to deploy them myself will make me better at my job long-term. Prior to enrolling in the class, I spent roughly 8-10 hours learning R and felt sufficiently prepared (I had some previous programming experience). In the end I was extremely happy with this class (Machine Learning in R on Saturdays, 8 hrs at a time). The curriculum and content were excellent, the instructor, Luke, was fantastic and the assignments were challenging and informative. I felt the course did a really great job of driving home the core fundamentals of each subject with a focus on statistics, mathematical theory, derivations and best practices. We covered a LOT of material, yet the material had a lot of depth. I thought the sequencing of the subject matter was very well thought out as well. The class was demanding and had the caliber of a graduate-level course. The course also struck a very nice balance between theory and implementation. After learning about a new model, we would immediately implement it in class using R on our own machines. Luke did a particularly great job at relating the implementation back to the concepts and teaching us how to interpret outcomes of our analyses (I can’t stress enough how important this latter point was for me). He has a really strong grasp of the subject matter, he’s very patient and responsive to questions, offers a lot of insightful commentary on the theory, implementations, and best practices, and he cares about his students a lot. The homework assignments complement the class nicely as well, helping to drive home the methods taught in class and how to interpret your work. If you’re interested in developing a strong understanding of the fundamentals of machine learning in a rigorous format, this class is for you. I also couldn’t recommend Luke as an instructor more. He’s awesome! I was also was very pleased with my choice of the R class. R reduces a lot of the friction in model implementation, which allowed me to focus on developing an understanding of the concepts and interpreting results.

This course covers major R machine learning topics; it is intense, and you will learn a lot if you keep up with the pace. Instructor Shu Yan is great at explaining complicated statistical concepts/formulas and translate them into R coding techniques. Course materials, in-class practices, and homework assignment are helpful regarding learning and future references. I would recommend this course to anyone who is interested in data science/machine learning but doesn't know much about this field. It will be a good start for you if you plan to work in this area. It certainly helped me understand a lot about data science and improved my R coding skills. What I learned from this course is worth the money I paid and the effort I put in.