CS446/ECE449: Machine Learning (Fall 2025)

Course Information

The goal of Machine Learning is to find structure in data. In this course we will cover three main areas, (1) supervised learning, (2) unsupervised learning, and (3) reinforcement learning models. In particular we will cover the following: perceptron, decision trees, Naive Bayes, Gaussian Bayes, linear regression, logistic regression, support vector machines, deep nets, structured methods, learning theory, kMeans, Gaussian mixtures, expectation maximization, VAEs, GANs, Markov decision processes, Q-learning and Reinforce.

Pre-requisites: Probability, linear algebra, and proficiency in Python.

Recommended Text: (1) Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective by Kevin Murphy, (2) Machine Learning, Tom Mitchell, (3) Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Christopher Bishop, (4) The Elements of Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction by Jerome H. Friedman, Robert Tibshirani, and Trevor Hastie.

Course Deliverables:
(1) Homework, see below for dates
(2) Midterm
(3) Final

Grading:
3 credit: Homework 60% (drop 1 homework), Midterm 20%, Final 20%
4 credit: Homework 60% (drop 0 homework), Midterm 20%, Final 20%

Grading policy is subject to change.

Late Policy: 3 late days in total.


Instructor & TAs

Liangyan Gui

Instructor
Email: lgui[at]illinois.edu





Risham Sidhu

Teaching Assistant
Email: rsidhu3[at]illinois.edu

Nghia Nguyen

Teaching Assistant
Email: nghiadn2[at]illinois.edu

Mayank Shrivastava

Teaching Assistant
Email: mayanks4[at]illinois.edu





The-Anh Vu

Teaching Assistant
Email: vltanh[at]illinois.edu

Muntasir Wahed

Teaching Assistant
Email: mwahed2[at]illinois.edu

Ziyin Wang

Teaching Assistant
Email: ziyin[at]illinois.edu

Logistics

Class Location: Coursera
Office Hours: TBD
Campuswire for discussions: [link] (code in class email)
GradeScope for assignments : [link] (code in class email)



Lectures

The syllabus is subject to change.

EventDateDescriptionSlides References
Lecture 1 08/25/2025 Introduction [Slides]  
Lecture 2 08/27/2025 kNN [Slides] Bishop: Sec 2.5; Murphy: Sec 1.4
Lecture 3 09/01/2025 Perceptron [Slides] The Perceptron
Assignment Released 09/03/2025 Assignment 1 [PDF]  
Lecture 4 09/03/2025 PyTorch Tutorial  
Lecture 5 09/08/2025 Probability and Estimation [Slides] Mitchell: Chapter 2, Goodfellow et al.: Chapter 3
Assignment Due 09/10/2025 Assignment 0 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Lecture 6 09/10/2025 Naive Bayes [Slides] Mitchell: Chapter 3
Lecture 7 09/15/2025 Gaussian Naive Bayes [Slides] Mitchell: Chapter 3
Assignment Due 09/17/2025 Assignment 1 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Assignment Released 09/17/2025 Assignment 2 Released    
Lecture 8 09/17/2025 Logistic Regression [Slides] Mitchell: Chapter 3
Lecture 9 09/22/2025 Optimization [Slides] Murphy: Sec 8.1,8.2,8.3
Lecture 10 09/24/2025 Linear Regression [Slides] Murphy: Sec 7, 8.3; Bishop: Sec 9.2
Lecture 11 09/29/2025 SVM [Slides] Murphy: Sec 14.5; Bishop: Sec 7.1
Assignment Due 10/01/2025 Assignment 2 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Assignment Released 10/01/2025 Assignment 3 Released    
Lecture 12 10/01/2025 SVM II [Slides] Murphy: Sec 14.5; Bishop: Sec 7.1
Lecture 13 10/06/2025 Empirical Risk Minimization [Slides]  
Lecture 14 10/08/2025 Midterm Review [Slides]  
Exam 10/13/2025-10/17/2025 (TBD) Midterm Exam    
Assignment Due 10/15/2025 Assignment 3 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Assignment Released 10/15/2025 Assignment 4 Released    
Lecture 15 10/20/2025 Bias-Variance Tradeoff [Slides]  
Lecture 16 10/22/2025 Model Selection [Slides]    
Lecture 17 10/27/2025 Kernels [Slides] Bishop: Sec 6.1, 6.2
Assignment Due 10/29/2025 Assignment 4 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Assignment Released 10/29/2025 Assignment 5 Released    
Lecture 18 10/29/2025 Kernels II [Slides] Bishop: Sec 6.1, 6.2
Lecture 19 11/03/2025 Decision Tree Learning [Slides] Mitchell: 3; Bishop: Sec 14.4
Lecture 20 11/05/2025 Ensemble Methods, AdaBoost [Slides] Bishop: Sec 14.3, 14.4
Lecture 21 11/10/2025 Hierarchical Clustering, K-Means [Slides] Murphy, 21.3; Hastie et.al.: Sec 14.3.6, 14.3.7
Assignment Due 11/12/2025 Assignment 5 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Assignment Released 11/12/2025 Assignment 6 Released    
Lecture 22 11/12/2025 PCA, SVD [Slides] Murphy, 12.2; Hastie et.al.: Sec 14.5.1, 14.5.2
Lecture 23 11/17/2025 Neural Networks [Slides] Goodfellow et al.: Chapter 6.1-6.4
Lecture 24 11/19/2025 Deep Learning [Slides] Goodfellow et al.: Chapter 6.1-6.5
11/22/2025-11/30/2025 Fall Break    
Lecture 25 12/01/2025 Generative Modelling [Slides-CNNs][Slides-Generative Modelling] Goodfellow et al.: Chapter 6-9
Assignment Due 12/10/2025 Assignment 6 Due (11:59AM Central Time)    
Lecture 26 12/03/2025 Generative Modelling II [Slides]      
Lecture 27 12/08/2025 Sequential Models [Slides]      
Lecture 28 12/10/2025 Review [Slides]      
Exam 12/12/2025-12/18/2025 (TBD) Final Exam