HOWTO: Get into grad school
In: Guide
12 Aug 2010People have been asking me for advice on graduate school admission, although I am just another graduate student who was lucky enough to get admitted into a renowned grad school. The general question is typically tips and tricks – the shortcuts. Well, though I usually tend to suggest the preparation, long term planning, I believe my suggestions haven’t been structured. Read the rest of this entry »
Positive Reinforcement
In: Thoughts
1 Jul 2010In Machine learning we study how we could make machines learn. First, we come up with fancy ideas based on our intuition on human cognition, then theorize them, so that we could put them in equations and make them definite; so that bits and bytes can implement them. The intuition is to use the knowledge of how human think, learn, and adapt to make machines behave intelligently. Interestingly, at times, I am learning about life from the machines, well not exactly, learning interesting behavioral patterns from the algorithms.
Reinforcement learning deals with a unique problem-space. It doesn’t have any examples to learn from, nor does it have a test set to verify. All it has is a space to act upon, and the feedback on the actions it takes on that space. Based on the reward (or punishment) it adapts its behavior. Sounds simple right?
On a snowy sunday from Logan International
In: Anecdotes|Blog|Travelling
26 Dec 2009It was the first winter, yet it didn’t offer anything more than spectacular display, and has been more of a nuisance. OF course there were few other factors that influenced me to choose california for winter break instead of spending the holidays in my new home – Cambridge. I flew to california on snowy sunday morning in the United airlines from Logan international airport – Boston to Los Angels. Following a simple pattern I had adopted [link] recently, I will tell the story in three parts – concerning three different people. Read the rest of this entry »
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- Tags: life, United States
From 6.840 to 754
13 Nov 2009I started my doctoral studies at MIT last September, and becoming conversant with numbers. Today I will tell you three stories (with little satire) on 6.840, C2867 and 754, in the break I got from drinking water from fire hose. They span from art of teaching to art of service to art of democracy. Read the rest of this entry »
From small miracle to real miracle
In: Blog
13 Oct 2009I have had two almae matres so far; let’s say the first one brought only a limited amount of change in terms of exposure. The second, University of Moratuwa, had been influencing my choices and deflecting the path I had taken in my life. The first year of my undergraduate life, convinced me to stay in Sri Lanka albeit winning the Roy Marshal scholarship at University of Hull, and the rest kept proving I made the right choice; only to let me question after four years! Currently I am a PhD student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, working with DDMG (Data-driven Medicine Group), where I am planning to follow data-mining and machine learning on semantic web to develop Personal Physician System. Read the rest of this entry »
Garthee
An Electronic and Telecommunication Engineer, doctoral student at MIT from fall 2009, and technology entrepreneur. I am passionate about machine learning, data mining, internet technologies, algorithms, photography, art and creating innovative businesses.
I have started Websoic, contributed to Drupal and Joomla, worked at Motorola INC, Suntel Telecommunications, RAFT INC, etc, and studied at UOM and Royal College. I am currently attached to DDMG of CSAIL at MIT, working towards my PhD focusing on semantic web based Personal Physician System.
I am conservative in demeanor, liberal in style, progressive in ideas, and latitudinarian in creed.
- King kong: If you are a Sri Lankan, if you have the intention of doing a doctprate...... Calmly do your AL. Fol [...]
- Nimal: Yeah... That's a nice read for anyone to start from. [...]
- Rupasinghe: I totally agree with you. What I expected were the some credits to names mentioned by you who did a [...]
- Chamitha de Alwis: Cool post... Enjoyed reading it... [...]
- garthee: @ Rupasinghe First I was stating facts and opinions, and I wasn't complaining. I believe it is th [...]
- Rupasinghe: Nice article.. But all the lecturers were not like that. right ? There were some good lecturers. The [...]
- Nimal: Nice article... [...]
- On a snowy sunday from Logan International - Weblog of Garthee: [...] in the United airlines from Logan international airport – Boston to Los Angels. Followin [...]
- Sivasayanth: Once again great article Garthee. [...]
- garthee: Not yet, as it uses few 1.6 specific classes and was expected to be included in the 1.6 core. But if [...]
- HOWTO: Get into grad school
- Positive Reinforcement
- On a snowy sunday from Logan International
- From 6.840 to 754
- From small miracle to real miracle
- Taxonomy Extension RC1
- Should learn to bargain and treat everything as a business
- Increasing the relevance along with the ontogeny of a community site
- The lonliest …
- Lets bring technology and professionalism into FYP