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University of California, Davis

Probability for Machine Learning

University of California, Davis via edX

Overview

Master probability to unlock machine learning’s full potential.

Probability is at the heart of every machine learning algorithm. Whether you’re classifying emails, predicting medical outcomes, or designing recommendation systems, understanding uncertainty is key to building smarter models. This course introduces probability step by step, showing you how core concepts translate into real-world ML applications.

You’ll start with foundational rules and terminology, building a solid base for reasoning about uncertainty. From there, you’ll explore Bayes’ Theorem, probability distributions, and conditional probabilities—powerful tools that help algorithms “learn” from data. Along the way, you’ll discover how measures like ROC curves and precision-recall curves evaluate model performance, helping you choose the best approach for your data.

Designed for learners worldwide, this course blends clear explanations, visual examples, and practice opportunities to make probability concepts engaging and practical. No advanced math background is required—just curiosity and basic familiarity with algebra or data analysis.

By the end of this course, you won’t just know the rules of probability—you’ll know how to use them. You’ll have a strong foundation for interpreting uncertainty, modeling data, and making informed decisions in machine learning projects, setting you up for success in more advanced AI and data science studies.

Whether you’re an aspiring data scientist, a software engineer looking to strengthen your ML foundations, or simply someone curious about the mathematics behind intelligent systems, this course will give you the tools to see probability in action and make it work for you.

Taught by

Emiko Sano

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