This chapter will get you started with deep learning and help you set up your systems to develop deep learning models. The chapter is more focused on giving the audience a heads-up on what is expected from the book and the prerequisites required to go through the book. The current book is intended for students or professionals who want to quickly build a background in the applications of deep learning. The book will be more practical and application-focused using R as a tool to build deep learning models.
For a detailed theory on deep learning, refer to Deep Learning by Goodfellow et al. 2016. For a machine learning background refer Python Machine Learning by S. Raschka, 2015.
We will use the R programming language to demonstrate applications of deep learning. You are expected to have the following prerequisites throughout the book:
- Basic R programming knowledge
- Basic understanding of Linux; we will use the Ubuntu (16.04) operating system
- Basic understanding of machine learning concepts
- For Windows or macOS, a basic understanding of Docker