This course aims at attending data mining competitions (e.g., KDD cup). So this is not a place for you to learn basic materials of machine learning and data mining.
There are so many machine learning techniques and no body can be familiar with all. Therefore, some very basic understanding of machine learning might be enough. You must be able to find and learn new techniques by yourselves while working on this course.
To make sure we provide sufficient supports to every student in the class, we plan to take no more than 18 students in this class. If there are more than 18 students express the interests to join, we would select based on their prerequisite knowledge and motivation. Students form teams (3 persons each team) in this class.
In general the answer is no, because you will not learn a lot without getting your hands dirty in this class. We don't want to waste your time and we hope every member in the class indeed spends significant amount of efforts on the competition.
Please anticipate spending at least 10 hours per week on this course. Simply put this: the more efforts you put in, the better results you will get. When your fellow classmates spend (or have to spend) lots of time and efforts on this, you will not be competitive if you don't.
We have a homepage (as you are reading it). However, the course wiki will be the main place to give details. You will see our progress on the competitions there. Every student will get a wiki account.
Continuously (on the competition task) EVERY WEEK, including presentations.
Basically no unless you think slides can better indicate your ideas and results. However, your presentation must clearly show your progress and problems. Sometimes we even would like to directly see your code and experimental environments.
Yes, we require those who have prepared slides to upload files to wiki before the class starts. Then all members can easily compare different results. Also we prefer pdf rather than word files.
You will be in big trouble. Note that your presentation must be to the point. A long presentation may not be better. See how a former GM CEO lost his job because of making long presentations here.
The time allowed for each presentation may vary. But generally if there are six presentations, each will have 20 minutes, including questions/answers.
No, you should work as hard as others. We will find a way to evaluate each individual student's performance.
Failed approaches indeed show something. You should frankly present what you have tried. Competition results are related but not strongly related to your final scores. We encourage creative thinking and out-of-the-box ideas. Novel ideas will be rewarded even if it is not proven by you to be useful.
In general the deptartment's machines (e.g., 217) should be enough. We will also provide some machines we purchased for this course.
Mainly on your class performance. We will evaluate your performances at least three times in the semester. It's a bit similar to the industry systems (if you work at a company, you are evaluated every quarter).
Of course. You pass only if you work hard enough. (Similarly, in industry, underperformers will be fired).
The least we would do is to let you fail this class. You can even face expelling from the university in the serious cases.