Machine Learning with R, 2nd Edition

Key Features

• Harness the power of R for statistical computing and data science
• Explore, forecast, and classify data with R
• Use R to apply common machine learning algorithms to real-world scenarios

Book Description

Machine learning, at its core, is concerned with transforming data into actionable knowledge. This makes machine learning well suited to the present-day era of big data. Given the growing prominence of R—a cross-platform, zero-cost statistical programming environment—there has never been a better time to start applying machine learning to your data. Whether you are new to data analytics or a veteran, machine learning with R offers a powerful set of methods to quickly and easily gain insights from your data.

Want to turn your data into actionable knowledge, predict outcomes that make real impact, and have constantly developing insights? R gives you access to the cutting-edge power you need to master exceptional machine learning techniques.

Updated and upgraded to the latest libraries and most modern thinking, the second edition of Machine Learning with R provides you with a rigorous introduction to this essential skill of professional data science. Without shying away from technical theory, it is written to provide focused and practical knowledge to get you building algorithms and crunching your data, with minimal previous experience.

With this book you’ll discover all the analytical tools you need to gain insights from complex data and learn how to to choose the correct algorithm for your specific needs. Through full engagement with the sort of real-world problems data-wranglers face, you’ll learn to apply machine learning methods to deal with common tasks, including classification, prediction, forecasting, market analysis, and clustering. Transform the way you think about data; discover machine learning with R.

What you will learn

• Harness the power of R to build common machine learning algorithms with real-world data science applications
• Get to grips with R techniques to clean and prepare your data for analysis, and visualize your results
• Discover the different types of machine learning models and learn which is best to meet your data needs and solve your analysis problems
• Classify your data with Bayesian and nearest neighbour methods
• Predict values by using R to build decision trees, rules, and support vector machines
• Forecast numeric values with linear regression, and model your data with neural networks
• Evaluate and improve the performance of machine learning models
• Learn specialized machine learning techniques for text mining, social network data, big data, and more

About the Author

Brett Lantz has used innovative data methods to understand human behavior for more than 10 years. A sociologist by training, he was first enchanted by machine learning while studying a large database of teenagers’ social networking website profiles. Since then, he has worked on the interdisciplinary studies of cellular telephone calls, medical billing data, and philanthropic activity, among others.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Introducing Machine Learning
Chapter 2: Managing and Understanding Data
Chapter 3: Lazy Learning – Classification Using Nearest Neighbors
Chapter 4: Probabilistic Learning – Classification Using Naive Bayes
Chapter 5: Divide and Conquer – Classification Using Decision Trees and Rules
Chapter 6: Forecasting Numeric Data – Regression Methods
Chapter 7: Black Box Methods – Neural Networks and Support Vector Machines
Chapter 8: Finding Patterns – Market Basket Analysis Using Association Rules
Chapter 9: Finding Groups of Data – Clustering with k-means
Chapter 10: Evaluating Model Performance
Chapter 11: Improving Model Performance
Chapter 12: Specialized Machine Learning Topics