Podcast.init

Teaching Python Machine Learning

Apr 28 '20

Summary

Python has become a major player in the machine learning industry, with a variety of widely used frameworks. In addition to the technical resources that make it easy to build powerful models, there is also a sizable library of educational resources to help you get up to speed. Sebastian Raschka’s contribution of the Python Machine Learning book has come to be widely regarded as one of the best references for newcomers to the field. In this episode he shares his experiences as an author, his views on why Python is the right language for building machine learning applications, and the insights that he has gained from teaching and contributing to the field.

Announcements

Hello and welcome to Podcast.__init__, the podcast about Python and the people who make it great.
When you’re ready to launch your next app or want to try a project you hear about on the show, you’ll need somewhere to deploy it, so take a look at our friends over at Linode. With 200 Gbit/s private networking, node balancers, a 40 Gbit/s public network, fast object storage, and a brand new managed Kubernetes platform, all controlled by a convenient API you’ve got everything you need to scale up. And for your tasks that need fast computation, such as training machine learning models, they’ve got dedicated CPU and GPU instances. Go to pythonpodcast.com/linode to get a $20 credit and launch a new server in under a minute. And don’t forget to thank them for their continued support of this show!
Your host as usual is Tobias Macey and today I’m interviewing Sebastian Raschka about his experiences writing the popular Python Machine Learning book

Interview

Introductions
How did you get introduced to Python?
How did you get started in machine learning?
- What were the concepts that you found most difficult in your career with statistics and machine learning?
One of your notable contributions to the field is your book "Python Machine Learning". What inspired you to write the initial version?
- How did you approach the challenge of striking the right balance of depth, breadth, and accessibility for the content?
- What was your process for determining which aspects of machine learning to include?
You have made 3 editions of the book from 2015 through December of 2019. In what ways has the book changed?
- What are the biggest changes to the ecosystem and approaches to ML in that timeframe?
What are the fundamental challenges of developing machine learning projects that continue to present themselves?
- What new difficulties have arisen with the introduction of new technologies and the rise of deep learning?
What are some of the ways that the Python language lends itself to analytical work?
- What are its shortcomings and how has the community worked around them?
- What do you see as the biggest risks to the popularity of Python in the data and analytics space?
What are some of the common pitfalls that your readers and students face while learning about different aspects of machine learning?
What are some of the industries that can benefit most from applications of machine learning?
What are you most excited about in the applications or capabilities of machine learning?
- What are you most worried about?

Keep In Touch

Website
@rasbt on Twitter
rasbt on GitHub
LinkedIn

Picks

Tobias
- Trolls World Tour
Sebastian
- FFMPeg Normalize

Closing Announcements

Thank you for listening! Don’t forget to check out our other show, the Data Engineering Podcast for the latest on modern data management.
Visit the site to subscribe to the show, sign up for the mailing list, and read the show notes.
If you’ve learned something or tried out a project from the show then tell us about it! Email hosts@podcastinit.com) with your story.
To help other people find the show please leave a review on iTunes and tell your friends and co-workers
Join the community in the new Zulip chat workspace at pythonpodcast.com/chat