Foreword

I have been working with Vishnu Subramanian for the last few years. Vishnu comes across as a passionate techno-analytical expert who has the rigor one requires to achieve excellence. His points of view on big data/machine learning/AI are well informed and carry his own analysis and appreciation of the landscape of problems and solutions. Having known him closely, I'm glad to be writing this foreword in my capacity as the CEO of Affine.

Increased success through deep learning solutions for our Fortune 500 clients clearly necessitates quick prototyping. PyTorch (a year-old deep learning framework) allows rapid prototyping for analytical projects without worrying too much about the complexity of the framework. This leads to an augmentation of the best of human capabilities with frameworks that can help deliver solutions faster. As an entrepreneur delivering advanced analytical solutions, building this capability in my teams happens to be the primary objective for me. In this book, Vishnu takes you through the fundamentals of building deep learning solutions using PyTorch while helping you build a mindset geared towards modern deep learning techniques.

The first half of the book introduces several fundamental building blocks of deep learning and PyTorch. It also covers key concepts such as overfitting, underfitting, and techniques that helps us deal with them.

In the second half of the book, Vishnu covers advanced concepts such as CNN, RNN, and LSTM transfer learning using pre-convoluted features, and one-dimensional convolutions, along with real-world examples of how these techniques can be applied. The last two chapters introduce you to modern deep learning architectures such as Inception, ResNet, DenseNet model and ensembling, and generative networks such as style transfer, GAN, and language modeling.

With all the practical examples covered and with solid explanations, this is one of the best books for readers who want to become proficient in deep learning. The rate at which technology evolves is unparalleled today. To a reader looking forward towards developing mature deep learning solutions, I would like to point that the right framework also drives the right mindset.

To all those reading through this book, happy exploring new horizons!

Wishing Vishnu and this book a roaring success, which they both deserve.

Manas Agarwal

CEO, Co-Founder of Affine Analytics, 

Bengaluru, India