Centrale Méditerranée
Sitraka FORLERCentrale Méditerranée · AMSE

Machine Learning, DDEFI track

Session 1

Frame before you model, then least squares

Wednesday 14 October 2026, 08:30–12:30, in class
Centrale Méditerranée, Château-Gombert technology park, Marseille

xyŷ = 0.87 + 0.67 xΣ(y − ŷ)² = 4.36
Slope b₁ (drag): the least-squares line is the one that minimises the sum of squares
Figure 1: each vertical tick is a residual, the least-squares line minimises the sum of their squares.

Open the session

Each session has its own password, given in class. Capitals, spaces and hyphens do not matter. The slides are encrypted: nothing can be read without it.

In this session

  1. The course contract
  2. Decision, target, metric, guard-rails
  3. The data pipeline
  4. The geometry of least squares
Introduction14 October 2026Tools14 October 2026Session 114 October 2026Session 214 October 2026Session 315 October 2026Session 415 October 2026Homework 1Milestone 1Session 515 December 2026Session 616 December 2026Session 716 December 2026Homework 2Milestone 2Session 812 February 2027Homework 3Final deliverySession 912 March 2027ExampleReferenceThe codeReferenceProjectsReferenceHandbookReferenceInfraReferencePanoramaReference
Figure 2: the thread of the course; this session is highlighted.
SessionTitleDate
IntroductionAI at a crossroads: history, troughs, jobs, and you14 October 2026Open
ToolsKaggle, GitHub, Python: your tools, your accounts, your repository14 October 2026Open
Session 1Frame before you model, then least squares14 October 2026
Session 2Likelihood, generalisation, project kick-off14 October 2026Open
Session 3Convex optimisation and regularisation15 October 2026Open
Session 4Decide under cost, ship a reproducible repository15 October 2026Open
Homework 1Homework after block 1: a defensible baselineMilestone 1Open
Session 5Back-to-class test, kernels, SVM and decision trees15 December 2026Open
Session 6Forests, boosting and the honest comparison16 December 2026Open
Session 7Explain, audit fairness, discover without labels16 December 2026Open
Homework 2Homework between blocks 2 and 3: a documented champion modelMilestone 2Open
Session 8Neural networks, drift, conformal prediction, going live12 February 2027Open
Homework 3Homework after block 3: the project deliveredFinal deliveryOpen
Session 9Final presentation day: the defences12 March 2027Open
ExamplePredicting an asset price: time series, XGBoost and news sentimentReferenceOpen
The codeThe code of every model: import, download by API, fit, predictReferenceOpen
ProjectsOpen data and machine learning projects by sector: finance, insurance, logistics, tech, sportReferenceOpen
HandbookThe data and AI expert handbook: scope, tool up, model, deploy, observeReferenceOpen
InfraData engineering, SRE and cloud: the commands, the principles, the jobs, from junior to expertReferenceOpen
PanoramaA panorama of models: which ones, what for, in which sectorsReferenceOpen

Table 1: the sessions of the course, in order; each one opens with its own password.