
New deep learning course by Andrew Ng - nilsocket
https://www.fastcompany.com/40449797/ai-superstar-andrew-ng-is-democratizing-deep-learning-with-a-new-online-course
======
brudgers
News discussion,
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958779](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14958779)

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binarymax
I'm taking this class now. I've finished the first two weeks of the first
course and am about to begin the first set of programming assignments.

Some initial impressions:

\- I really like Andrews teaching style, which is why I took the course. If
you are familiar with his machine learning coursera class and enjoy it, you
will enjoy this as well. It really feels like a seamless continuation of the
ML course and the concepts taught there are helpful. You may want to go
through that course first to learn the basics, but if your math is solid you
can jump right in to this.

\- the course teaches python, numpy, and tensorflow. Some folks had trouble
with Octave in the ML course, so many will appreciate the stack being taught
here.

\- there is lots of foundational mathematics. Some like that (I do) and some
don't. If you are not interested in core calculus or linear algebra details
and just want to learn applied deep learning through code, you may enjoy the
fast.ai courses more (which to me felt a bit cargo culty)

\- it's still early in the specialization for me so take the above with a
grain of salt!

~~~
Edd314159
Do you know of any courses that will bring one up to speed on the math
component?

I really love this format of learning, and I want to take this course as it's
something I'm interested in and I like Andrew Ng, but the Week 2 content was a
complete non-starter for me. I've been writing software professionally for a
decade now, but because I have no mathematical background I'm very far from
understanding even the first step of this course (which really is Week 2, Week
1 is just a formality).

~~~
imakecomments
Audit edx's Calculus sequence, taught by MIT. The courses are: Calculus 1A,
1B, 1C. You can watch MIT OCW's Linear Algebra course with Strang and/or
enroll in: "Linear Algebra - Foundations to Frontiers" on edx. Use Khan
academy for supplemental Calculus & Linear Algebra review. You can get
Stewart's Calculus text and read through it/attempt the problem sets. Once you
have a solid Calculus/Linear Algebra review you can take a look at:
"Statistics 110: Probability" which is found free here:
[https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/stat110/home](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/stat110/home).

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redsymbol
At first I could not find a way to sign up without paying - when I click
enroll, I didn't see the audit link that Sjenk and others mention.

The trick is that the audit link only appears when you sign up for the
individual course, not the entire sequence. So if you go to this link:

[https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-
learning](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-learning)

... and click "Enroll", you can only proceed by supplying payment info.
However, if you scroll down to that page to the box titled "Course 1", at the
bottom of that box is a link "You can choose to take this course only. Learn
More".

Click on THAT to go to the individual course page. Then, click Enroll, and in
the first box that pops up, you'll see the link "Or audit this course" in the
lower left.

This allowed me to sign up for all five without supplying payment info.

~~~
Torai
But you can't submit exercises.

[https://learner.coursera.help/hc/en-
us/articles/209818613-En...](https://learner.coursera.help/hc/en-
us/articles/209818613-Enrollment-options)

 _When you audit a course:

\- You'll be able to see most of the course materials for free, but you won't
be able to submit certain assignments or get grades for your work.

\- You won't be able to submit assignments for feedback or a grade.

\- You won't get a Course Certificate._

~~~
Blackthorn
Ugh, Coursera has gone way downhill.

~~~
sgslo
Its a business, do you not expect them to somehow collect revenue on products
they have created?

~~~
ghaff
The basic problem is that Coursera wasn't successful in attaching some
meaningful value to their certificates as credentials. And, if the credential
isn't meaningful, why on earth would I want to pay a VC-funded company for a
PDF that has zero value to me? Taking the course may be worthwhile but a
certificate adds essentially nothing to that.

So now they've effectively eliminated just about the only thing that
distinguishes them from some YouTube videos and a textbook.

~~~
gaius
_The basic problem is that Coursera wasn 't successful in attaching some
meaningful value to their certificates as credentials._

The EdX solution to this is that their courses are all endorsed or run by
brick-and-mortar universities with considerable investments in their brand
that they won't want to tarnish by attaching it to any random certificate.

~~~
ghaff
I'm not sure to what degree EdX has really "solved" this. My impression is
there's quite of range of quality and rigor on EdX as well. And, more
centrally, most people still don't see EdX certificates as general substitutes
for more conventional educational degrees.

~~~
gaius
Not a degree sure but many e.g. XSeries and MicroMasters are at the level of
diplomas.

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dannysu
There are several courses in this specialization. Only 3 are currently
available for enrollment right now.

You can get the course material for free, but won't be able to get assignments
graded.

Below are links for all of the courses.

Course 1: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/neural-networks-deep-
learning](https://www.coursera.org/learn/neural-networks-deep-learning)

Course 2: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/deep-neural-
network](https://www.coursera.org/learn/deep-neural-network)

Course 3: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning-
projects](https://www.coursera.org/learn/machine-learning-projects)

Course 4: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/convolutional-neural-
networks](https://www.coursera.org/learn/convolutional-neural-networks)

Course 5: [https://www.coursera.org/learn/nlp-sequence-
models](https://www.coursera.org/learn/nlp-sequence-models)

To get the course material, you go to each course link and click on "Enroll".
Then look for the "Audit" link at the bottom left of the modal dialog that
comes up.

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nilsocket
Here is the link to the coursera web-page:
[https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-
learning](https://www.coursera.org/specializations/deep-learning)

In-short this specialization covers:

1.Neural Networks

2.Hyperparameter tuning, Regularization and Optimization

3.Structuring Machine Learning Projects

4.Convolutional Neural Networks

5.Sequence Models

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Sjenk
It says it is free to audit the videos, but I can only find a button that lets
me enroll for free for 7 days before paying $49 a month. Am I missing
something?

EDIT: nevermind when you click enroll then there is a small text in the left
bottom of the pop up thats says audit the course.

~~~
wichert
Did they remove that link? I can't find it anywhere.

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rcdmd
Click enroll, then look in the bottom left corner of the popup modal.

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bauerd
There's only the "Start Free Trial" button for me

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cicero19
If you click the Enroll button on this link you will find the Audit link:
[https://www.coursera.org/learn/neural-networks-deep-
learning](https://www.coursera.org/learn/neural-networks-deep-learning)

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mendeza
Is there any past discussions whether these courses will actually get you a
job doing deep learning? I am skeptical these courses would get you a job in
deep learning.

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2_listerine_pls
Now right it taking.

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SoMisanthrope
I'm pretty excited about this... at work, we are using machine learning to
train models that allow us to automate the process of grading student essays.
The product is called LightSide. I hope to apply my learning from the class to
improving our models and our scoring accuracy. Woowhoo, thanks Dr. Ng!

~~~
WoodenChair
I would be furious if my essay was graded by a computer. Is the model really
good enough to account for all the variances in human language? Is the whole
thing graded automatically or just the grammar?

~~~
damvigilante
I don't know about the specific project SoMisanthrope is talking about, but
these types of tools are often used in conjunction with human graders. e.g.
Instead of having 2 human graders, you automate the grading and have 1 human
grader, and if the grades differ by some amount, only then do you bring in a
secondary grader.

~~~
SoMisanthrope
Good point DamVigilante. We trained the model using hundreds of human-scored
essays. They were all double or triple scored, to validate IRR. I think that's
why the model is performing so well. But, there is always room for
improvement! :-)

