Search result: Catalogue data in Autumn Semester 2023

Data Science Master Information
Master Studies (Programme Regulations 2023)
Core Courses
Data Analysis
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
252-0535-00LAdvanced Machine Learning Information W10 credits3V + 2U + 4AJ. M. Buhmann
AbstractMachine learning algorithms provide analytical methods to search data sets for characteristic patterns. Typical tasks include the classification of data, function fitting and clustering, with applications in image and speech analysis, bioinformatics and exploratory data analysis. This course is accompanied by practical machine learning projects.
Learning objectiveStudents will be familiarized with advanced concepts and algorithms for supervised and unsupervised learning; reinforce the statistics knowledge which is indispensible to solve modeling problems under uncertainty. Key concepts are the generalization ability of algorithms and systematic approaches to modeling and regularization. Machine learning projects will provide an opportunity to test the machine learning algorithms on real world data.
ContentThe theory of fundamental machine learning concepts is presented in the lecture, and illustrated with relevant applications. Students can deepen their understanding by solving both pen-and-paper and programming exercises, where they implement and apply famous algorithms to real-world data.

Topics covered in the lecture include:

Fundamentals:
What is data?
Bayesian Learning
Computational learning theory

Supervised learning:
Ensembles: Bagging and Boosting
Max Margin methods
Neural networks

Unsupservised learning:
Dimensionality reduction techniques
Clustering
Mixture Models
Non-parametric density estimation
Learning Dynamical Systems
Lecture notesNo lecture notes, but slides will be made available on the course webpage.
LiteratureC. Bishop. Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning. Springer 2007.

R. Duda, P. Hart, and D. Stork. Pattern Classification. John Wiley &
Sons, second edition, 2001.

T. Hastie, R. Tibshirani, and J. Friedman. The Elements of Statistical
Learning: Data Mining, Inference and Prediction. Springer, 2001.

L. Wasserman. All of Statistics: A Concise Course in Statistical
Inference. Springer, 2004.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe course requires solid basic knowledge in analysis, statistics and numerical methods for CSE as well as practical programming experience for solving assignments.
Students should have followed at least "Introduction to Machine Learning" or an equivalent course offered by another institution.

PhD students are required to obtain a passing grade in the course (4.0 or higher based on project and exam) to gain credit points.
263-5210-00LProbabilistic Artificial Intelligence Information Restricted registration - show details W8 credits3V + 2U + 2AA. Krause
AbstractThis course introduces core modeling techniques and algorithms from machine learning, optimization and control for reasoning and decision making under uncertainty, and study applications in areas such as robotics.
Learning objectiveHow can we build systems that perform well in uncertain environments? How can we develop systems that exhibit "intelligent" behavior, without prescribing explicit rules? How can we build systems that learn from experience in order to improve their performance? We will study core modeling techniques and algorithms from statistics, optimization, planning, and control and study applications in areas such as robotics. The course is designed for graduate students.
ContentTopics covered:
- Probability
- Probabilistic inference (variational inference, MCMC)
- Bayesian learning (Gaussian processes, Bayesian deep learning)
- Probabilistic planning (MDPs, POMPDPs)
- Multi-armed bandits and Bayesian optimization
- Reinforcement learning
Prerequisites / NoticeSolid basic knowledge in statistics, algorithms and programming.
The material covered in the course "Introduction to Machine Learning" is considered as a prerequisite.
401-4944-20LMathematics of Data ScienceW8 credits4G + 1AA. Bandeira, A. Maillard
AbstractMostly self-contained, but fast-paced, introductory masters level course on various theoretical aspects of algorithms that aim to extract information from data.
Learning objectiveIntroduction to various mathematical aspects of Data Science.
ContentThese topics lie in overlaps of (Applied) Mathematics with: Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Statistics, and/or Operations Research. Each lecture will feature a couple of Mathematical Open Problem(s) related to Data Science. The main mathematical tools used will be Probability and Linear Algebra, and a basic familiarity with these subjects is required. There will also be some (although knowledge of these tools is not assumed) Graph Theory, Representation Theory, Applied Harmonic Analysis, among others. The topics treated will include Dimension reduction, Manifold learning, Sparse recovery, Random Matrices, Approximation Algorithms, Community detection in graphs, and several others.
Lecture noteshttps://people.math.ethz.ch/~abandeira/BandeiraSingerStrohmer-MDS-draft.pdf
Prerequisites / NoticeThe main mathematical tools used will be Probability, Linear Algebra (and real analysis), and a working knowledge of these subjects is required. In addition
to these prerequisites, this class requires a certain degree of mathematical maturity--including abstract thinking and the ability to understand and write proofs.


We encourage students who are interested in mathematical data science to take both this course and ``227-0434-10L Mathematics of Information'' taught by Prof. H. Bölcskei. The two courses are designed to be
complementary.
A. Bandeira and H. Bölcskei
Data Management
NumberTitleTypeECTSHoursLecturers
263-3010-00LBig Data Information Restricted registration - show details W10 credits3V + 2U + 4AG. Fourny
AbstractThe key challenge of the information society is to turn data into information, information into knowledge, knowledge into value. This has become increasingly complex. Data comes in larger volumes, diverse shapes, from different sources. Data is more heterogeneous and less structured than forty years ago. Nevertheless, it still needs to be processed fast, with support for complex operations.
Learning objectiveDo you want to be able to query your own data productively and efficiently in your future semester projects, master thesis, or PhD thesis? Are you looking for something beyond the Python+Pandas hype? This courses teaches you how to do so as well as the dos and don'ts.

"Big Data" refers to the case when the amount of data is very large (100 GB and more), or when the data is not completely structured (or messy). The Big Data revolution has led to a completely new way to do business, e.g., develop new products and business models, but also to do science -- which is sometimes referred to as data-driven science or the "fourth paradigm".

Unfortunately, the quantity of data produced and available -- now in the Zettabyte range (that's 21 zeros) per year -- keeps growing faster than our ability to process it. Hence, new architectures and approaches for processing it are needed. Harnessing them must involve a deep understanding of data not only in the large, but also in the small.

The field of databases evolves at a fast pace. In order to be prepared, to the extent possible, to the (r)evolutions that will take place in the next few decades, the emphasis of the lecture will be on the paradigms and core design ideas, while today's technologies will serve as supporting illustrations thereof.

After visiting this lecture, you should have gained an overview and understanding of the Big Data landscape, which is the basis on which one can make informed decisions, i.e., pick and orchestrate the relevant technologies together for addressing each one of your projects efficiently and consistently.
ContentThis course gives an overview of database technologies and of the most important database design principles that lay the foundations of the Big Data universe. We take the monolithic, one-machine relational stack from the 1970s, smash it down and rebuild it on top of large clusters: starting with distributed storage, and all the way up to syntax, models, validation, processing, indexing, and querying. A broad range of aspects is covered with a focus on how they fit all together in the big picture of the Big Data ecosystem.

No data is harmed during this course, however, please be psychologically prepared that our data may not always be in third normal form.

- physical storage: distributed file systems (HDFS), object storage(S3), key-value stores

- logical storage: document stores (MongoDB), column stores (HBase), graph databases (neo4j), data warehouses (ROLAP)

- data formats and syntaxes (XML, JSON, RDF, Turtle, CSV, XBRL, YAML, protocol buffers, Avro)

- data shapes and models (tables, trees, graphs, cubes)

- type systems and schemas: atomic types, structured types (arrays, maps), set-based type systems (?, *, +)

- an overview of functional, declarative programming languages across data shapes (SQL, XQuery, JSONiq, Cypher, MDX)

- the most important query paradigms (selection, projection, joining, grouping, ordering, windowing)

- paradigms for parallel processing, two-stage (MapReduce) and DAG-based (Spark)

- resource management (YARN)

- what a data center is made of and why it matters (racks, nodes, ...)

- underlying architectures (internal machinery of HDFS, HBase, Spark, neo4j)

- optimization techniques (functional and declarative paradigms, query plans, rewrites, indexing)

- applications.

Large scale analytics and machine learning are outside of the scope of this course.
LiteratureCourse textbook: https://ghislainfourny.github.io/big-data-textbook/

Papers from scientific conferences and journals. References will be given as part of the course material during the semester.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe lecture is hybrid, meaning you can attend with us in the lecture hall, or on Zoom, or watch the recordings on YouTube later. Exercise sessions are in presence.

This course, in the autumn semester, is only intended for:
- Computer Science students
- Data Science students
- CBB students with a Computer Science background

Mobility students in CS are also welcome and encouraged to attend. If you experience any issue while registering, please contact the study administration and you will be gladly added.

For students of all other departements interested in this fascinating topic: I would love to have you visit my lectures as well! So there is a series of two courses specially designed for you:
- "Information Systems for Engineers" (SQL, relational databases): this Fall
- "Big Data for Engineers" (similar to Big Data, but adapted for non Computer Scientists): Spring 2023
There is no hard dependency, so you can either them in any order, but it may be more enjoyable to start with Information Systems for Engineers.

Students who successfully completed Big Data for Engineers are not allowed to enrol in the course Big Data.
CompetenciesCompetencies
Subject-specific CompetenciesConcepts and Theoriesassessed
Techniques and Technologiesassessed
Method-specific CompetenciesAnalytical Competenciesassessed
Decision-makingassessed
Media and Digital Technologiesfostered
Problem-solvingfostered
Social CompetenciesCommunicationfostered
Sensitivity to Diversityfostered
Negotiationfostered
Personal CompetenciesCreative Thinkingfostered
Critical Thinkingfostered
Integrity and Work Ethicsfostered
263-3845-00LData Management Systems Information
Does not take place this semester.
W8 credits3V + 1U + 3AG. Alonso
AbstractThe course will cover the implementation aspects of data management systems using relational database engines as a starting point to cover the basic concepts of efficient data processing and then expanding those concepts to modern implementations in data centers and the cloud.
Learning objectiveThe goal of the course is to convey the fundamental aspects of efficient data management from a systems implementation perspective: storage, access, organization, indexing, consistency, concurrency, transactions, distribution, query compilation vs interpretation, data representations, etc. Using conventional relational engines as a starting point, the course will aim at providing an in depth coverage of the latest technologies used in data centers and the cloud to implement large scale data processing in various forms.
ContentThe course will first cover fundamental concepts in data management: storage, locality, query optimization, declarative interfaces, concurrency control and recovery, buffer managers, management of the memory hierarchy, presenting them in a system independent manner. The course will place an special emphasis on understating these basic principles as they are key to understanding what problems existing systems try to address. It will then proceed to explore their implementation in modern relational engines supporting SQL to then expand the range of systems used in the cloud: key value stores, geo-replication, query as a service, serverless, large scale analytics engines, etc.
LiteratureThe main source of information for the course will be articles and research papers describing the architecture of the systems discussed. The list of papers will be provided at the beginning of the course.
Prerequisites / NoticeThe course requires to have completed the Data Modeling and Data Bases course at the Bachelor level as it assumes knowledge of databases and SQL.
CompetenciesCompetencies
Subject-specific CompetenciesConcepts and Theoriesassessed
Techniques and Technologiesassessed
263-4500-00LAdvanced Algorithms Information W9 credits3V + 2U + 3AJ. Lengler, B. Häupler, M. Probst
AbstractThis is a graduate-level course on algorithm design (and analysis). It covers a range of topics and techniques in approximation algorithms, sketching and streaming algorithms, and online algorithms.
Learning objectiveThis course familiarizes the students with some of the main tools and techniques in modern subareas of algorithm design.
ContentThe lectures will cover a range of topics, tentatively including the following: graph sparsifications while preserving cuts or distances, various approximation algorithms techniques and concepts, metric embeddings and probabilistic tree embeddings, online algorithms, multiplicative weight updates, streaming algorithms, sketching algorithms, and derandomization.
Lecture noteshttps://people.inf.ethz.ch/~aroeyskoe/AA23
Prerequisites / NoticeThis course is designed for masters and doctoral students and it especially targets those interested in theoretical computer science, but it should also be accessible to last-year bachelor students.

Sufficient comfort with both (A) Algorithm Design & Analysis and (B) Probability & Concentrations. E.g., having passed the course Algorithms, Probability, and Computing (APC) is highly recommended, though not required formally. If you are not sure whether you're ready for this class or not, please consult the instructor.
CompetenciesCompetencies
Concepts and Theoriesfostered
Method-specific CompetenciesAnalytical Competenciesfostered
Decision-makingfostered
Problem-solvingfostered
  •  Page  1  of  1