Considering more data has been created within the past two years than ever before in human history, the importance of machine learning is greater than ever. As a subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning uses algorithms to build a mathematical model based on data in order to make predictions or decisions. In simpler terms, it’s the mastermind behind Netflix user recommendations and other everyday phenomenon that some people might call a kind of sorcery. And for many companies, machine learning is magical in the sense that it opens up entirely new avenues of understanding.
Due to its versatility, machine learning is used in weather forecasting software to predict more accurate forecasts, while also adopted for medical purposes in conjunction with computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) to more closely identify cancer cells. In truth, the possibilities of machine learning are endless, which is why it has become an increasingly popular field of study. For those in the Greater Los Angeles Area who are interested in learning more about the revolutionary benefits of machine learning, there are plenty of bootcamps to choose from. Whether you prefer to learn online or in-person, these nine LA machine learning bootcamps will turn you into the data expert you aspire to be.
Location: Venice, Greater Los Angeles Area
Course overview: Codesmith offers a 12-week software engineering immersive program that focuses on machine learning concepts at its Los Angeles campus. Throughout the course, students will master algorithms, data structures such as linked lists, hash tables and binary trees, programming paradigms and design patterns. Comprised of lectures, pair programming, workshops and project building, the program introduces learners to front-end and back-end development, groundbreaking tech and real-world engineering practices. Codesmith also offers career support services beginning in the second half of the program, which includes opportunities to take part in mock interviews and learn salary negotiation strategies.
Pricing: $17,200
Location: Playa Vista
Course overview: Galvanize offers a 13-week data science immersive bootcamp at its Los Angeles location and covers a broad range of machine learning concepts. Divided into four quarters, the bootcamp begins with a Python-based curriculum, in which students learn data science fundamentals. In the second quarter, students dive into machine learning and prediction, working on real problems in classification, regression and clustering using structured and unstructured data sets. The bootcamp ends with natural language processing, recommender systems, neutral networks and time-series data, including an understanding of big data and data in the cloud. Over the course of the program, learners complete three “capstone projects,” as well as several group case studies.
Pricing: $17,980
Location: Downtown Los Angeles + Santa Monica
Course overview: General Assembly offers a Python and machine learning bootcamp series at both of its Los Angeles campuses. Suitable for both beginners and intermediate learners, the bootcamp provides learners with hands-on programming experience with Python and covers the end-to-end data science process. During the course, students will learn how to collect data from a variety of sources, explore large data sets, clean and “munge” the data to prepare it for analysis, apply machine learning algorithms to gain insight from the data and visualize the results of an analysis. By the end of the bootcamp, students will have their own library of Python scripts that can be reused upon completion of the program.
Pricing: $3,950
Location: Santa Monica + El Segundo
Course overview: The Dev Masters offers a 12-week, onsite program titled Mastering Applied Data Science, which is a project-driven course teaching students the practical aspects of data science and covers the fundamentals of machine learning. After covering basic topics such as web scraping, validation of information in data by data analysis and comparing models created by ML algorithms by interpreted metrics, the course dives into more enhanced aspects of data science, including recommender systems, natural language processing (NLP) and computer vision.
Pricing: $9,995
Location: Online
Course overview: Taught by an electrical engineering and computer science professor at Caltech, CaltechX’s 10-week introductory machine learning course covers basic theory, algorithms and applications. Intended for those with basic probability, matrices and calculus knowledge, the course elaborates on the connections between theory and practice in machine learning and helps students master the mathematical and heuristic aspects of machine learning and their applications to real-world situations.
Pricing: Free
Location: Online
Course overview: ColumbiaX provides a free, online introductory course to machine learning for data and analytics. The course focuses on a basic understanding of the principles of machine learning, how to derive practical solutions using predictive analytics and the role of algorithms in big data analysis. Throughout the course, students will learn a wide range of skills, including how to use data patterns to make decisions and predictions with real-world examples from healthcare, how to uncover hidden themes in large collections of documents using topic modeling, how to prepare data, deal with missing data and create custom data analysis solutions for different industries.
Pricing: Free
Location: Online
Course overview: DataCamp offers a wide assortment of online machine learning courses, which vary in focus and skill level. In addition to offering an introduction to machine learning course, the company provides more specific ones as well, including how to build and evaluate predictive models, the fundamentals of neural networks, how to build deep learning models using Keras 2.0, how to build conversational bots using rule-based systems and machine learning, how to apply machine learning in the HR domain and how to tune your model’s hyperparameters to get the best predictive results.
Pricing: $25-$29 per month
Location: Online
Course overview: Metis provides a 12-week, online data science bootcamp that focuses heavily on machine learning. The program begins with an introduction to the data science toolkit, including Python, Bash Shell, Git and Github workflow, before diving into machine learning concepts. In addition to design process and web scraping, students learn about Bayes Theorem, linear regression regularization, SQL concepts, cloud servers, NLTK, POS tagging, curse of dimensionality, neural networks and more. To conclude the program, students complete final projects and take part in a career day, where students present their projects to employers and meet hiring companies.
Pricing: $17,000
Location: Online
Course overview: Springboard offers a six month, online machine learning bootcamp geared towards those with at least one year of software engineering experience using a general purpose Object-oriented programming language such as Python, Java and C++. Split into 11 units, the program introduces learners to a variety of tools and libraries used in data science and machine learning. Some of the topics students will learn include data engineering tools like Luigi and Containers, software engineering tools such as continuous integration and version control with Git, how to use frequentist statistical inference and hypothesis testing, advanced algorithms like Decision Tree and Random Forest and deep learning techniques for NLP.
Pricing: $8,940
