COURSE ASSIGNMENT

There are 4 different topics for the course assignment. Choose one according to the last number of your student id. If you don't have a student id, your topic is the time series prediction.

Update 17.5.2006: Please note that yet another problem has been discovered with latest versions of matlab; this only applies to the som assignment where you are asked to use the cca function: If you are getting and error message along the lines of ""error" previously appeared to be used as a function or command, conflicting with its use here as the name of a variable.", you are most probably using a 7xxx version of matlab where the use of a function name as a variable is considered forbidden and not just bad practise as it was before... of course this is a bit of a problem, since the function distributed in the toolbox now doesn't work. And since the toolbox isn't really updated... Well, to make a long story a bit shorter, if you do not have access to an older version of matlab (suggested for also other issues, see the other boldface paragraph below) or it doesn't help for some reason, as a workaround until we get the issue fully solved you can download use this modified version of the cca function called mycca.m instead. -MA

Please note that there are some compatibility issues with the SOM Toolbox and the latest version of Matlab. While attempts to solve this are underway, in the mean time: If you get a lot of error messages and do not see the som plot (u-matrix etc.), try using the older version of matlab that should be available on most hut computing center computers by first giving the command 'use matlab651' and then 'matlab'. In some machines the older version of matlab may also be configured to start when giving the command 'matlab651' directly. (This only affects the self-organizing map assignments) -MA

If your student id's last number is 0 or 1, your work is time series prediction.

If your student id's last number is 2 or 3, your work is neural control. The instructions for this work are only in Finnish. So, if you don't understand Finnish, you can do the time series prediction.

If your student id's last number is 4, 5 or 6, your work is the self-organizing map with data set 'food'.

If your student id's last number is 7, 8 or 9, your work is the self-organizing map with data set 'kunta'. The labels for the data are in Finnish. If you don't understand Finnish, you can do the same work with data set 'food'.

The assistant for the course assignment is Matti Aksela. Feel free to contact me through e-mail at matti.aksela@hut.fi if you have any questions. Also, as the two SOM assignments have been rather thoroughly revised, I would appreciate if you could send me mail if there are any "illogicalities" or if you find the instructions lacking in any way.

The assignment report can be written in Finnish or English, according to the students own preferrence. The reports should be returned either directly to the course assistant, Matti Aksela, room B330 (third floor, HUT CS building), or to the "mailbox" at the end of the CIS lab corridor (the third floor, CIS building) with the name of the course written on it.

The grading for the assignment is simply accepted or failed. The assignment doesn't effect your grade for the course in any other way than that you do have to have an accepted assignment in order get the credits for the course.

The deadline for the assignment is 31.5.2006. Please note that this deadline is for returning the assigment. Results on acceptance, possibly required corrections or immediate rejection (usually only if a severly incomplete assignment is returned) will, in most cases, only be received after this. More information on the schedule for resubmitting corrections will be available in the e-mail asking for the corrections.

Please do use illustrative pictures, but I would like to point out that pictures with several coloured lines showing values, while possibly simply excellent on the screen, really do not convey their information very well after having been put through a non-color printer... A black and dark gray line are not that easy to separate. So, while a picture is worth quite a few words, do take into account what they will look like on paper, too.

Additions

• For both my own comfort and the speed of getting answers (I don't have to write the same e-mail multiple times and you don't have to wait for the answer - a win-win situation, I hope), I'll be writing up some basic, common questions that arise in the Project FAQ, I recommend taking a peek there to see if the problem/question you have is already up there.
• A small vocabulary can be found by following this link. (Thanks, Iiro)