SYDE 572 - Introduction to Pattern Recognition - Fall 2023

Logistics

• Instructor: Ali Ayub

• Email: a9ayub@uwaterloo.ca

• Course Website: https://sites.google.com/view/aliayub/teaching/syde-572-fall-2023

• Time and Location: 

  • MW 4:30 - 5:50 PM (E5, 6004)

  • Tutorial: Th 4:30 - 5:20 PM (E5, 6004)

• Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00 AM - 01:00 PM or by email appointment (E7, 5402)

• TAs

  • Sajjad Kazemi (sajjad.kazemi@uwaterloo.ca)

• Course Syllabus: here

Grading

• Assignments: 4 x 17 = 68%.

• Project: 32%

Assignments

• There will be four assignments, posted every other week (All dates are tentative and can vary by a few days).

• Submit a zipped folder of your solution (pdf report, code, etc.) through LEARN.

• All assignments are due at 11:59 PM EST.

• No late submissions are accepted unless you have a legitimate reason. 

  1. Assignment 1: Posted on 09/19/2023 (pdf, tex), due 10/2/2023. 

  2. Assignment 2: Posted on 10/03/2023 (pdf, tex), due 10/17/2023. 

  3. Assignment 3: Posted on 10/23/2023 (pdf, tex), due 11/06/2023. 

  4. Assignment 4: Posted on 11/08/2023 (pdf, tex), due 11/22/2023. 

Project

NOTE: You need to get at least 50% in the project to pass the course.

There will be a Kaggle competition, details will be decided later. The deadline is Dec 10 (11:59 PM).

Textbooks

• An Introduction to Patten Recognition and Machine Learning, by Paul Fieguth

Other resources:

• Marc Peter Deisenroth, A. Aldo Faisal, and Cheng Soon Ong. Mathematics for Machine Learning. Cambridge University Press, 2020. freely available online

• Aston Zhang, Zachary C. Lipton, Mu Li, and Alexander J. Smola. Dive into Deep Learning. 2022. freely available online

Resources

• Colab

• Introduction to Numerical Computing with NumPy, by Alex Chabot-Leclerc.

• Here are some top conferences and journals in machine learning. They may be good places to look for project ideas.

  • NeurIPS

  • ICML

  • ICLR

  • COLT

  • AISTATS

  • JMLR

  • CVPR, ICCV, WACV

Policies

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. Check the university website for more information.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 (Student Petitions and Grievances) (other than a petition) or Policy 71 (Student Discipline) may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 (Student Appeals).

Note for Students with Disabilities: The Office for Persons with Disabilities (OPD), located in Needles Hall, Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the OPD at the beginning of each academic term.

Mental Health: If you or anyone you know experiences any academic stress, difficult life events, or feelings like anxiety or depression, we strongly encourage you to seek support.

On-campus Resources

• Campus Wellness https:uwaterloo.cacampus-wellness

• Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca 519-888-4567 ext 32655 Needles Hall North 2nd floor, (NH 2401)

• MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by Federation of Students (FEDS) and Counselling Services: mates@uwaterloo.ca

• Health Services service: located across the creek from Student Life Centre, 519-888-4096.

Off-campus Resources

• Good2Talk (24/7): Free confidential helpline for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454

• Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247

• OK2BME: a set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213

Diversity: It is our intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives be well served by this course, and that students’ learning needs be addressed both in and out of class. We recognize the immense value of the diversity in identities, perspectives, and contributions that students bring, and the benefit it has on our educational environment. Your suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. Please let us know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups. In particular:

• We will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate/preferred name or gender pronoun. Please advise us of this preference early in the semester so we may make appropriate changes to our records.

• We will honor your religious holidays and celebrations. Please inform of us these at the start of the course.

• We will follow AccessAbility Services guidelines and protocols on how to best support students with different learning needs.

Acknowledgments

Parts of this course rely on the content created by Paul Fieguth and Alex Wong.