Stanford University is offering a few courses next semester for free online. Here are the classes:
- Machine Learning
- Artificial Intelligence
- Databases
I've enrolled in the Machine Learning and AI courses for this Fall. Classes start on October 10th. I'm pretty excited. The courses will include lectures, assignments, and evaluations, just like any other course. It sounds very promising. I'd like to see how Stanford's education compares to Waterloo's. I will be taking AI in my final semester at Waterloo, so I'll be able to compare those two classes directly. Although I might not want to take Waterloo's AI course if I'm going to learn the material from this online course... I guess we'll see. You should consider registering in some of these courses if you aren't too busy next Fall. :)
In other news, I finished exams well and I'm enjoying a few weeks of relaxing before Frosh Week hits. After that, I start work at RL Solutions on September 12th. I'm also excited to start working there, as well as go back to the Microsoft development stack, that I love so much. :)
Showing posts with label Machine Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Machine Learning. Show all posts
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Medical Applications of Watson
After last night's impressive performance from Watson, a lot of people are talking about future applications of a system like Watson. I am excited to see how it does today. Hopefully it will do even better this time around.
A particularly interesting application of an AI system like Watson is medical diagnosis. Watson could be used as a comprehensive medical dictionary, capable of matching a set of symptoms to a condition. This sort of "diagnosis suggestion" to physicians could prove to be very useful. It would ensure that every possible disease is checked against, and nothing is overlooked.
Of course, a huge problem would be information filtering. There are a lot of possible causes to a soar throat and a cough. I've mentioned a this a few times before now. Health care practitioners usually don't have time to do a comprehensive scan of everything that may or may not be relevant to a case. I've been told that most physicians prefer something like "history of cancer" over a huge record of medical history. I think one of the largest goals of technology in healthcare will be to deliver concise, valuable information to medical practitioners, while ensuring that nothing important is missed.
A system like Watson might also be used as a filtering system to alleviate this problem. The system could query for potential causes, and then filter them based on probability. Doctor's could then walk down the list, checking for the possible problems. Of course, this system wouldn't be put to use every time someone goes to the doctor. It would be reserved for "harder" cases, where the doctor doesn't have an immediately obvious idea of how to proceed.
It'll be interesting to see how long before we see ramifications of Watson show up in the healthcare field. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
A particularly interesting application of an AI system like Watson is medical diagnosis. Watson could be used as a comprehensive medical dictionary, capable of matching a set of symptoms to a condition. This sort of "diagnosis suggestion" to physicians could prove to be very useful. It would ensure that every possible disease is checked against, and nothing is overlooked.
Of course, a huge problem would be information filtering. There are a lot of possible causes to a soar throat and a cough. I've mentioned a this a few times before now. Health care practitioners usually don't have time to do a comprehensive scan of everything that may or may not be relevant to a case. I've been told that most physicians prefer something like "history of cancer" over a huge record of medical history. I think one of the largest goals of technology in healthcare will be to deliver concise, valuable information to medical practitioners, while ensuring that nothing important is missed.
A system like Watson might also be used as a filtering system to alleviate this problem. The system could query for potential causes, and then filter them based on probability. Doctor's could then walk down the list, checking for the possible problems. Of course, this system wouldn't be put to use every time someone goes to the doctor. It would be reserved for "harder" cases, where the doctor doesn't have an immediately obvious idea of how to proceed.
It'll be interesting to see how long before we see ramifications of Watson show up in the healthcare field. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Health Analytics Challenge
The Heritage Provider Network is offering a $3 million prize for an algorithm that can predict future hospitalizations based on patient data. This seems like a very cool application of machine learning. If I knew more about machine learning (or anything, really :P), I would totally participate. This sort of application would be invaluable to the health care field. Imagine having the ability to predict future problems with a patient, years in advance. That would cause a huge improvement in the quality of life.
If any of you know anything about machine learning, you should try out this challenge. It's set to start around next year. You could make a huge difference in the quality of life of people. I suppose $3 million would be nice as well. :P
If any of you know anything about machine learning, you should try out this challenge. It's set to start around next year. You could make a huge difference in the quality of life of people. I suppose $3 million would be nice as well. :P
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