eScience Center and SURF to organize workshop on Machine Learning

20 Aug 2019 - 3 min

Carlos Martinez, who will conduct the workshop, briefly explains its aims and intended audience

Machine learning has become a hugely popular topic in recent years. Everybody is talking about it and it has shown to be very helpful for different purposes. But what are the potential benefits of applying machine learning to research? And how can machine learning methods become an integral part of a software project? On 10 and 11 September, SURF and the Netherlands eScience Center will host a workshop in which these and other questions will be addressed.

In the following interview, eScience Tech Lead Carlos Martinez, who will conduct the workshop, briefly explains its aims and intended audience.

What is Machine Learning?

Machine Learning consists of programming a computer to perform specific tasks without giving it explicit instructions on how to so. This is usually done by feeding it large volumes of data from which it can learn.

How does it benefit research?

Machine Learning makes it possible to find patterns in data that would otherwise be difficult to identify by conventional methods.

What is the objective of the workshop?

The objective is to provide researchers with a basic introduction to some of the available tools for machine learning. Participants will learn how to develop their machine learning software by following good practices for scientific software development.

Why is it important/necessary?

Good practices are important because they allow other researchers to reuse the machine learning software you develop.

Who is it for?

PhD students, postdocs and researchers who develop software and would like to take advantage of Machine Learning algorithms.

What role does Machine Learning play in the work carried out by the eScience Center?

We help researchers to use machine learning to improve their research and to develop their software in such a way that other researchers can reuse and benefit from it.

I should mention that the eScience Center and SURF have extensive experience in helping researchers to fully benefit from Machine Learning by providing ICT infrastructure and high-quality research software. In addition, we are constantly looking for opportunities to share our expertise with researchers by organising symposiums, trainings, roadshows and workshops like this. So, don’t wait, sign up today.

This workshop forms part of a series of computational skills workshops organized by the eScience Center and SURF. See here for more info.