Build Decision Trees, SVMs, and Artificial Neural Networks

You've built machine learning models from fundamental linear regression and classification algorithms. These algorithms can get you pretty far in many scenarios, but they are not the only algorithms that can meet your needs. In this module, you'll build machine learning models from decision trees and random forests, two alternative approaches to solving regression and classification problems.

Another alternative approach to regression and classification comes in the form of support-vector machines (SVMs). In this module, you'll build SVMs that can do a good job of handling outliers and tackling high-dimensional data in an efficient manner.

All of the algorithms discussed thus far fall under the general umbrella of machine learning. While they are powerful and complex in their own right, the algorithms that make up the subdomain of deep learning—called artificial neural networks (ANNs)—are even more so. In this module, you'll build a fundamental version of an ANN called a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) that can tackle the same basic types of tasks (regression, classification, etc.), while being better suited to solving more complicated and data-rich problems.

Now that you've built MLP neural networks, you can incorporate them into two wider architectures: convolutional neural networks (CNNs), which excel at solving computer vision problems; and recurrent neural networks (RNNs), which are most often used to process natural languages.