Skip to content
Series
10 posts

Reading CMU 10-301 Machine Learning

Reading the 27 lectures of CMU 10-301/601 through its nine public Spring 2026 homework bundles and the practical limits for independent learners.

CMU 10-301/601 Spring 2026: Learn Machine Learning Through Nine Assignments

Spring 2026 publishes material for 27 lectures and nine homework bundles; outsiders can do the core work but cannot access Panopto, Piazza, Gradescope, or official homework solutions.

CMU 10-301 HW1: Find ML Foundation Gaps with Mathematics and Python

HW1 is written and programming work: mathematical and CS foundations followed by a majority-vote classifier.

CMU 10-301 HW2: From Information Calculations to a Complete Decision Tree

HW2 moves from hand-calculated entropy and mutual information to an end-to-end tree learner, predictor, and evaluator.

CMU 10-301 HW3: Compare K-NN, Perceptron, and Linear Regression

HW3 is written work: a decision-tree review followed by K-NN, Perceptron, and Linear Regression through inductive bias, errors, and model selection.

CMU 10-301 HW4: Turn Logistic Regression Likelihood into a Classifier

HW4 joins probabilistic interpretation, cross-entropy gradients, and implementation into one traceable training pipeline.

CMU 10-301 HW5: Expose Neural Networks and Backpropagation with NumPy

HW5 avoids automatic differentiation so learners must track forward shapes, caches, and backward gradients themselves.

CMU 10-301 HW6: Learning Theory, MLE/MAP, and Fairness Metrics

HW6 combines generalization, MLE/MAP, probabilistic learning, fairness metrics, and social impact in one written assignment about assumptions and tradeoffs.

CMU 10-301 HW7: Move from Basic Neural Networks to Deep Learning

HW7 builds on HW5 backpropagation to address deep-model architecture and training failures, emphasizing diagnosis over merely adding layers.

CMU 10-301 HW8: From MDPs to Reinforcement-Learning Updates

HW8 connects states, actions, rewards, transitions, and value updates while separating environment dynamics, policy, and estimation error.

CMU 10-301 HW9: Close the Course with Ensembles, k-Means, PCA, and Recommenders

The final written assignment combines ensembles, clustering, representation, and recommendation to test whether you can choose a learning paradigm from problem structure.