IIT Madras Invites Applications for Free Online Course on Machine Learning through NPTEL

IIT Madras has invited applications for a free online course on machine learning on the NPTEL platform for which interested students can register. The machine learning course is just one of the 400 free online courses being offered by IIT Madras on the NPTEL platform for which enrollments have already begun. The course can be taken for free by those interested, while the online certificate would cost learners Rs 1000. The course is an AICTE approved Faculty Development Programme.

The free online machine learning course will be conducted by IIT Madras professor Balaraman Ravindran. He is currently a professor in computer science at IIT Madras and also a Mindtree faculty fellow. The professor has nearly two decades of research experience in machine learning and specifically reinforcement learning.

Who is Eligible to take the Free Online Machine Learning Course by IIT Madras?

The NPTEL website says that senior undergraduate and postgraduate students doing their BE, ME, MS, or PhD can take the elective course. Students will be required to know programming for some of the assignments, and it would be helpful if they have done introductory courses on probability theory and linear algebra. Nevertheless, some basic topics would also be reviewed in the first two weeks.

What will be Covered Under the Free Online Machine Learning Course by IIT Madras?

The course will be conducted over a period of twelve weeks and the following aspects will be covered: probability theory, linear algebra, convex optimization, statistical decision theory - regression, classification, bias-variance, linear regression, multivariate regression, subset selection, shrinkage methods, principal component regression, partial least squares, bootstrapping and cross-validation, class evaluation measures, ROC curve, MDL, ensemble methods - bagging, committee machines and stacking, boosting, Gaussian mixture models, expectation-maximization, and so on.

Important Dates and Certificate

The course will be conducted from 20 July 2020 onwards and the enrollment for the same ends on 27 July. The course will end on 9 October, and students can take an examination on 18 October to obtain the certificate by paying Rs 1000. The certificate with logos of NPTEL and IIT Madras will have the student’s name, photograph, and the score in the final exam with the breakup. Those interested to take the course are advised to go through the official website in detail, and enroll by clicking on the join button: https://swayam.gov.in/nd1_noc20_cs73/preview