Course Outline
Module 1: Core Python for ML Workflows
• Program launch and environment configuration
Aligning objectives and establishing a reproducible Python ML workspace
• Python language essentials (fast-track)
Reviewing syntax, control flow, functions, and patterns prevalent in ML codebases
• Data structures for ML
Utilizing lists, dictionaries, sets, and tuples for features, labels, and metadata
• Comprehensions and functional tools
Implementing transformations via comprehensions and higher-order functions
• Object-oriented Python for ML developers
Exploring classes, methods, composition, and practical design choices
• Dataclasses and lightweight modelling
Employing typed containers for configuration, examples, and results
• Decorators and context managers
Adopting patterns for timing, caching, logging, and safe resource execution
• Working with files and paths
Managing robust datasets and serialization formats
• Exceptions and defensive programming
Writing ML scripts that fail safely and transparently
• Modules, packages, and project structure
Organizing reusable ML codebases effectively
• Typing and code quality
Incorporating type hints, documentation, and lint-friendly structures
Module 2: Numerical Python, SciPy and Data Handling
• NumPy foundations for vectorised computing
Mastering efficient array operations and performance-aware coding
• Indexing, slicing, broadcasting and shapes
Ensuring safe tensor manipulation and shape reasoning
• Linear algebra essentials with NumPy and SciPy
Executing stable matrix operations and decompositions critical for ML
• SciPy deep dive
Covering statistics, optimization, curve fitting, and sparse matrices
• Pandas for tabular ML data
Cleaning, joining, aggregating, and preparing datasets
• scikit-learn deep dive
Navigating the estimator interface, pipelines, and reproducible workflows
• Visualization essentials
Creating diagnostic plots for data exploration and model behavior analysis
Module 3: Programming Patterns for Building ML Applications
• From notebook to maintainable project
Refactoring exploratory code into structured packages
• Configuration management
Managing externalized parameters and startup validation
• Logging, warnings and observability
Implementing structured logging for debuggable ML systems
• Reusable components with OOP and composition
Designing extensible transformers and predictors
• Practical design patterns
Applying Pipeline, Factory/Registry, Strategy, and Adapter patterns
• Data validation and schema checks
Preventing silent data issues before they occur
• Performance and profiling
Identifying bottlenecks and applying optimization techniques
• Model I/O and inference interfaces
Ensuring safe persistence and clean prediction interfaces
• End-to-end mini build
Constructing a production-style ML pipeline with configuration and logging
Module 4: Statistical Learning for Tabular, Text and Image
• Evaluation foundations
Defining train/validation splits, honest cross-validation, and business-aligned metrics
• Advanced tabular ML
Utilizing regularized GLMs, tree ensembles, and leakage-free preprocessing
• Calibration and uncertainty
Applying Platt scaling, isotonic regression, bootstrap, and conformal prediction
• Classical NLP methods
Exploring tokenization trade-offs, TF-IDF, linear models, and Naive Bayes
• Topic modelling
Understanding LDA fundamentals and practical limitations
• Classical computer vision
Implementing HOG, PCA, and feature-based pipelines
• Error analysis
Detecting bias, label noise, and spurious correlations
• Hands-on labs
Building leakage-proof tabular pipelines
Comparing text baselines for interpretation
Establishing classical vision baselines with structured failure analysis
Module 5: Neural Networks for Tabular, Text and Image
• Training loop mastery
Implementing clean PyTorch loops with AMP, clipping, and reproducibility
• Optimization and regularization
Managing initialization, normalization, optimizers, and schedulers
• Mixed precision and scaling
Utilizing gradient accumulation and checkpointing strategies
• Tabular neural networks
Employing categorical embeddings, feature crosses, and ablation studies
• Text neural networks
Working with embeddings, CNNs, BiLSTMs/GRUs, and sequence handling
• Vision neural networks
Mastering CNN fundamentals and ResNet-style architectures
• Hands-on labs
Developing a reusable training framework
Comparing Tabular NN vs. boosting
Experimenting with CNNs using augmentation and scheduling
Module 6: Advanced Neural Architectures
• Transfer learning strategies
Utilizing freeze/unfreeze patterns and discriminative learning rates
• Transformer architectures for text
Understanding self-attention internals and fine-tuning approaches
• Vision backbones and dense prediction
Exploring ResNet, EfficientNet, Vision Transformers, and U-Net concepts
• Advanced tabular architectures
Applying TabTransformer, FT-Transformer, and Deep & Cross networks
• Time series considerations
Detecting temporal splits and covariate shift
• PEFT and efficiency techniques
Weighing LoRA, distillation, and quantization trade-offs
• Hands-on labs
Fine-tuning pretrained text transformers
Fine-tuning pretrained vision models
Comparing Tabular Transformer vs. GBDT
Module 7: Generative AI Systems
• Prompting fundamentals
Mastering structured prompting and controlled generation
• LLM foundations
Understanding tokenization, instruction tuning, and hallucination mitigation
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation
Implementing chunking, embeddings, hybrid search, and evaluation metrics
• Fine-tuning strategies
Applying LoRA and QLoRA with rigorous data quality controls
• Diffusion models
Gaining intuition for latent diffusion and practical adaptation
• Synthetic tabular data
Utilizing CTGAN and addressing privacy considerations
• Hands-on labs
Building a production-style RAG mini-application
Validating structured output with schema enforcement
Optionally experimenting with diffusion models
Module 8: AI Agents and MCP
• Agent loop design
Designing observe, plan, act, reflect, and persist cycles
• Agent architectures
Implementing ReAct, plan-and-execute, and multi-agent coordination
• Memory management
Utilizing episodic, semantic, and scratchpad approaches
• Tool integration and safety
Establishing tool contracts, sandboxing, and prompt injection defenses
• Evaluation frameworks
Using replayable traces, task suites, and regression testing
• MCP and protocol-based interoperability
Designing MCP servers with secure tool exposure
• Hands-on labs
Building an agent from scratch
Exposing tools via an MCP-style server
Creating an evaluation harness with safety constraints
Requirements
Participants are expected to possess a working knowledge of Python programming.
This program is designed for intermediate to advanced technical professionals.
Testimonials (2)
Getting people that never used AI some repetition in prompting and people that do use AI to consider different methods to using it.
Matthew Gay - Tarsus Pharmaceuticals
Course - Artificial Intelligence (AI) Overview
Working from first principles in a focused way, and moving to applying case studies within the same day