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
Risham Sidhu
Teaching AssistantEmail: rsidhu3[at]illinois.edu
Nghia Nguyen
Teaching AssistantEmail: nghiadn2[at]illinois.edu
Mayank Shrivastava
Teaching AssistantEmail: mayanks4[at]illinois.edu
The-Anh Vu
Teaching AssistantEmail: vltanh[at]illinois.edu
Muntasir Wahed
Teaching AssistantEmail: mwahed2[at]illinois.edu
Ziyin Wang
Teaching AssistantEmail: ziyin[at]illinois.edu
Lectures
The syllabus is subject to change.
Event | Date | Description | Slides | 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 |