Introduction

This chapter will get you started with deep learning and help you set up your systems to develop deep learning models. The chapter is more focused on giving the audience a heads-up on what is expected from the book and the prerequisites required to go through the book. The current book is intended for students or professionals who want to quickly build a background in the applications of deep learning. The book will be more practical and application-focused using R as a tool to build deep learning models.

We will use the R programming language to demonstrate applications of deep learning. You are expected to have the following prerequisites throughout the book:

• Basic R programming knowledge
• Basic understanding of Linux; we will use the Ubuntu (16.04) operating system
• Basic understanding of machine learning concepts
• For Windows or macOS, a basic understanding of Docker