[Talk] Introduction to Artificial Neural Networks and Convolutional Neural networks

If you follow the news in the field of technology, you will come across Artificial Neural Networks eventually, often times in relation to what was thought to be impossible just a decade ago.

These networks recognize patterns in big data, beat Go champions, understand the meaning of spoken language and much more.

But what do they look like and how do they actually work?! Is it black magic? (Spoiler: it’s not.)

This talk will give insight into the structure of these networks and will try to explain what’s going on inside them and how they can perform all these tasks.

In recent years Convolutional Neural Networks, a special type of Neural Network that is considered a deep learning network, got a lot of attention due to their remarkable results in the field of object classification and recognition. They are used in many services that we come across on a daily basis.

The differences of Convolutional Neural Networks compared to general Neural Networks is explained, as well as the reasons why they perform so well when it comes to image data.

This talk is an introduction to explain the basics of artificial neural networks, no previous knowledge is required.

Agenda:

6.30 pm: Welcome and drinks

7.00 pm: Introduction to Artificial Neural Networks by Aiko Klostermann

8:15 pm: Q&A

8:45 pm: Drinks and networking

This talk was presented publicly at a meetup in Hamburg. There is a recording of it somewhere on some sd card in some box, I’ll upload the recording if I find it. For now: here are the slides.