Hands-On Introduction to PyTorch

Neural networks have played a critical role in recent advances in automation and artificial intelligence over the last decade - with applications in sectors as broad as medicine, driver-less cars and industrial process optimisation.

PyTorch and TensorFlow are the two leading machine learning frameworks. PyTorch is more pythonic in design, and so much easier to use and debug.

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In this beginner-friendly tutorial we will:

• learn the basics of how a neural network works (without too much maths)

• learn the basics of PyTorch

• see the basic structure of PyTorch machine learning code

• build step-by-step a neural network with PyTorch that learns to classify images of hand-written digits, a standard machine learning challenge

• build the confidence to continue to learn about machine learning, and experiment with PyTorch

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This is a session designed for beginners to both machine learning and PyTorch. You don't need to be an expert with coding and Python but a little experience with be helpful.

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This is a hands-on practical tutorial. Please bring a fully charged laptop (access to power sockets not guaranteed), with working wifi and a modern browser like Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

There is no need to install Python, we will use the online Google Colab service. You'll need a Google Account for this, and if you log into Gmail or YouTube you already have one.