Writing *Why Machines Learn* led to a 10-day ML course at IIT Madras

DSaience · x · 2026-07-27

Writing WHY MACHINES LEARN led to an unexpected payoff: the author returned to IIT Madras, decades after graduating, to teach a 10-day Intro to ML/AI course for PhD and master’s students at the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI.

The course ran from 10 AM to 5 PM most days and covered the history of machine learning plus core math and methods: perceptron convergence, LMS, MLE/MAP, SVMs, kernel methods, backpropagation, GANs, VAEs, diffusion models, CNNs, transformers, and LLMs. It closed with a discussion of how deep learning has complicated statistical learning theory, including double descent and grokking.

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