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JA7. Neural Networks – Part 2

Statement

Your learning journal entry must be a reflective statement that considers the following questions:

1. Describe what you did

This was the 7th week of this course, it was about the basics of neural networks. I started the week as usual by trying the self-quiz then I started to read the text; the text size for this week was a bit overwhelming and I was able to skim it and take some notes. Later, I did the discussion assignments, graded quiz, and finally I am preparing the learning journal.

2. Describe your reactions to what you did

Apart from the overwhelming size of the required readings, the discussion forum question and the self quiz were straight foreword, but the programming assignment was a bit challenging and it took me relatively long time to complete it.

3. Describe any feedback you received or any specific interactions you had. Discuss how they were helpful

I have not received any feedback worth mentioning, possibly due to my late participation in the discussion forums. However, I have been able to learn from the posts of other students.

4. Describe your feelings and attitudes

The discussion forum prompt was about the difference between perceptron and a feed forward neural network that is using a back propagation algorithm, where I found lot’s of resources online, sometimes conflicting, and determining the correct answer was a bit challenging.

For example, (Banola, 2023) states that perceptron is a binary classifier that only contains a single internal layer along with an input and output layers; while (Turing, n.d) states feed forward neural network is a type of perceptron with multiple internal layers.

5. Describe what you learned

I learned about Backpropagation (Jaksa & Katrak, 2006), Multi Layer Perceptron (K. ROY et al., 2005), and Simple Recurrent Network (McClelland, 2013).

I gained a better understanding of neural networks and their applications in machine learning. I learned about the perceptron and its use in binary classification tasks and the multi-layer perceptron and its ability to handle non-linear tasks.

6. What surprised me or caused me to wonder?

What surprised me is how the neural network that we have built from 7 segments of light to recognize 17 letters and digits can have such a complex graph; so what surprised me is how much complexity does real life models have?

7. What happened that felt particularly challenging? Why was it challenging to me?

The programming assignment was very challenging; it asked to reflect on the assignment of the previous week and explain some finding; however, the simulator program mentioned in this course did not work for me and I could not do unit 6’s programming assignment.

However, for me not to lose th points of this week; I considered the solution supplied by the instructor as my solution adn explained it according to the problem prompt; however, it was hard as it is not my solution and I did not have access to the simulator to play with its parameters.

8. What skills and knowledge do I recognize that I am gaining?

I have gained theoretical knowledge about neural networks, and how they use back-propagation to adjust weightings to improve their results; however, due to difficulties in running the simulator, I think my practical knowledge was limited.

9. What am I realizing about myself as a learner?

I realized that it does not matter how you read and watch videos about the a topic, you need to get hands on experience and physically manipulate the data to reach an understanding that can be carried to the professional life.

10. In what ways am I able to apply the ideas and concepts gained to my own experience?

Given my current role as a software engineer, neural networks provide another tool for solving small classification problems in my projects; for example, forecasting if a property with a given features and amenities will be rented by a given customer or not (as I work in a real estate company).

11. Describe one important thing that you are thinking about in relation to the activity

I was thinking that instructors should provide alternative simulators for students who cannot run the programs provided by the course; or at least provide links to a cloud based programs (even paid ones). I tried to find a simulator that gives the same kind of results required by the assignment but I could not find any.

References