Book Image

Machine Learning for Imbalanced Data

By : Kumar Abhishek, Dr. Mounir Abdelaziz
Book Image

Machine Learning for Imbalanced Data

By: Kumar Abhishek, Dr. Mounir Abdelaziz

Overview of this book

As machine learning practitioners, we often encounter imbalanced datasets in which one class has considerably fewer instances than the other. Many machine learning algorithms assume an equilibrium between majority and minority classes, leading to suboptimal performance on imbalanced data. This comprehensive guide helps you address this class imbalance to significantly improve model performance. Machine Learning for Imbalanced Data begins by introducing you to the challenges posed by imbalanced datasets and the importance of addressing these issues. It then guides you through techniques that enhance the performance of classical machine learning models when using imbalanced data, including various sampling and cost-sensitive learning methods. As you progress, you’ll delve into similar and more advanced techniques for deep learning models, employing PyTorch as the primary framework. Throughout the book, hands-on examples will provide working and reproducible code that’ll demonstrate the practical implementation of each technique. By the end of this book, you’ll be adept at identifying and addressing class imbalances and confidently applying various techniques, including sampling, cost-sensitive techniques, and threshold adjustment, while using traditional machine learning or deep learning models.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Challenges and considerations when dealing with imbalanced data

In certain instances, directly using data for machine learning without worrying about data imbalance can yield usable results suitable for a given business scenario. Yet, there are situations where a more dedicated effort is needed to manage the effects of imbalanced data.

Broad statements claiming that you must always or never adjust for imbalanced classes tend to be misleading. The truth is that the need to address class imbalance is contingent on the specific characteristics of the data, the problem at hand, and the definition of an acceptable solution. Therefore, the approach to dealing with class imbalance should be tailored according to these factors.