Linear Algebra and Calculus in Machine learning

Linear Algebra Concept in Machine Learning:

Understanding how to construct linear equations is a fundamental component in developing central machine learning algorithms. These will be used to evaluate and observe data collections. Linear algebra is applied in machine learning algorithms in loss functions, regularisation, covariance matrices, Singular Value Decomposition (SVD), Matrix Operations, and support vector machine classification. It is also applied in machine learning algorithms like linear regression. These are the concepts that are needed for understanding the optimization methods used for machine learning

In order to perform a Principal Component Analysis that is used to reduce the dimensionality of data, we use linear algebra. Linear algebra is also heavily used in neural networks for the processing and representation of networks. So needless to say, you need to be interested in linear algebra as it is extensively used in the field of data science.

However, don’t get intimidated by this as understanding the concepts will be important, but you don’t have to be an expert in linear algebra to solve most problems. Only sound knowledge of the concepts will be good enough. Mathematics for Machine Learning by Marc Peter deisenroth is an excellent book to help you get started on this journey if you are struggling with Maths in the beginning.

Calculus in Machine Learning:

Many learners who didn’t fancy learning calculus that was taught in school will be in for a rude shock as it is an integral part of machine learning. Thankfully, you may not need to master calculus, it’s only important to learn and understand the principles of calculus. Also, you need to understand the practical applications of machine learning through calculus during model building.

So, if you understand how the derivative of the function returns its rate of change in calculus, then you will be able to understand the concept of gradient descent. In gradient descent, we need to find the local minima for a function and so on. If you happen to have saddle points or multiple minima, a gradient descent might find out a local minima and not a global minima, unless you start from multiple points. Some of the necessary topics to ace the calculus part in data science are Differential and Integral Calculus, Partial Derivatives, Vector-Values Functions, Directional Gradients.

Multivariate calculus is utilized in algorithm training as well as in gradient descent. Derivatives, divergence, curvature, and quadratic approximations are all important concepts you can learn and implement.

The mathematics of machine learning might seem intimidating to you right now, however, you will be able to understand the concepts of calculus that are required to build a successful machine learning model within few days of constructive learning.