Book Image

Neural Networks with R

By : Balaji Venkateswaran, Giuseppe Ciaburro
Book Image

Neural Networks with R

By: Balaji Venkateswaran, Giuseppe Ciaburro

Overview of this book

Neural networks are one of the most fascinating machine learning models for solving complex computational problems efficiently. Neural networks are used to solve wide range of problems in different areas of AI and machine learning. This book explains the niche aspects of neural networking and provides you with foundation to get started with advanced topics. The book begins with neural network design using the neural net package, then you’ll build a solid foundation knowledge of how a neural network learns from data, and the principles behind it. This book covers various types of neural network including recurrent neural networks and convoluted neural networks. You will not only learn how to train neural networks, but will also explore generalization of these networks. Later we will delve into combining different neural network models and work with the real-world use cases. By the end of this book, you will learn to implement neural network models in your applications with the help of practical examples in the book.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Title Page
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Training and testing the model


Training and testing the model forms the basis for further usage of the model for prediction in predictive analytics. Given a dataset of 100 rows of data, which includes the predictor and response variables, we split the dataset into a convenient ratio (say 70:30) and allocate 70 rows for training and 30 rows for testing. The rows are selected in random to reduce bias.

Once the training data is available, the data is fed to the neural network to get the massive universal function in place. The training data determines the weights, biases, and activation functions to be used to get to output from input. Until recently, we could not say that a weight has a positive or a negative influence on the target variable. But now we've been able to shed some light inside the black box. For example, by plotting a trained neural network, we can discover trained synaptic weights and basic information about the training process.

Once the sufficient convergence is achieved, the...