The Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), part of Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), together with BigML, a leading machine learning company that pioneered the creation of Machine Learning as a Service (MLAAS), is set to hold the first Machine Learning School in Doha.

The Machine Learning School in Doha 18 (MLSD18) will be one of the first educational initiatives of the Qatar Center for Artificial Intelligence (QCAI), which QCRI launched last month. 

The school, to be held on November 4 and 5, will provide a two-day crash course that is ideal for industry practitioners, developers, graduate students and advanced undergraduates seeking a hands-on introduction to machine learning to solve real-world problems. It will also serve as an introduction to the kind of work that students can expect if they were to enroll in an advanced machine learning master’s program. The course will cover the main machine learning techniques of classification, regression, time series, clusters, anomaly detection, association discovery, and topic models. 

Attendees will also be able to put in practice all of these concepts through practical workshops and case studies. Additionally, more technical topics will be addressed in detail, such as data transformations, feature engineering, how to work programmatically using the API, bindings, how to automated machine learning, and more.

QCAI Research Director Sanjay Chawla described BigML as “pioneers in offering services that make machine learning easy for the masses.” 

“BigML has taken on a leadership role in the promotion of machine learning through their education programs, all around the world, both in academia and organizations. The course will be the first of its kind in Qatar and is part of QCAI’s vision of spreading knowledge about artificial intelligence to relevant stakeholders in the country,” he said.

The BigML Team believes that Doha is a great city to deliver the MLSD18. BigML CEO Francisco Martin said: "Machine learning is a transformational technology as it has never seen before. It helps enhance and automate decision-making. There’s no single sector, business, or area of public administration that can escape to the deep optimization and efficiency that companies that embrace machine-learning bear. We are very happy to team together with QCRI to share our knowledge and experience during this machine learning school."

To register for this international event, visit: https://bigml.com/events/machine-learning-school-in-doha-2018