DS 3001: Foundations of Machine Learning
Your Foundations of Machine Learning Tour Guides:
Brian’s Office Hours: In person in my office SDS Building 434 or Virtual on Discord - Monday 1-3pm
TA office hours: TBD
Course Materials: Foundations of Machine Learning Repo
Subject Area and Catalog Number: Data Science, DS 3021
Year, Term and Time: 2025, Spring, T/Th
Class Title: Foundations of Machine Learning
Level: Undergraduate
Credit Type: Grade (A-F)
What is Data Science, why is it becoming so important and what is needed to be successful in this field? We will explore these questions throughout the course through a variety of topics with data always at the center. In all things, we focus on creative thinking, not blind implementation. If you cannot answer why you are doing something, not only will you discover no new knowledge but you will also create new problems versus solving them.
The course centers on lab-based work and employs a team-based pedagogy, meaning much of the work in the course can and should be completed in collaboration with your classmates. Though very applied, we also include theoretical content and will have discussion sessions depending on the topic for any given week.
I am also aware that students come from different backgrounds and have a variety of skill sets that they bring to the class. There will be plenty of opportunities for those that would like to take advantage of extra discussions during office hours, TA support sessions, and team-based work that is designed in such a way that we can all learn from each other.
Throughout the course, we will endeavor to “live the life of a data scientist” allowing you to not only be directly taught but gain a sense of what it would be like to be working as a data scientist. You’ll be asked to discover new knowledge and share it with your peers and learn how to use the larger ecosystem of data science to your benefit.
Data Science is incredibly broad and dynamic. The topics below are designed to reinforce this perspective and help you understand the field’s core tenements and what is demanded from practicing data scientists. The key is for you to gain a sense of the scope of Data Science, what is needed to contribute to the community, and feel comfortable incorporating these techniques into your work moving forward. Specific learning objectives are below:
Gain experience working in teams to solve Data driven problems
Be able to describe the field of Machine Learning
Understand computational and mathematical foundations of the methods presented
Articulate the advantages and disadvantages of selected ML approaches
Be able to select appropriate ML models given problems and data types
Understand the importance of and methods for evaluating ML models
Gain the foundational knowledge necessary to being ML II
The course will move rather quickly and can be demanding at times. However, if we all work together to support each other you’ll be amazed how much you learn at the end of the semester!
On any given week, the course will require reviewing short video lectures and completing readings prior to coming to class. These lectures and readings will then be implemented in the lab portion of the course which will be conducted during the scheduled class period. Lab sessions will include a variety of activities but mostly be centered on team-oriented coding assignments. Students can also use lab sessions to work on mid-term and final projects when needed.
Quizzes (15%) – Short occasional (5 or 6) quizzes, will be auto-graded, so you will get instant
feedback. In order to ensure we are all meeting the learning objectives from week to week short
quizzes will be given. You will be allowed as many chances to complete the quiz as needed and
they will be open note however students are to work independently.
Labs (60%) – On most weeks we will have in-class labs/assignments. These are designed to allow you
to practice the skills being presented in class. While they should be submitted individually you are
encouraged to work with your peers as much of the best learning can come from your peers.
You’ll need to create publishable markdown documents for every lab and submit them along
with the raw code file and link each week (Groups).
Final projects (25%) – The course will culminate in a final project that will involve
working with a dataset of your choice, giving a presentation, submitting well-annotated
code to include summary information in report form. This is an open-ended project
designed to allow groups to choose a topic of interest from the semester to
explore deeper and share with the class.
VS Code/Google Collab/Rivana - You'll need to have the software loaded and ready to go day one, but we will help if needed.
Miniconda/Conda - [Mini-Recommended](https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html)
Github - Almost all course materials (will post on Canvas as needed)
Canvas - Submission of assignments and class-wide communications
Docker + Virtual Machines
Discord - Low latency comms for groups and class.
Overview for Install Miniconda and VS Code
The books below are essentially a starter Machine Learning Library. I will use all of these references at difference points during the class, but try to use free options. Unfortunately the main book for the class Python Machine Learning with Pytorch and Scikit-Learn is not free. Everything else is either free or can be found for around 15 dollars. There’s also references to Python style guides and tutorials.
***NOTE: depending on student interest, the syllabus can be adjusted to accommodate additional topics
| Week | Theme | Topics | Lab | Reading/Repo (Prior to Class) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | What is this “Machine Learning” you speak of? + Experimental Thinking | Synchronous: Short Lab | ||
| Week 2 | Getting back up to “coding speed” | ‘Dataframing’ with pandas functions | - Group Case Study - Questions + PsuedoCode + Code + Functions = High Quality Data Science | D. Chpts 2 and 3 |
| Week 3 | Introduction to ML Concepts I | Language of ML | Case Studies | C. Chpt 1 |
| Week 4 | Introduction to ML Concepts II | Data Preparation | ML Concepts | Reading TBD |
| Week 5 | Introduction to ML Concepts II | Data Preparation: Linear Regression |
Repo | Reading TBD |
| Week 6 | Introduction to ML Concepts III | Machine Learning Process: Linear Regression |
Reading TBD | |
| Week 7 | Introduction to ML Concepts IV | kNN + Evaluation | Evaluation Lab | All of B. and G.- Chapter 11 |
| Week 8 | Sampling Methods and How Bootstrap and Cross-Validation solves all the Problems | |||
| Week 9 | Nature’s Perfect ML analogy: Trees Part I | Classification: Decisions Trees + Calibration |
Decision Trees | TBD and G. Chapter 14.1-14.3 |
| Week 10 | Nature’s Perfect ML analogy: Trees Part II | Regression: Decision Trees |
[Predicting Income for Big Brother] | F. Chapter 5 and G. Chapter 8 |
| Week 11 | Unsupervised: kMeans | Let’s gather together, but separately | NBA Scout for the worst team in the league | |
| Week 12 | Unsupervised: PCA | Feature Engineering | TBD | |
| Week 13 | Topic Exploration | Ensemble Methods Random Forest |
TBD | |
| Week 14 | Topic Exploration | Regularization Ridge Regression |
||
| Week 15 | Final Project Prep | Final Project Overview | ||
| Week 16 | Final Project | Final Project Overview |
Grading Policies: Courses carrying a Data Science subject area use the following grading system: A, A-; B+, B, B-; C+, C, C-; D+, D, D-; F. The symbol W is used when a student officially drops a course before its completion or if the student withdraws from an academic program of the University.
Grading Scale:
University of Virginia Honor System: All work should be pledged in the spirit of the Honor System at the University of Virginia. The instructor will indicate which assignments and activities are to be done individually and which permit collaboration. The following pledge should be written out at the end of all quizzes, examinations, individual assignments, and papers: “I pledge that I have neither given nor received help on this examination (quiz, assignment, etc.)”. The pledge must be signed by the student. For more information, visit www.virginia.edu/honor.
Special Needs: The University of Virginia accommodates students with disabilities. Any SCPS student with a disability who needs accommodation (e.g., in arrangements for seating, extended time for examinations, or note-taking, etc.), should contact the Student Disability Access Center (SDAC) and provide them with appropriate medical or psychological documentation of his/her condition. Once accommodations are approved, just follow up with me concerning any logistics and implementation of accommodations. Please try to make accommodations for test-taking at least 14 business days in advance of the date of the test(s). Students with disabilities are encouraged to contact the SDAC: 434-243-5180/Voice, 434-465-6579/Video Phone, 434-243-5188/Fax. Further policies and statements are available at www.virginia.edu/studenthealth/sdac/sdac.html
Technical Support Contacts
Login/Password: scpshelpdesk@virginia.edu
UVaCollab: collab-support@virginia.edu
BbCollaborate Support: http://www.tinyurl.com/uvabbc