Description
Objectives
1. Build and analyze simple classification algorithms based on KNN and linear models
2. Use k-fold cross validation (k=5) to identify the parameters that optimize performance
(generalization) for each method
3. Identify cases of underfitting and overfitting
4. Select parameters that optimize performance (generalization)
5. Compare the accuracy and explainability of each method
Problem #1
For this homework, you will apply the following classification methods to the SPAM e-mail data
(available in Blackboard)
a) KNN binary classifier. Vary the parameter K
b) Logistic Regression classifier. Vary the regularization parameter C
c) Linear Support Vector Machines classifier. Vary the regularization parameter C
• Apply 5-fold cross-validation to the provided training data to train your classifiers and identify
their optimal parameters.
• After fixing the classifiers’ parameters, apply each method to the provided testing data to predict
and analyze your results. Compare the accuracy obtained during training (average of the crossvalidation folds) to those of the test data and comment on the results (overfitting, underfitting,
etc.)
• Analyze the results of each method by inspecting the feature importance (if applicable) and few
misclassified samples.
• Select the best algorithm and justify your choice based on accuracy, explainability, time required
to train/test, etc.
What to submit?
• A report that
o Describes your experiments,
o Summarizes, explains (using concepts covered in lectures) and compares the
results (using plots, tables, figures)
o Identifies the best method for each dataset.
• Do not submit your source code
• Do not submit raw output generated by your code!
• Your report needs to be a single file (MS Word or PDF)
• Your report cannot exceed 10 pages using a font of 12
• Assign numbers to all your figures/tables/plots and use these numbers to reference them in
your discussion
