Mathematics for Data Science

Overwhelmed by looking for resources to understand
the math behind data science and machine learning?
We got you covered.

Ibrahim Sharaf ElDen Follow
Jan 13 · 3 min read

Motivation
Learning the theoretical background for data science or machine
learning can be a daunting experience, as it involves multiple elds of
mathematics, and a long list of online resources.

In this piece, my goal is to suggest resources to build the mathematical

background necessary to get up and running in data science
practical/research work. These suggestions are derived from my own
experience in the data science eld, and following up with the latest
resources suggested by the community.

However, if you are a beginner in machine learning and looking to get a

job in industry, I don’t recommend studying all the math before starting
to do actual practical work, this bottom up approach is counter-
productive and you’ll get discouraged, as you started with the theory
(dull?) before the practice (fun!).

My advice is to do it the other way around (top down approach), learn

how to code, learn how to use the PyData stack (Pandas, sklearn, Keras,
etc..), get your hands dirty building real world projects, use libraries
documentations and YouTube/Medium tutorials. THEN, you’ll start to
see the bigger picture, noticing your lack of theoretical background, to
actually understand how those algorithms work, at that moment,
studying math will make much more sense to you!

Here’s an article by the awesome fast.ai team, supporting the top down
learning approach

Providing a Good Education in Deep Learning ·
fast.ai
 
Unfortunately, this is where several of the few
resources on deep learning begin-asking learner…
www.fast.ai

And another one by Jason Brownlee in his gold mine “Machine Learning
Mastery” blog

You're Doing it Wrong. Why Machine Learning
Does Not Have to Be So Hard
 
Technical topics like mathematics, physics, and
even computer science are taught using a botto…
machinelearningmastery.com

Resources
I will divide the resources to 3 sections (Linear Algebra, Calculus,
Statistics and probability), the list of resources will be in no particular
order, resources are diversi ed between video tutorials, books, blogs,
and online courses.

Linear Algebra
Used in machine learning (& deep learning) to understand how
algorithms work under the hood. Basically, it’s all about
vector/matrix/tensor operations, no black magic is involved!

1. Khan Academy Linear Algebra series (beginner friendly).

2. Coding the Matrix course (and book).

3. 3Blue1Brown Linear Algebra series.

4. fast.ai Linear Algebra for coders course, highly related to modern

ML work ow.

5. First course in Coursera Mathematics for Machine Learning

specialization.

6. “Introduction to Applied Linear Algebra — Vectors, Matrices, and

Least Squares” book.

7. MIT Linear Algebra course, highly comprehensive.

8. Stanford CS229 Linear Algebra review.

Calculus
Used in machine learning (&deep learning) to formulate the functions
used to train algorithms to reach their objective, known by
loss/cost/objective functions.

1. Khan Academy Calculus series (beginner friendly).

2. 3Blue1Brown Calculus series.

3. Second course in Coursera Mathematics for Machine Learning

specialization.

4. The Matrix Calculus You Need For Deep Learning paper.

5. MIT Single Variable Calculus.

6. MIT Multivariable Calculus.

7. Stanford CS224n Di erential Calculus review.

Statistics and Probability
Used in data science to analyze and visualize data, in order to discover
(infer) helpful insights.

1. Khan Academy Statistics and probability series (beginner

friendly).

2. A visual introduction to probability and statistics, Seeing Theory.

3. Intro to Descriptive Statistics from Udacity.

4. Intro to Inferential Statistics from Udacity.

5. Statistics with R Specialization from Coursera.

6. Stanford CS229 Probability Theory review.

Bonus materials
1. Part one of Deep Learning book.

2. CMU Math Background for ML course.

3. The Math of Intelligence playlist by Siraj Raval.

So, that was me giving away my carefully curated Math bookmarks

folder for the common good! Hope that helps you expand your machine
learning knowledge, and ght your fear of discovering what’s
happening behind the scenes of your sklearn/keras/pandas import
statements.

Your contributions are very welcomed, through reviewing one of the

listed resources, or adding new awesome ones.