Introduction to the Theory of Computation

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"Intended as an upper-level undergraduate or introductory graduate text in computer science theory," this book lucidly covers the key concepts and theorems of the theory of computation. The presentation is remarkably clear; for example, the "proof idea," which offers the reader an intuitive feel for how the proof was constructed, accompanies many of the theorems and a proof. Introduction to the Theory of Computation covers the usual topics for this type of text plus it features a solid section on complexity theory--including an entire chapter on space complexity. The final chapter introduces more advanced topics, such as the discussion of complexity classes associated with probabilistic algorithms.

Book Description

Michael Sipser's emphasis on unifying computer science theory - rather than offering a collection of low-level details - sets the book apart, as do his intuitive explanations. Throughout the book, Sipser builds students' knowledge of conceptual tools used in computer science, the aesthetic sense they need to create elegant systems, and the ability to think through problems on their own.

Customer Reviews:

My choice for textbook in my computation theory class.......2007-10-01

I recently encountered this book at a publisher's booth at a computer conference and read it on the ride back home. This morning I made a trip to the college bookstore and notified them that it is the textbook that I will be using in my computation theory class this spring.
The chapter titles are:

0) Introduction - this chapter contains the fundamental mathematical background of sets, functions, graphs and proofs. For most students, it could be skipped or skimmed.
1) Regular languages - this chapter is an introduction to deterministic and nondeterministic finite automata and regular expressions.
2) Context-free languages - an introduction to context-free grammars and pushdown automata.
3) The Church-Turing theses - an introduction to Turing machines and the variants, such as multiple tapes and nondeterministic Turing machines.
4) Decidability - the definition of decidability and how Turing machines and finite automata are used to prove or disprove if a language is decidable.
5) Reducibility - the definition of reducible and how Turing machines can be used to execute reductions.
6) The recursion theorem - an introduction to the recursion theorem and some applications to formal theories.
7) Time complexity - the first chapter in the coverage of algorithmic complexity, in this case execution time.
8) Space complexity - an examination of the complexity of algorithms from the perspective of the amount of memory required.
9) Intractability - an examination of the problems that can be solved in principle but not in practice.
10) Advanced topics in complexity theory - approximation algorithms, probabilistic algorithms, alternation, interactive proof systems, parallel computation and cryptography.

There is less coverage of grammars than most books, which is replaced by more in the area of algorithmic analysis. In my opinion, that is an appropriate tradeoff, the analysis of algorithms gives the students some understanding of how automata are applied in computer science.
Another excellent feature of this book is the solutions to selected exercises that appear at the end of the chapters. My estimate is that reasonably detailed solutions to approximately one-third of the problems are included. This allows the students to work extra problems by themselves, and helps the instructor if they are asked to do another example in class that they have not already worked through.
The exposition is very good; I am convinced that the students will be able to read the material on their own, which is one more reason why I adopted this book for my course.

well-organized, progressive, and understandable.......2007-01-06

As an intro to the theoretical background to computer science goes, this book is about as readable and approachable as you can get.

It gives a very thorough treatment of the whole theoretical basis, from regular languages and pumping lemmas out through Turing machines and related issues, and on to some interesting language classes (like NP and PSpace-complete).

If there's a single sticking point with the book, it's that it insists on a very strict formalism (ie: everything is proof-based) -- something necessary for the topic, but it sometimes renders the material a bit hard to digest.

Great book on the subject.......2006-12-27

If you are interested in or for other reasons must read a book on this subject, this is the book. I took a class last semester which used Hopcroft as the text and I found myself often turning to this book for better understanding. This book is more intuitive and thus a bit less formal than Hopcroft but when trying to learn, understanding is better than mathematical formalism. If you are new to the subject, Sipser is the book to begin with.

Very readable, diverse, and a little sparse.......2006-11-25

This is a wonderful little gem of a book that presents the theory of computation in a fascinating way. It is targeted at advanced undergraduates in computer science, but assumes remarkably little prior knowledge, making it accessible to nearly anyone. The book covers a lot of ground, including the standard fare of automata, computability, and complexity results, plus some bonus material such as probablistic and parallel complexity, information theory, decidable logical theories, and other topics that are normally left out of introductory books. On top of this, the book is remarkably thin!

The best attribute of Sipser's book, though, is the engaging style. This is an easy book to read. You will not feel like you're running into a brick wall, as is sometimes the case with books on abstract topics. It's not so much that the book is slow or gentle (it's really not) as that it is interesting, engaging, and has a knack for stopping short of getting too caught up in details. A number of small things -- the occasional amusing exercise, the "proof idea" sections, or helpful pictures -- add up to an enjoyable reading experience.

Two cautions are appropriate to students considering this book. First, there are variations between authors in the definitions of various automata (especially PDAs). The differences are trivial, and more a matter of taste than of any real importance; but it could come up if you use Sipser as a supplement to a course that follows a different textbook. Second, the coverage of many topics in Sipser's book is brief and concise, sometimes more than you might like. Some important concepts (for example, pairwise distinguishability of strings) are only mentioned in exercises, not in the main chapter, so at least skim all the exercises even if you don't do them. The sketchy coverage is especially pronounced in advanced topics, so (as always) expect to do some filling in of concepts if you go on into further study of this area.

Most appropriate for CS students.......2006-06-01

As a teacher of the subject, I have had the chance to evaluate numerous books on the theory of computation. Of all the available texts, I think this one is the most appropriate for CS students. In the past I taught out of Dexter Kozen's book, which is incredibly elegant, but had some resistance from the students. Thinking it over I decided that Kozen's text, although beautiful, may be better suited to students pursuing a degree in pure math. Sipser's book, on the other hand, is more gentle. I find that Sipser demands far less mathematical maturity from his readers, and thus allows the difficulty to be shifted from excessive formalism to the inherent challenges present in the material. In addition, following Sipser's treatment, I was able to cover finite state machines and pushdown automata in far less time, thus allowing me to concentrate on computability and beyond. The book really shines in its treatment of computability theory, eloquently directing attention to some of the most beautiful aspects.

Another benefit of Sipser's book is the exercises, of which there are many more in this edition. Someone studying on their own should find the initial group of exercises in each section quite approachable. Even the more challenging problems are not incredibly hard, and typically draw their difficulty from the deeper themes of the chapter instead of obscure details.

If you are looking for an enjoyable, well-paced book with an introduction to computability and complexity that is truly inspiring, this is the one for you. A mathematician looking for a bit more rigor may do better with Kozen.

An Introduction to Support Vector Machines and Other Kernel-based Learning Methods

Average customer rating:

More for mathematicians than computer scientist
A little dry.
Not even close to an intro...
Excellent book
This is it !

An Introduction to Support Vector Machines and Other Kernel-based Learning Methods
Nello Cristianini , and John Shawe-Taylor
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Kernel Methods for Pattern Analysis
Learning with Kernels: Support Vector Machines, Regularization, Optimization, and Beyond (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)
The Elements of Statistical Learning
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (Information Science and Statistics)
Pattern Classification (2nd Edition)

ASIN: 0521780195

Book Description

This is the first comprehensive introduction to Support Vector Machines (SVMs), a new generation learning system based on recent advances in statistical learning theory. Students will find the book both stimulating and accessible, while practitioners will be guided smoothly through the material required for a good grasp of the theory and its applications. The concepts are introduced gradually in accessible and self-contained stages, while the presentation is rigorous and thorough. Pointers to relevant literature and web sites containing software make it an ideal starting point for further study.

Customer Reviews:

More for mathematicians than computer scientist.......2006-09-20

This book introduces the concepts of kernel-based methods and focuses specifically on Support Vector Machines (SVM). It is hard to read and a good background in mathematic is clearly needed. The book has a strong emphasis on SVM starting from the very first line of text. Concepts are well explained, although equations are not clear. The notation doesn't facilitate the reading at all. The book covers linear as well as kernel learning. The kernel trick is well described. It is easy to understand ideas behind SVM while reading the corresponding chapter. Finally a small chapter on SVM applications is proposed. Unfortunately, it only contains typical SVM applications (i.e. standard problems).

I think this book is good if you:

* Have a strong mathematical background
* Work in the specific domain of SVM (or kernel-based methods in general)
* Want to write a research paper about SVM and need the correct notations

However, this book is NOT intended for people who:

* Don't like to read theorems, corollaries and remarks
* Are not interested in reading hundreds of proofs

This is my personal opinion as a computer scientist: this book is definitely written for mathematicians.

A little dry........2006-01-09

The book is a little dry at times. Also, I didn't get a very clear idea of how to select kernel functions, which seems pretty important.

Not even close to an intro..........2004-03-21

Oh Puhleeeezzzzz... How is your vector math??? Remember your linear algebra well? Do you have a background in SVM's? Intuitively able to suck out of thin air the meaning of the Gamma co-efficient as applied to svm's?? You've read all the background papers and remember your formal logic???? No?? too bad..your out of luck..

This book is more aptly titled an Introduction to the Formalisms of SVM's. If your a software engineer trying to implement one of these, forget it.. Be nice if they put that quadratic algorthim psuedocode into something more readable than greek symbology..

If you are trying to build one of these engines, then this book is of absolutely no help, unless you have a background in machine learning and have read all the papers on SVM's. If you can decompose the math into code in your head, then you might find it entertaining... What I don't get is how all the rest of these reviewers can give such "glowing praise" for this book and have it be so completely worthless as an introduction... makes me think some of these are shills..

Bottom line is, if your trying to code a svm, this book will not help. If your trying to understand how to implement a svm, this book will not help. If you are trying to understand how an svm works, this book will not help. If you want to know the mathematical basis for SVM's and like that presentation.. this is the book for you..

Excellent book.......2003-11-19

I just happened to read the reviews on the book on Support vector machines by Nello Cristianini and John Shawe-Taylor. Could not resist adding my own comments about the book. Excellent book. I plan to use the book for the course on "Fundamentals of computer aided engineering" that I teach at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL).

This is it !.......2001-08-31

The book is just great. The appendix on algorithms could have more explanations. Also the application section is a short. It would have been more usuful to take one of these applicaitons and describe it in details. But all in all, the book is excellent.

An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (Complex Adaptive Systems)

Average customer rating:

Good Theoretical GA Textbook
Not for beginners
An introduction and much more
A Great Introduction to Genetic Algorithms
Good introduction for such a short book

An Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (Complex Adaptive Systems)
Melanie Mitchell
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization, and Machine Learning
Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems: An Introductory Analysis with Applications to Biology, Control, and Artificial Intelligence
How to Solve It: Modern Heuristics
Introduction to Evolutionary Computing (Natural Computing Series)
Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection (Complex Adaptive Systems)

ASIN: 0262631857

Book Description

Genetic algorithms have been used in science and engineering as adaptive algorithms for solving practical problems and as computational models of natural evolutionary systems. This brief, accessible introduction describes some of the most interesting research in the field and also enables readers to implement and experiment with genetic algorithms on their own. It focuses in depth on a small set of important and interesting topics--particularly in machine learning, scientific modeling, and artificial life--and reviews a broad span of research, including the work of Mitchell and her colleagues. The descriptions of applications and modeling projects stretch beyond the strict boundaries of computer science to include dynamical systems theory, game theory, molecular biology, ecology, evolutionary biology, and population genetics.

Customer Reviews:

Good Theoretical GA Textbook.......2005-05-06

This book primarily deals with the theoretical side of genetic algorithms. If you are looking for practical knowledge of how to implement a GA you should look elsewhere. For all intents and purposes this is a textbook. It's heavy on theory and proofs, but doesn't always explain everything in depth (that's what class time is for). There are problems at the end of each chapter that can be assigned to students.

There are case studies of many academic projects that seem to drone on forever and aren't really that useful in helping you learn how to write your own GA. Chapter 1 gives an overview and provides all of the appropriate terminology. Chapter 5 gives an high-level overview of how to implement a GA. Those are the 2 must-read chapters, all of the others can be used as torture for CS students.

To recap, if you're teaching a class in artificial intelligence this book is good. If you're trying to figure out how to implement a GA to solve a practical problem not so good. That evens out to 3 stars for my rating. I recommend searching the web, there are a few good sites on GA programming.

Not for beginners.......2004-02-04

I have an engineering degree, and I found this to be a little tough to follow for two reasons:

1. Not enough step by step prodecure especially at the beginning. Mitchell is too quick to start with the math formulas. It turns out that Genetic Algorithms are fairly straight forward and easy to follow, but you have to read this book twice before you "get it" because Mitchell clouds the discussion with proofs and mathematical representations of systems. It is tough to follow.

2. Mitchell does a poor job of selecting meaningful examples to illustrate the points. A nice simple set of examples where the average person easily picture the system would have been delightful. Instead this author chooses to illustrate the Genetic Algorithms through uncommon neural networks amoung other exotic applications. I found myself struggling to understand both the example (I didn't know a thing about neural networks!) and the genetic algorithm.

When buying an Introduction type book, I expected it to be more 'down to earth'. this book is for advanced minds!

An introduction and much more.......2004-01-26

First it must be said that the book is not an introduction that the non-scientist will easily understand. Some knowledge of computer programming is assumed. It acknowledges this in the last paragraph of the preface. Many of the notations in the book are unfamiliar to business or financial readers. There is no mathematics beyond algebra so the aforementioned prerequisites are the main hills to climb.

Mitchell's book is an overview of genetic algorithm analysis techniques as of 1996. The author gives a history of pre-computer evolutionary strategies and a summary of John Holland's pioneering work. A description of the basic terminology is presented and examples of problems solved using a GA (such as the prisoner's dilemma). The second chapter discusses evolving programs in Lisp and cellular automata. Also included in this chapter is a discussion of predicting dynamical systems. This was the section that has the most interest for me. Also interesting was the summary in this chapter about putting GAs into a neural network so that the ANNs could evolve.

The fifth chapter discusses when to employ a GA for maximum success. I appreciate the clearly thought out discussion of when to choose a GA for a problem. Sometimes authors of these types of books mimic the man with a hammer that thinks everything looks like a nail.

A Great Introduction to Genetic Algorithms.......2002-12-07

This is a great place to start to learn about genetic algorithms. The writing is clear and not bogged down by jargon. The book is not overly technical; it is written for the layman and has a casual conversational style that is a pleasure to read.

About half of the book is devoted to presenting examples of studies that have used genetic algorithms. These examples are interesting in themselves and also serve to illustrate the variety of genetic approaches that are available. The book also presents conflicting points of view of experts about which algorithms work best and why. This is helpful in combatting the impression that a beginner sometimes gets that everything is simple and all the answers are known.

Good introduction for such a short book.......2002-04-07

Although short, this book gives a good introduction to genetic algorithms for those who are first entering the field and are looking for insight into the underlying mechanisms behind them. It was first published in 1995, and considerable work has been done in genetic algorithms since then, but it could still serve as an adequate introduction. Emphasizing the scientific and machine learning applications of genetic algorithms instead of applications to optimization and engineering, the book could serve well in an actual course on adaptive algorithms. The author includes excellent problem sets at the end of each chapter, these being divided up into "thought exercises" and "computer exercises", and in the latter she includes some challenge problems for the ambitious reader.

Chapter 1 is an overview of the main properties of genetic algorithms, along with a brief discussion of their history. The role of fitness landscapes and fitness functions is clearly outlined, and the author defines genetic algorithms as methods for searching fitness landscapes for highly fit strings. An elementary example of a genetic algorithm is given, and the author compares genetic algorithms with more traditional search methods. The author emphasizes the unique features of genetic algorithms that distinguish them from other search algorithms, namely the roles of parallel population-based search with stochastic selection of individuals, and crossover and mutation. A list of applications is given, and two explicit examples of applications are given that deal with the Prisoner's Dilemna and sorting networks. The author also gives a brief discussion as to how genetic algorithms work from a more mathematical standpoint, emphasizing the role of Holland schemas. The reader more prepared in mathematics can consult the references for more in-depth discussion.

The next chapter stresses the role of genetic algorithms in problem solving, beginning with a discussion of genetic programming. Automatic programming has long been a goal of computer scientists, and the author discusses the role of genetic programming in this area, particularly the work of John Koza on evolving LISP programs. In addition, she discusses the current work on evolving cellular automata and its role in automatic programming. The latter discussion is more detailed, this resulting from the author's personal involvement in artificial life research. Those interested in time series prediction tools will appreciate the discussion on the use of genetic algorithms to predict the behavior of dynamical systems, with an example given on predicting the behavior of the (chaotic) Mackey-Glass dynamical system. The author also gives applications of genetic algorithms in predicting protein structure, an area of application that has exploded in recent years, due to the importance of the proteome projects. The area of neural networks has also been influenced by genetic algorithms, and the author discusses how they have replaced the familiar back-propagation algorithm as a method to find the optimal weights.

Chapter 3 is more in line with what the author intended in the book, namely a discussion of the relevance of genetic algorithms to study the mechanisms behind natural selection. She discusses the "Baldwin effect", which gives a connection between what an organism has learned (a small time-scale process) to the evolutionary history of the Earth (a long time-scale process). A simple model of the Baldwin effect is given using a genetic algorithm, along with a discussion of the Ackley-Littman evolutionary reinforcement learning model, which involves the use of neural networks, and which is another computational demonstration of the Baldwin effect. In addition, the author discusses models for sexual selection and ecosystems based on genetic algorithms. These are the "artificial life" models that the author has been involved in, and she gives a very understandable overview of their properties.

Chapter 4 should suit the curiosity of the mathematician or computer scientist who wants to understand the theoretical justification behind the use of genetic algorithms. Again employing the Holland notion of schemas and adaptation as a "tension between exploration and exploitation", the author formulates a mathematical model, called the Two-Armed Bandit Problem, of how genetic algorithms are used to study the tradeoffs in this tension. The level of mathematics used here is very elementary with the emphasis placed on the intuition behind this model, with only a sketch of the model's solution given. To address the role of crossover in genetic algorithms, the author discusses in detail a class of fitness landscapes, called "Royal Road functions" that she and others have developed. The performance of the genetic algorithm employed is then compared against the three different hill-climbing methods. Formal mathematical models of genetic algorithms are also discussed, one of which involves dynamical systems, another using Markov chains, and one using the tools of statistical mechanics. The latter is very interesting from a physics standpoint but is only briefly sketched. The interested physicist reader can consult the references given by the author for further details.

Practical use of genetic algorithms demands an understanding of how to implement them, and the author does so in the last chapter of the book. She outlines some ideas on just when genetic algorithms should be used, and this is useful since a newcomer to the field may be tempted to view a genetic algorithm as merely a fancy Monte Carlo simulation. The most difficult part of using a genetic algorithm is how to encode the population, and the author discusses various ways to do this. She also details various "exotic" approaches to improving the performance of genetic algorithms, such as the "messy" genetic algorithms. One must also choose a selection method when employing genetic algorithms, and the author shows how to do this using various techniques, such as roulette wheel and stochastic universal sampling. In addition, genetic operators must also be chosen in implementing genetic algorithms, and the author emphasizes crossover and mutation for this purpose. Lastly, the values of the parameters of the genetic algorithm, such as population size, crossover rate, and mutation rate must be chosen. The author discusses various approaches to this. Although brief, she does give a large set of references for further reading.

Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics and Speech Recognition
Average customer rating:

Needs a second volume which explains the first

I looked for

The a good introduction to NLP, but could be improved

Good oveview, slightly overrated: broad and shallow

Good, but many errors

Speech and Language Processing: An Introduction to Natural Language Processing, Computational Linguistics and Speech Recognition
Daniel Jurafsky , and James H. Martin
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing

Natural Language Understanding (2nd Edition)

The Oxford Handbook of Computational Linguistics (Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics)

Spoken Language Processing: A Guide to Theory, Algorithm and System Development

Mining the Web: Discovering Knowledge from Hypertext Data

ASIN: 0130950696

Book Description

This book takes an empirical approach to language processing, based on applying statistical and other machine-learning algorithms to large corpora. Methodology boxes are included in each chapter. Each chapter is built around one or more worked examples to demonstrate the main idea of the chapter. Covers the fundamental algorithms of various fields, whether originally proposed for spoken or written language to demonstrate how the same algorithm can be used for speech recognition and word-sense disambiguation. Emphasis on web and other practical applications. Emphasis on scientific evaluation. Useful as a reference for professionals in any of the areas of speech and language processing.

Customer Reviews:

Needs a second volume which explains the first.......2005-05-20

This book is by now an accepted classic in the field. It is basically the only textbook that covers so much of computational linguistics, so I have had no choice but to use it for the past several years. Just the same, I'd rather not use it for teaching linguistics students. While the book has much to offer the professional, including a broad range of topics extensively researched, it is much more useful in this "handbook" capacity than as a textbook for the uninitiated. The chief reasons for this are: 1) It is pedagogically very poor; the majority of concepts are either explained in a confusing and obfuscatory manner or are not explained and are simply left in algorithmic form. This is not usually edifying to the linguistics student with no computer science background. 2) There are too many mistakes in its algorithms and method overviews. So far as I can see, even the famed Earley parsing algorithm is wrong here, it will not yield the correct output. 3) It is not written in a language that linguistics students can understand. With no background in mathematics, computer science, or pseudocode, such students need much more coddling than is provided by this book, and they are virtually unable to read it. Basically, as the title to this review states, what is called for now is a book to explain the contents of this book. Perhaps if my students keep encouraging me to write it. . .

I looked for.......2003-11-06

something which I can use - I am a linguist - and found it immensly readable and useful

The a good introduction to NLP, but could be improved.......2003-04-16

This book helped me accomplish what I set out to do; namely to obtain an overview of the field of natural language processing, with an emphasis on language understanding (as opposed to recognition). And I can recommend it on that level. The weakness of the book however is that it left me asking, "OK, now what?". The book started off strong with a number of dynamic-programming algorithms, finite automaton models, and N-grams that one could sink his/her teeth into from an algorithmic point-of-view. But when it came to actual techniques for natural-language understanding (chapters 14-17) the goods were not delivered. The algorithms disappeared, and the best I could find was in Chapter 15 an incomplete, and unconvincing treatment of Hiyan Alshawi's semantic parsing techniques which fueled the Core Language Engine last decade. Chapter 16 dealt with lexical semantics and was almost entirely devoid of algorithms.

My gut feeling after reading this text is that parsing techniques will likely give way to statistical and probabilistic learning methods that will in some sense bypass the need to correctly or accurately parse language. I cannot fault the authors for not exploring this in more depth,as this represents the cutting edge for both NLP and artificial intelligence. In any case, I'm off to read Schutze and Manning's book which will hopefully provide a bit more focus on that perspective. What intrigues me is that most people can understand some language, but very few people understand the grammar of their own language, especially if they have been deprived of a formal education. So why should computers need to know all about grammar rules and parsing? Could they instead be trained by simply being exposed to enough interactions between language and objects? I teach in a department dominated by both foreign and immigrant students. I understand them most of the time, but I would estimate that half the time their sentences or utterances would not fail to be parsed correctly.

Good oveview, slightly overrated: broad and shallow.......2002-05-26

GENERAL IDEA: Broad coverage, it lacks depth and details - particularly practical details. That is, the presentation is often sketchy, mainly because it approaches too many subjects for its available space. I would not say that this book is strong on theory either. It is quite obvious that it avoids getting too formal and precise, probably to remain attractive for non-specialists too.

CASE STUDY: One specific problem I had with the Hidden Markov Models, that are supperficially presented (or spread I could say) in several separate sections of the book, so it's not been a pleasure trying to actually understand them properly and completely as a fundamental concept, to make them work in my particular application.

TITLE: The book's title IS misleading because it starts with "Speeech" and this book's main subject is not speech but (written) language. Actually there are only a few chapters on speech.

CONCLUSION: Get this book if you are looking for a good overview of the field. The book will introduce you to a thousand of topics. As soon as you need in-depth coverage of some particular topic, you will look for additional resources.

Good, but many errors.......2002-05-20

This book is a great general introduction to NLP, covering a broad range of topics. Unfortunately there are many errors in the mathematical formulae and the algorithm descriptions, so do make sure to download the errata list from the book's home page.

Introduction to Machine Learning (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)

Average customer rating:

Superb Organization of Ideas!
Great Machine Learning Overview Book
Great Introduction
Good one to start
A Great Introduction

Introduction to Machine Learning (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)
Ethem Alpaydin
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Data Mining: Practical Machine Learning Tools and Techniques, Second Edition (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning (Information Science and Statistics)
Machine Learning (Mcgraw-Hill International Edit)
Introduction to Data Mining, (First Edition)
Computer Manual in MATLAB to Accompany Pattern Classification, Second Edition

ASIN: 0262012111

Book Description

The goal of machine learning is to program computers to use example data or past experience to solve a given problem. Many successful applications of machine learning exist already, including systems that analyze past sales data to predict customer behavior, recognize faces or spoken speech, optimize robot behavior so that a task can be completed using minimum resources, and extract knowledge from bioinformatics data. Introduction to Machine Learning is a comprehensive textbook on the subject, covering a broad array of topics not usually included in introductory machine learning texts. It discusses many methods based in different fields, including statistics, pattern recognition, neural networks, artificial intelligence, signal processing, control, and data mining, in order to present a unified treatment of machine learning problems and solutions. All learning algorithms are explained so that the student can easily move from the equations in the book to a computer program. The book can be used by advanced undergraduates and graduate students who have completed courses in computer programming, probability, calculus, and linear algebra. It will also be of interest to engineers in the field who are concerned with the application of machine learning methods.

After an introduction that defines machine learning and gives examples of machine learning applications, the book covers supervised learning, Bayesian decision theory, parametric methods, multivariate methods, dimensionality reduction, clustering, nonparametric methods, decision trees, linear discrimination, multilayer perceptrons, local models, hidden Markov models, assessing and comparing classification algorithms, combining multiple learners, and reinforcement learning.

Customer Reviews:

Superb Organization of Ideas!.......2006-11-18

The topics and concepts in this book are exceptionally well organized. After reading it from cover to cover, I could easily see how all the ideas and concepts fit into place. I have two main criticisms. First, the notation is sometimes non-standard, e.g. the r vector is used to denote the label vector and superscripts are used sometimes as subscripts. Second, the explanations are sometimes too brief. For example, when deriving the solution for Least Squares Regression with Quadratic Discriminants, Vandermode matrices are used but the author fails to identify them as such, or to explain why they are useful. If the author were to write an extra sentence on every other page, the explanations would be perfect!

Great Machine Learning Overview Book.......2006-02-08

I have a little knowledge about some areas of Machine Learning; I have found this book to be a very useful reference for the areas that I am not familiar with.

Explanations are very clear with a very nice examples and illustrations; author also provides good references if deeper understanding of the topic is desired.

Each chapter has a notes section which I found particularly useful, since it gives a brief overview of the field with good references.

Author nicely ties all of the topics together so a more deeper and wholesome understanding could be obtained.

I would highly recommend this book to both undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in Machine Learning.

P.S. I am a PhD candidate in Computer Science.

Great Introduction.......2006-01-21

I was very happy with this book. The author used good judgement when deciding the level of detail to delve into for each concept. I was not brand new to machine learning but I still got alot out of the book.

Good one to start.......2005-12-14

I would like to congratulate the author on writing this book, which is crisp and covers whole range of topics. What I liked the most is a systematic disucssion on a wide variety of areas in machine learning with a certain degree of details.

But at the same time, I will also say that the book at some places,(for eg the treatment of Multi Dimensional scaling and Linear discriminants analysis,) lacks depth in its derivations. Also if some explanatory examples are put,it would help the reader, who is doing a first time reading, in understanding the concepts.

At the same time, I think the book achieves it's target of introducing to the reader, a whole gamet of techniques, at a fairly reasonable level. The book is no doubt, a nice and one-stop quick reference for many topics, as such. A commendable thing is an up to date errata maintained by the author, with latest editions made. I would recommend the book for a quick introduction to the subject.

A Great Introduction.......2004-12-10

We are only beginning to teach silicon based computers how to do things that meat computers have been doing for many thousands of years, things like talking. We learn to talk by making mistakes. Babies gurgle and cry and once in a while make a word. Momma, Daddy and Grandma reward the baby and eventually he's chattering away. Silicon brains can't do that.

But with the advances in computer technology, we are gaining the ability to store and process large amounts of data, as well as to access it from physically distant locations. With this mass of data, we have made progress in "data mining." If a person buys the first Harry Potter book. there's a percentage that will buy the second, and a different percentage that will buy the third. You can mine the data for these numbers. And by analyzing these percentages you can determine the likelihood of success in directing advertising to this customer. This is just one example of machine learning. Other topics covered in this book include statistics, pattern recognition, neural networks, artificial intelligence, signal processing, process control.

This book is intended for the beginning student in machine learning, he should have some background in programming, probability, calculus, and linear algebra. Having said that, I can recommend this book to anyone moving into the machine learning area.

Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)

Average customer rating:

Q-learner
Good introduction but not well structured
An excellent introduction
A Standard, Excellent Introductory Book
Excellent introduction to reinforcement learning

Reinforcement Learning: An Introduction (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)
Richard S. Sutton , and Andrew G. Barto
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0262193981

Book Description

Reinforcement learning, one of the most active research areas in artificial intelligence, is a computational approach to learning whereby an agent tries to maximize the total amount of reward it receives when interacting with a complex, uncertain environment. In Reinforcement Learning, Richard Sutton and Andrew Barto provide a clear and simple account of the key ideas and algorithms of reinforcement learning. Their discussion ranges from the history of the field's intellectual foundations to the most recent developments and applications. The only necessary mathematical background is familiarity with elementary concepts of probability.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I defines the reinforcement learning problem in terms of Markov decision processes. Part II provides basic solution methods: dynamic programming, Monte Carlo methods, and temporal-difference learning. Part III presents a unified view of the solution methods and incorporates artificial neural networks, eligibility traces, and planning; the two final chapters present case studies and consider the future of reinforcement learning.

Customer Reviews:

Q-learner.......2007-02-19

I agree with reviewer Frank "Good introduction but not well structured, May 8, 2005" the authors are over-anxious to establish the credentials of RL in older research traditions. Much of the talk about optimal control for instance is confusing because this is a vast field and its assumed you know it. I found myself looking up some of the technical terms from other fields. In the end learning about these concepts didnt help my understanding. This is a pity because the concepts behind RL are relatively simple/

However in general I really enjoyed this book and this is the most accessible (while still being comprehensive) RL introduction out there.

Good introduction but not well structured.......2005-05-09

This book provides an easy to read introduction in reinforcement learning. It covers several approaches (dynamic programming, monte carlo, temproal differnce) and gives a lot of examples.

However, in my opinion it is neither well structured nor written. The book has no clear separation between theory and examples given to demonstrate the applications of the theory. Due to this, the theoretical ideas are blured instead of clearified. After going through the examples it is always possible to find out how it work, but this should not be necessary.

After reading this book you will definetely know the basics (even more) about reinforcement learning. However, I somehow expected more because of the names of the authors. Perhaps this is not only a problem of this book but of the field of reinforcement learning itself.

An excellent introduction.......2004-11-06

As a subfield of artificial intelligence, reinforcement learning has shown great success from both a theoretical and practical viewpoint. Taking the form of numerous applications in finance, network engineering, robot toys, and games, it is clear that his learning paradigm shows even greater promise for future developments. The authors summarize the foundations of reinforcement learning, some of this coming from their own work over the last decade.

The authors define reinforcement learning as learning how to map situations to actions so as to maximize a numerical reward. The machine that is indulging in reinforcement learning discovers on its own which actions will optimize the reward by trying out these actions. It is the ability of such a machine to learn from experience that distinguishes it from one that is indulging in supervised learning, for in the latter examples are needed to guide the machine to the proper concept or knowledge. The authors emphasize the "exploration-exploitation" tradeoffs that reinforcement-learning machines have to deal with as they interact with the environment.

For the authors, a reinforcement learning system consists of a `policy', a `reward function', a `value function', and a `model' of the environment. A policy is a mapping from the states of the environment that are perceived by the machine to the actions that are to be taken by the machine when in those states. The reward function maps each perceived state of the environment to a number (the reward). A value function specifies what is the good for the machine over the long run. A model, as the name implies, is a representation of the behavior of the environment. The authors emphasize that all of the reinforcement learning methods that are discussed in the book are concerned with the estimation of value functions, but they point out that other techniques are available for solving reinforcement learning problems, such as genetic algorithms and simulated annealing.

The authors use dynamic programming, Monte Carlo simulation, and temporal-difference learning to solve the reinforcement learning problem, but they emphasize that each of these methods will not give a free-lunch. An entire chapter is devoted to each of these methods however, giving the reader a good overview of the weaknesses and strengths of each of these approaches. The differences between them usual boil down to issues of performance rather than accuracy in the generated solutions. Temporal difference learning in fact is viewed in the book as a combination of Monte Carlo and dynamic programming techniques, and in the opinion of this reviewer, has resulted in some of the most impressive successes for applications based on reinforcement learning. One of these is TD-Gammon, developed to play backgammon, and which is also discussed in the book.

The authors emphasize that these three main strategies for solving reinforcement learning problems are not mutually exclusive. Instead each of them could be used simultaneously with the others, and they devote a few chapters in the book illustrating how this "unified" approach can be advantageous for reinforcement learning problems. They do this by using explicit algorithms and not just philosophical discussion. These discussions are very interesting and illustrate beautifully the idea that there is no "free lunch" in any of the different algorithms involved in reinforcement learning.

In the last chapter of the book the authors overview some of the more successful applications of reinforcement learning, one of them already mentioned. Another one discussed is the `acrobot', which is a two-link, underactuated robot, which models to some extent the motion of a gymnast on a high bar. The motion of the acrobot is to be controlled by swinging its tip above the first joint, with appropriate rewards given until this goal is reached. The authors use the `Sarsa' learning algorithm, developed earlier in the book, for solving this reinforcement learning problem. The acrobot is an example of the current intense interest in machine learning of physical motion and intelligent control theory.

Another example discussed in this chapter deals with the problem of elevator dispatching, which the authors include as an example of a problem that cannot be dealt with efficiently by dynamic programming. This problem is studied with Q-learning and via the use of a neural network trained by back propagation.

The authors also treat a problem of great importance in the cellular phone industry, namely that of dynamic channel allocation. This problem is formulated as a semi-Markov decision problem, and reinforcement learning techniques were used to minimize the probability of blocking a call. Reinforcement learning has become very important in the communications industry of late, as well as in queuing networks.

A Standard, Excellent Introductory Book.......2003-11-30

This book is undoubtedly the standard book on the topic of reinforcement learning by the two leading researchers in this field. Different from many other AI or maching learning books, this book presents not only the technical details of algorithms and methods, but also a uniquely unified view of how intelligent agents can improve by interacting with the environment. Besides, it is very readable, without much math or theory. The exercises are challenging and interesting, and will force you to understand the stuffs in the book!

Excellent introduction to reinforcement learning.......2003-08-03

I have this book more than a year now and I am going through it for the second time, so I think I have a pretty good picture about it.

The book consists of three parts. In the first part, "The Problem", the authors define the scope of issues reinfocement learning is dealing with and they give some interesting introductory examples. Then, they move on to the concept of evaluative feedback and, eventually, define the reinforcement learning problem formally.

The second part, "Elementary Solution Methods" consists of three more-less independent subparts: Dynamic Programming, Monte Carlo Methods and Temporal Difference Learning. All three fundamental reinforcement learning methods are presented in an interesting way and using good examples. Personally, I liked the TD-Learning part best and I agree that this method is indeed the central method and an original contribution of reinforecement learning to the field of machine learning.

The third part, "A Unified View" present more advanced techniques. The last chapter gives the most important case studies in reinforcement learning including Samuel's Checkers Player and Thesauro's TD-Gammon.

The book is very readable and every chapter ends with illustrative exercises (many of them actually are real programming projects!), always useful summary and very valuable bibliographical and historical remarks. Some subchapters are more advanced and therefore marked with '*'. I really recommend first two parts to any student ofd computer science or anyone interested in machine learning and fuzzy computing. The third part is much more advanced but it would be definitely interesting for advanced computer scientists and graduate students.

Book Description

Emphasizing issues of computational efficiency, Michael Kearns and Umesh Vazirani introduce a number of central topics in computational learning theory for researchers and students in artificial intelligence, neural networks, theoretical computer science, and statistics.

Computational learning theory is a new and rapidly expanding area of research that examines formal models of induction with the goals of discovering the common methods underlying efficient learning algorithms and identifying the computational impediments to learning.

Each topic in the book has been chosen to elucidate a general principle, which is explored in a precise formal setting. Intuition has been emphasized in the presentation to make the material accessible to the nontheoretician while still providing precise arguments for the specialist. This balance is the result of new proofs of established theorems, and new presentations of the standard proofs.

The topics covered include the motivation, definitions, and fundamental results, both positive and negative, for the widely studied L. G. Valiant model of Probably Approximately Correct Learning; Occam's Razor, which formalizes a relationship between learning and data compression; the Vapnik-Chervonenkis dimension; the equivalence of weak and strong learning; efficient learning in the presence of noise by the method of statistical queries; relationships between learning and cryptography, and the resulting computational limitations on efficient learning; reducibility between learning problems; and algorithms for learning finite automata from active experimentation.

Customer Reviews:

This is interesting stuff.......2000-11-18

Kearns is an impressive researcher, precise and succinct. The material on this book follows a tradition of careful proofs of fundamental issues in learning. I wouldn't think this is material of practical use; for that kind of material I'd recommend the new edition of Duda. Rather, Kearns is one of a team of researchers pushing the frontier of proving what is learnable and what is not, why some representations are good for learning and which are not, the dimensionality of the target problem (related to overfitting) working with prinpled definitions of what it is meant to learn borrowed from computational complexity theory.

Perceptrons - Expanded Edition: An Introduction to Computational Geometry

Average customer rating:

Deja vu?
Seminal AI book

Perceptrons - Expanded Edition: An Introduction to Computational Geometry
Marvin L. Minsky , and Seymour A. Papert
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0262631113

Book Description

Perceptrons - the first systematic study of parallelism in computation - has remained a classical work on threshold automata networks for nearly two decades. It marked a historical turn in artificial intelligence, and it is required reading for anyone who wants to understand the connectionist counterrevolution that is going on today.

Artificial-intelligence research, which for a time concentrated on the programming of ton Neumann computers, is swinging back to the idea that intelligence might emerge from the activity of networks of neuronlike entities. Minsky and Papert's book was the first example of a mathematical analysis carried far enough to show the exact limitations of a class of computing machines that could seriously be considered as models of the brain. Now the new developments in mathematical tools, the recent interest of physicists in the theory of disordered matter, the new insights into and psychological models of how the brain works, and the evolution of fast computers that can simulate networks of automata have given Perceptrons new importance.

Witnessing the swing of the intellectual pendulum, Minsky and Papert have added a new chapter in which they discuss the current state of parallel computers, review developments since the appearance of the 1972 edition, and identify new research directions related to connectionism. They note a central theoretical challenge facing connectionism: the challenge to reach a deeper understanding of how "objects" or "agents" with individuality can emerge in a network. Progress in this area would link connectionism with what the authors have called "society theories of mind."

Marvin L. Minsky is Donner Professor of Science in MIT's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department. Seymour A. Papert is Professor of Media Technology at MIT.

Customer Reviews:

Deja vu?.......2000-11-27

In 1958, Cornell psychologist Frank Rosenblatt proposed the 'perceptron', one of the first neural networks to become widely known. A retina sensory layer projected to an association layer made up of threshold logic units which in turn connected to the third layer, the response layer. If two groups of patterns are linearly separable then the perceptron network works well in learning to classify them in separate classes. In this reference, Minsky and Papert show that assuming a diameter-limited sensory retina, a perceptron network could not always compute connectedness, ie, determining if a line figure is one connected line or two separate lines. Extrapolating the conclusions of this reference to other sorts of neural networks was a big setback to the field at the time of this reference. However, it was subsequently shown that having an additional 'hidden' layer in the neural network overcame many of the limitations. This reference figures so prominently in the field of neural networks, and is often referred to in modern works. But of even greater significance, the history of the perceptron demonstrates the complexity of analyzing neural networks. Before this reference, artificial neural networks were considered terrific, after this reference limited, and then in the 1980s terrific again. But at the time of this writing, it is realized that despite physiological plausibility, artificial neural networks do not scale well to large or complex problems that brains can easily handle, and artificial neural networks as we know them may actually be not so terrific.

Seminal AI book.......2000-04-03

This is a seminal work in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Following an initial period of enthusiasm, the field encountered a period of frustration and disrepute. Minksy and Papert's 1969 book summed up this general feeling of frustration among researchers by demonstrating the representational limitations of Perceptrons (used in neural networks). Their arguments were very influential in the field and accepted by most without further analysis.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent practical introduction to GAs.......2005-04-10

Well rounded and importantly, practical introduction to the subject. Gives a rapid basic understanding of the elements required, and provides all the information needed for further reading to expand knowledge in timely and appropriate places in the text.

An honest book.......2004-12-07

A fine introduction. Well written, very, very clear... And the codes are pretty easy to understand even for beginners. I would recommend it as a first course on GAs.

Too little information, even for beginners.......2004-06-11

This is an introductory (undergraduate level) book targeted towards practitioners. The content is far from being satisfactory, even for beginners. However, if you have only a couple of hours and you want to get some information about GAs, this book is for you. If you're looking for comprehensive coverage on the topic, I'd recommend Eiben & Smith's "Introduction to Evolutionary Computing".

Get started with GAs fast.......1999-11-30

The best introduction to GAs for those wishing to get up and running and using such algorithms to solve real problems. The software provided seems to work well and just about anyone will understand the book. My only complaint is that the examples could have covered a better range of topics.

Good........1999-02-18

Good

Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction (Applied Computing)

Average customer rating:

The book provides a very good introduction to mobile robots.

Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction (Applied Computing)
Ulrich Nehmzow
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1852331739

Book Description

Mobile Robotics: A Practical Introduction is an excellent introduction to the foundations and methods used for designing completely autonomous mobile robots. In this book you are introduced to the fundamental concepts of this complex field via twelve detailed case studies which show how to build and program real working robots. This book provides a very practical introduction to mobile robotics for a general scientific audience, and is essential reading for final year undergraduate students and postgraduate students studying Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science and Robot Engineering. Its update and overview of core concepts in mobile robotics will assist and encourage practitioners of the field, and set challenges to explore new avenues of research in this exciting field.

Customer Reviews:

The book provides a very good introduction to mobile robots........2000-04-30

This is a very good introductory book on mobile robots. It assumes no background of the readers in the subject. Chapter 3 provides a introduction to the hardwared aspects including sensors and actuators. Chapter 4 on machine learning by robots is also very very interesting. The case studies presented in chapter 5 and 6 will be very much useful to the new-entrants of this discipline. Chapter 7 on analysis of robot behaviour is important for the researchers working in the discipline.I like the book for its simplicity in presentation and direct reference to the points to be discussed, rather than providing a lengthy introduction to the topics. The phrase "A practcical introduction" in the title is really worthwhile for the book.

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