Ensemble Learning Basics

The Netflix Prize, an open competition with the challenge to come up with the best algorithm to predict user ratings for films. All you have to go on are the previous user ratings without any other additional information about the users or the films. During the meetup we will explore how one of the top teams, "The Ensemble", used the simple concept of linear regression to achieve some of the best prediction results. We will be diving into a simple example, going through the steps of the technique and exploring why it works. Prepare for an interactive exploration of the topic followed by a discussion of the machine learning models being used today and whether ensemble learning can improve their performance.

Base concepts micro topic - Bootstrapping!
What is it and when and how can you make use of it? We will wrap up the meetup with a little tid bit of statistics to expand and solidify the basics of data science.