This book introduces Bayesian reasoning and Gaussian processes into machine learning applications. Bayesian methods are applied in many areas, such as game development, decision making, and drug discovery. It is very effective for machine learning algorithms in handling missing data and extracting information from small datasets. Bayesian Reasoning and Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning Applications uses a statistical background to understand continuous distributions and how learning can be viewed from a probabilistic framework. The chapters progress into such machine learning topics as belief network and Bayesian reinforcement learning, which is followed by Gaussian process introduction, classification, regression, covariance, and performance analysis of Gaussian processes with other models. FEATURES Contains recent advancements in machine learning Highlights applications of machine learning algorithms Offers both quantitative and qualitative research Includes numerous case studies This book is aimed at graduates, researchers, and professionals in the field of data science and machine learning.

A practical introduction perfect for final-year undergraduate and graduate students without a solid background in linear algebra and calculus.

This book introduces Bayesian reasoning and Gaussian processes into machine learning applications. Bayesian methods are applied in many areas, such as game development, decision making, and drug discovery. It is very effective for machine learning algorithms in handling missing data and extracting information from small datasets. Bayesian Reasoning and Gaussian Processes for Machine Learning Applications uses a statistical background to understand continuous distributions and how learning can be viewed from a probabilistic framework. The chapters progress into such machine learning topics as belief network and Bayesian reinforcement learning, which is followed by Gaussian process introduction, classification, regression, covariance, and performance analysis of Gaussian processes with other models. FEATURES Contains recent advancements in machine learning Highlights applications of machine learning algorithms Offers both quantitative and qualitative research Includes numerous case studies This book is aimed at graduates, researchers, and professionals in the field of data science and machine learning.

A comprehensive and self-contained introduction to Gaussian processes, which provide a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines. Gaussian processes (GPs) provide a principled, practical, probabilistic approach to learning in kernel machines. GPs have received increased attention in the machine-learning community over the past decade, and this book provides a long-needed systematic and unified treatment of theoretical and practical aspects of GPs in machine learning. The treatment is comprehensive and self-contained, targeted at researchers and students in machine learning and applied statistics. The book deals with the supervised-learning problem for both regression and classification, and includes detailed algorithms. A wide variety of covariance (kernel) functions are presented and their properties discussed. Model selection is discussed both from a Bayesian and a classical perspective. Many connections to other well-known techniques from machine learning and statistics are discussed, including support-vector machines, neural networks, splines, regularization networks, relevance vector machines and others. Theoretical issues including learning curves and the PAC-Bayesian framework are treated, and several approximation methods for learning with large datasets are discussed. The book contains illustrative examples and exercises, and code and datasets are available on the Web. Appendixes provide mathematical background and a discussion of Gaussian Markov processes.

This book examines Gaussian processes in both model-based reinforcement learning (RL) and inference in nonlinear dynamic systems.First, we introduce PILCO, a fully Bayesian approach for efficient RL in continuous-valued state and action spaces when no expert knowledge is available. PILCO takes model uncertainties consistently into account during long-term planning to reduce model bias. Second, we propose principled algorithms for robust filtering and smoothing in GP dynamic systems.

This book provides a multi-level introduction to Bayesian reasoning (as opposed to “conventional statistics”) and its applications to data analysis. The basic ideas of this “new” approach to the quantification of uncertainty are presented using examples from research and everyday life. Applications covered include: parametric inference; combination of results; treatment of uncertainty due to systematic errors and background; comparison of hypotheses; unfolding of experimental distributions; upper/lower bounds in frontier-type measurements. Approximate methods for routine use are derived and are shown often to coincide — under well-defined assumptions! — with “standard” methods, which can therefore be seen as special cases of the more general Bayesian methods. In dealing with uncertainty in measurements, modern metrological ideas are utilized, including the ISO classification of uncertainty into type A and type B. These are shown to fit well into the Bayesian framework.

The first unified treatment of time series modelling techniques spanning machine learning, statistics, engineering and computer science.