Neural Networks for Data Science
Master's Degree in Data Science (2025-2026)
For the previous year (2024-2025), refer to this page.
Important Info
| Material: slides, assignments, and grading will be done via Google Classroom. | |
| Timetable: Thursday 9-12 AM (Aula A5, Via Ariosto), Friday 9-10 (Aula A5, Via Ariosto). |
News
- Classes will start on September 25 (see the faculty calendar).
General overview
The course provides a general overview on neural networks as compositions of differentiable blocks, that are optimized numerically. We describe common building blocks including convolutions, self-attention, batch normalization, etc., with a focus on image, audio, and graph domains. The course combines rigorous mathematical descriptions with coding sessions in JAX, as well as an overview of the current AI landscape.
Material
Lab sessions implemented in JAX are in blue. Homeworks and projects (mandatory) are in red. Seminars (optional) are in green.
| Â | Date | Content | Material |
|---|---|---|---|
| L0 | 25/09 | About the course | Slides |
| L1 | 25/09 | (Historical) introduction | Slides |
| L2 | 02/10 | Preliminaries | Slides |
| L3 | 09/10 | Supervised learning | Slides |
| E1 | 10/10 | Lab 1: logistic regression in JAX | Notebook |
| L4 | 16/10 | Fully-connected models | Slides |
| L5 | 27/11 | Automatic differentiation | Slides |
| L6 | 23/10 | Convolutional layers | Slides |
| Â | 30/10 | Lab 2: CNNs in Keras | Notebook |
| L7 | 06/11 | Convolutions beyond images | Slides |
| L8 | 06/11 | Building deeper models | Slides |
| E3 | 13/11 | Lab 3: neural networks in Equinox | Notebook 1 Notebook 2 |
| L9 | 20/11 | Transformer models | Slides |
| L10 | 04/12 | Recurrent models | Slides |
| - | - | End-of-term homework: KV cache compression | Notebook |
| L11 | 05/12 | Reinforcement learning | Chapter (draft) |
Book: Alice’s Adventures in a Differentiable Wonderland
The course is complemented by a book which expands on most topics covered during the lectures:
- Buy the book on Amazon (independently published to keep the price low).
- Downloaded the updated full draft (29/08/2025).
For the full book webpage (with arXiv version and errata list): https://sscardapane.it/alice-book/