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Stage 3 · Expert · A4

Capstones

Six projects that run on this device, no server anywhere.

11 lessons · 126 minDemanding

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About this chapter

Six projects you build and keep. Each has a brief, three checks that either run or do not, and a program under forty lines. They climb from a spam filter made of word counts to a figure from a 1999 paper that you redraw yourself. The chapter opens with scoping a project small enough to finish, and closes with the write-up: catching the regression a total hides, and reporting a number with its band so it reads as evidence.

What you will be able to do

  1. 1

    Scoping a Project You Will Finish

    Cut a project idea down to something you can finish and score this week.

    10 min
  2. 2

    Project 1: A Spam Filter

    Build a word-counting filter, beat two untrained answers, and read its weights.

    12 min
  3. 3

    Project 1: The Cut Is a Decision

    Choose the filter's cut from the mistake you refuse to make, not from its accuracy.

    11 min
  4. 4

    Project 2: A Digit Recognizer

    Train a hundred weights to read smudged digits and stop before they memorize.

    12 min
  5. 5

    Project 2: Where It Confuses Itself

    Read a confusion grid and a weight picture, and say what the model actually learned.

    11 min
  6. 6

    Project 3: A Tiny Next-Word Model

    Build a next-word model out of counts, sample from it, and score it in bits.

    13 min
  7. 7

    Project 4: An Answerer That Cites

    Rank passages by the rare words they share with a question, and answer with the number of the passage you used.

    12 min
  8. 8

    Project 4: Saying I Do Not Know

    Set a score floor so your answerer refuses instead of answering from the least bad passage.

    11 min
  9. 9

    Project 5: Catching a Regression

    Build a checker that compares two versions case by case and fails on a swap the total hides.

    12 min
  10. 10

    Project 6: Redraw One Figure

    Take one measurable claim out of a paper and rebuild its figure from scratch.

    12 min
  11. 11

    Writing It Up

    Report a result as a claim, a method and a band, so a reader can argue with it.

    10 min

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