# Python Machine Learning Course Online

Canonical URL: <https://vdci.edu/courses/python-machine-learning-online>

## Overview

Machine learning skills are in high demand, since algorithms now drive much of the trading on Wall Street and the product recommendations behind major companies like Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix. This course opens with foundational machine learning concepts such as linear and logistic regression, both essential tools for solving machine learning problems. From there, you'll explore more advanced algorithms, including k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, and random forests. Along the way, you'll be introduced to important statistical concepts like bias, variance, and overfitting. You'll also learn how to evaluate the performance of your models and gain insight into choosing the most effective features and algorithms for your work.

The course centers on practical skills, equipping you with the tools you need to solve real-world problems using machine learning. While the mathematical foundations of each algorithm are explained visually, no formal math component is included. You should be comfortable with Python programming and libraries such as NumPy and Pandas. If you're new to Python, it's a good idea to build those fundamentals before enrolling.

## What you'll learn

- How to clean and balance your data using the Pandas library
- Applying machine learning algorithms such as logistic regression and random forests with the scikit-learn library
- Choosing strong features to use as input for your algorithms
- Properly splitting data into training, testing, and cross-validation sets
- Important theoretical concepts like overfitting, variance, and bias
- Evaluating how well your machine learning models perform

## Prerequisites

This course requires students to be comfortable with Python and its data science libraries (NumPy and Pandas). If a student has not worked in Python before, we require a student to enroll in our [Python for Data Science Course](https://vdci.edu/courses/python-data-science-online)before taking this course.

## Instructors

### Garfield Stinvil — Instructor

Garfield is an experienced software trainer with over 16 years of real-world professional experience. He started as a data analyst with a Wall Street real estate investment company & continued working in the professional development department at New York Road Runners Organization. He enjoys bringing humor to whatever he teaches and loves conveying ideas in novel ways that help others learn more efficiently.

Since starting his professional training career in 2016, he has worked with several corporate clients including Adobe, HBO, Amazon, Yelp, Mitsubishi, WeWork, Michael Kors, Christian Dior, and Hermès. 

Outside of work, his hobbies include rescuing & archiving at-risk artistic online media using his database management skills.

### Colin Jaffe — Instructor

Colin Jaffe is a programmer, writer, and teacher with a passion for creative code, customizable computing environments, and simple puns. He loves teaching code, from the fundamentals of algorithmic thinking to the business logic and user flow of application building—he particularly enjoys teaching JavaScript, Python, API design, and front-end frameworks.

Colin has taught code to a diverse group of students since learning to code himself, including young men of color at All-Star Code, elementary school kids at The Coding Space, and marginalized groups at Pursuit.

Colin lives in Brooklyn with his wife, two kids, and many intricate board games.

### Brian McClain — Instructor

Brian McClain is an experienced instructor, curriculum developer, and web developer. Brian served as Director for a coding bootcamp, where he is now a lead instructor and course developer for both JavaScript and Python. He teaches Web Development, JavaScript, Python for Data Science, Machine Learning, and AI. He taught Python Data Science and Machine Learning as an Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Westchester County College.

Brian is also an active industry professional in the field of generative AI app development. His website and iOS app, Artmink, provide appraisals of art and antiques from user-uploaded images.

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $1895