This month we are excited to feature the Data Science Hub’s new Machine Learning (ML) Community! We reached out to Chris Endemann, who is a Data Science Facilitator at the Data Science Hub and leads the ML Community, to find out more about this community of practice, who can benefit from it, and how to get involved.
What is the Machine Learning Community and who can join?
The Machine Learning (ML) Community provides a space for both novice and experienced ML practitioners to advance their ML skill sets, share knowledge and resources, and form collaborations. Anyone who is working with or wants to learn more about ML methods (e.g., regression, clustering, classification, NLP, reinforcement learning) is welcome to join the community and participate in some of its events, including:
- ML+X, a monthly showcase and discussion of real-world ML applications
- workshops (Intro to ML, Deep Learning, and more)
- discussion sessions on topics of interest, e.g., ethical use of ML
- community socials and coworking sessions
What are some of the benefits of connecting to this community of practice?
Given the widespread use of ML methods in nearly every scientific field, it is critical that ML practitioners from a variety of research domains have the opportunity to discuss and learn from one another. By gathering and discussing ML regularly, this community aims to enhance research by:
- facilitating cross-departmental collaboration; making it easy to find others others on campus who are using similar methods
- discussing and assessing common pitfalls of ML
- establishing and refining best practices when using ML
- highlighting new and novel methods in ML
- introducing researchers to different ML tools/methods through workshops
What kind of workshops does this community offer?
In collaboration with the UW-Madison Carpentries Community, the ML Community is developing and hosting several new workshops throughout the calendar year, including:
- Intro to ML with Sklearn
- Intro to Deep Learning with Keras
- Demystifying High-Dimensional Data Analysis
Upcoming ML workshops are announced every two weeks in the Data Science Hub newsletter — subscribe to receive the newsletter in your inbox. You can also suggest a workshop you would be interested in developing or attending in the member survey. The survey includes a question about workshops and a handful of other questions to help gauge the backgrounds and needs of the ML Community’s member base.
What kind of talks are you looking for people to submit to the monthly ML+X forum?
The ML Community hosts a monthly “ML+X” forum which features lightning talks and group discussions on real-world applications of ML. To help the community pool knowledge, each lightning talk presenter summarizes a specific ML use-case, methods employed, and challenges encountered throughout the project.
Anyone working with or hoping to apply ML methods (classification, regression, clustering, NLP, etc.) is encouraged to present — especially those who are just getting started with ML. The ML+X forum will be on hiatus for the summer, but if you are interested in securing a presentation slot in fall, please send a brief email to endemann@wisc.edu indicating your interest.
How can people get involved with the Machine Learning Community?
Those interested in joining the ML Community should first join the ML Community’s google group to stay informed of upcoming events (ML+X, workshops, discussions, socials). If you have any trouble joining, please email the Data Science Hub at facilitator@datascience.wisc.edu. In addition, new members can join the ML Community slack channel — #ml-commnity —in the Data Science Hub Slack Workspace to be a part of ongoing discussions.