Would someone be willing to help a complete Newbie get started with Neural Networks?

Thread Starter

SheldonNyce

Joined Aug 6, 2019
26
Dear MATLAB Guru's.

I am a student. I have a project that will involve the use of a neural network algorithm. The project is too complex to discuss on this thread, so I will use a metaphorical example that is simple and somewhat applicable to the project at hand, in the interests of brevity. MATLAB was recommended as a useful tool for training and solving NN problems and so I recently purchased the student version of the program. I have no prior experience with the MATLAB environment and have no idea how it works. I also have no mentors that could assist me with getting started. I have one week to get this project done and so whilst I would love to gain a thorough understanding of the MATLAB environment and all of the in's and out's - the time constraints will not allow me to do so. Once this project is completed, I will be taking the time to work through the prerequisite material however, as it seems like quite a powerful tool. But for now, I will need to learn by way of example.

The example project of interest is as follows:

I would like to use MATLAB to train a Neural Network to take values in degrees celsius as an input, and convert these values into degrees farenheit as an output. I would like to use the nnstart toolbox (I think it's called that?) and put my own excel spreadsheet values into the curve fitting app.
Here is where my complete lack of knowledge is hindering any progress: I am hoping that MATLAB can then spit out an algorithm that I can convert to C code, so that I can run the trained neural network algorithm on a PIC microcontroller. With the PIC microcontroller I would like to send the NN implemented on the embedded device a degrees celcius value using UART and have the microcontroller display the value in degrees farenheit on an LCD.

To Clarify: I do not need help with the microcontroller aspect of the project; I need help with setting up the MATLAB material and getting the algorithm into C code, so that I can put the algorithm onto the embedded device.

Now, I know that someone might suggest: Why not just use the formula "F = (C*(9/5))+32)? - to which my response would be: That would completely defeat the purpose of the project.

People might also try and suggest work around solutions, or mountains of reading material. Unfortunately, as stated before, time is of the essence.
My question is simple: Can this be done in the manner suggested using MATLAB? And, would someone be willing to connect with me via Hangouts or Skype (whichever medium you prefer) and help me work through this conundrum? I doubt that I would need more than an hour of your time if you are willing to assist. I am also willing to pay a fee for tutorship if required (but please go easy on me; after all, I am a student).

I look forward to hearing from you guys and thanks for entertaining this thread!
 

Thread Starter

SheldonNyce

Joined Aug 6, 2019
26
There is some very good material that I will be sure to investigate when I am done with the aforementioned simple project -thank you for the insight. But for now, I need help with learning by way of example. Can anyone assist?
 

eduncan911

Joined Nov 14, 2011
29
I haven't used MATLAB myself, only Google's Tensorflow. Been tinkering a lot with VPUs as well (Video Processing Units, that does on-the-chip processing of images that offloads from COUs and GPUs).

If you are new to Neural Networks, I recommend exploring this "playground" to get a visual idea of what you are doing and then you can start to map the concepts to MATLAB.

https://playground.tensorflow.org/

It's helped me introduce a few people to the same concept.

Once you grasp where calculations/training goes, and at owhat step to do it, etc it starts to come together for your end product.
 

ci139

Joined Jul 11, 2016
1,898
? there was an excel spreadsheet example -- but years ago -- can't find
https://www.xenonstack.com/blog/artificial-neural-network-applications/
by a random search & a modified search reveals https://machinelearningmastery.com/a-tour-of-machine-learning-algorithms/
_________________

at younger age i thought to program a self building OS but i soon realized that the detailed PC anatomy 1 has to know and also the hw resource (both the speed and volume) would be beyond of my budget(money+time)/capabilities(access to specialized computer subsystems knowledge / time for learning this if such actually was at reach or documented in a first place -- !!! there are a lot of unorganized specialized data passed from person to person -- you'll never know if you won't find the right persons !!!)
 
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