Practical Synthetic Data Generation


Book Description

Building and testing machine learning models requires access to large and diverse data. But where can you find usable datasets without running into privacy issues? This practical book introduces techniques for generating synthetic data—fake data generated from real data—so you can perform secondary analysis to do research, understand customer behaviors, develop new products, or generate new revenue. Data scientists will learn how synthetic data generation provides a way to make such data broadly available for secondary purposes while addressing many privacy concerns. Analysts will learn the principles and steps for generating synthetic data from real datasets. And business leaders will see how synthetic data can help accelerate time to a product or solution. This book describes: Steps for generating synthetic data using multivariate normal distributions Methods for distribution fitting covering different goodness-of-fit metrics How to replicate the simple structure of original data An approach for modeling data structure to consider complex relationships Multiple approaches and metrics you can use to assess data utility How analysis performed on real data can be replicated with synthetic data Privacy implications of synthetic data and methods to assess identity disclosure




Synthetic Data for Deep Learning


Book Description

This is the first book on synthetic data for deep learning, and its breadth of coverage may render this book as the default reference on synthetic data for years to come. The book can also serve as an introduction to several other important subfields of machine learning that are seldom touched upon in other books. Machine learning as a discipline would not be possible without the inner workings of optimization at hand. The book includes the necessary sinews of optimization though the crux of the discussion centers on the increasingly popular tool for training deep learning models, namely synthetic data. It is expected that the field of synthetic data will undergo exponential growth in the near future. This book serves as a comprehensive survey of the field. In the simplest case, synthetic data refers to computer-generated graphics used to train computer vision models. There are many more facets of synthetic data to consider. In the section on basic computer vision, the book discusses fundamental computer vision problems, both low-level (e.g., optical flow estimation) and high-level (e.g., object detection and semantic segmentation), synthetic environments and datasets for outdoor and urban scenes (autonomous driving), indoor scenes (indoor navigation), aerial navigation, and simulation environments for robotics. Additionally, it touches upon applications of synthetic data outside computer vision (in neural programming, bioinformatics, NLP, and more). It also surveys the work on improving synthetic data development and alternative ways to produce it such as GANs. The book introduces and reviews several different approaches to synthetic data in various domains of machine learning, most notably the following fields: domain adaptation for making synthetic data more realistic and/or adapting the models to be trained on synthetic data and differential privacy for generating synthetic data with privacy guarantees. This discussion is accompanied by an introduction into generative adversarial networks (GAN) and an introduction to differential privacy.




Synthetic Datasets for Statistical Disclosure Control


Book Description

The aim of this book is to give the reader a detailed introduction to the different approaches to generating multiply imputed synthetic datasets. It describes all approaches that have been developed so far, provides a brief history of synthetic datasets, and gives useful hints on how to deal with real data problems like nonresponse, skip patterns, or logical constraints. Each chapter is dedicated to one approach, first describing the general concept followed by a detailed application to a real dataset providing useful guidelines on how to implement the theory in practice. The discussed multiple imputation approaches include imputation for nonresponse, generating fully synthetic datasets, generating partially synthetic datasets, generating synthetic datasets when the original data is subject to nonresponse, and a two-stage imputation approach that helps to better address the omnipresent trade-off between analytical validity and the risk of disclosure. The book concludes with a glimpse into the future of synthetic datasets, discussing the potential benefits and possible obstacles of the approach and ways to address the concerns of data users and their understandable discomfort with using data that doesn’t consist only of the originally collected values. The book is intended for researchers and practitioners alike. It helps the researcher to find the state of the art in synthetic data summarized in one book with full reference to all relevant papers on the topic. But it is also useful for the practitioner at the statistical agency who is considering the synthetic data approach for data dissemination in the future and wants to get familiar with the topic.




Practical Simulations for Machine Learning


Book Description

Simulation and synthesis are core parts of the future of AI and machine learning. Consider: programmers, data scientists, and machine learning engineers can create the brain of a self-driving car without the car. Rather than use information from the real world, you can synthesize artificial data using simulations to train traditional machine learning models.That’s just the beginning. With this practical book, you’ll explore the possibilities of simulation- and synthesis-based machine learning and AI, concentrating on deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning techniques. AI and ML are increasingly data driven, and simulations are a powerful, engaging way to unlock their full potential. You'll learn how to: Design an approach for solving ML and AI problems using simulations with the Unity engine Use a game engine to synthesize images for use as training data Create simulation environments designed for training deep reinforcement learning and imitation learning models Use and apply efficient general-purpose algorithms for simulation-based ML, such as proximal policy optimization Train a variety of ML models using different approaches Enable ML tools to work with industry-standard game development tools, using PyTorch, and the Unity ML-Agents and Perception Toolkits




Future Data and Security Engineering. Big Data, Security and Privacy, Smart City and Industry 4.0 Applications


Book Description

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Future Data and Security Engineering, FDSE 2020, held in Quy Nhon, Vietnam, in November 2020.* The 29 full papers and 8 short were carefully reviewed and selected from 161 submissions. The selected papers are organized into the following topical headings: big data analytics and distributed systems; security and privacy engineering; industry 4.0 and smart city: data analytics and security; data analytics and healthcare systems; machine learning-based big data processing; emerging data management systems and applications; and short papers: security and data engineering. * The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.




Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning – IDEAL 2020


Book Description

This two-volume set of LNCS 12489 and 12490 constitutes the thoroughly refereed conference proceedings of the 21th International Conference on Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning, IDEAL 2020, held in Guimaraes, Portugal, in November 2020.* The 93 papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 134 submissions. These papers provided a timely sample of the latest advances in data engineering and machine learning, from methodologies, frameworks, and algorithms to applications. The core themes of IDEAL 2020 include big data challenges, machine learning, data mining, information retrieval and management, bio-/neuro-informatics, bio-inspiredmodels, agents and hybrid intelligent systems, real-world applications of intelligent techniques and AI. * The conference was held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.




Machine Learning for Asset Managers


Book Description

Successful investment strategies are specific implementations of general theories. An investment strategy that lacks a theoretical justification is likely to be false. Hence, an asset manager should concentrate her efforts on developing a theory rather than on backtesting potential trading rules. The purpose of this Element is to introduce machine learning (ML) tools that can help asset managers discover economic and financial theories. ML is not a black box, and it does not necessarily overfit. ML tools complement rather than replace the classical statistical methods. Some of ML's strengths include (1) a focus on out-of-sample predictability over variance adjudication; (2) the use of computational methods to avoid relying on (potentially unrealistic) assumptions; (3) the ability to "learn" complex specifications, including nonlinear, hierarchical, and noncontinuous interaction effects in a high-dimensional space; and (4) the ability to disentangle the variable search from the specification search, robust to multicollinearity and other substitution effects.




Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning


Book Description

Keep sensitive user data safe and secure without sacrificing the performance and accuracy of your machine learning models. In Privacy Preserving Machine Learning, you will learn: Privacy considerations in machine learning Differential privacy techniques for machine learning Privacy-preserving synthetic data generation Privacy-enhancing technologies for data mining and database applications Compressive privacy for machine learning Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning is a comprehensive guide to avoiding data breaches in your machine learning projects. You’ll get to grips with modern privacy-enhancing techniques such as differential privacy, compressive privacy, and synthetic data generation. Based on years of DARPA-funded cybersecurity research, ML engineers of all skill levels will benefit from incorporating these privacy-preserving practices into their model development. By the time you’re done reading, you’ll be able to create machine learning systems that preserve user privacy without sacrificing data quality and model performance. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Machine learning applications need massive amounts of data. It’s up to you to keep the sensitive information in those data sets private and secure. Privacy preservation happens at every point in the ML process, from data collection and ingestion to model development and deployment. This practical book teaches you the skills you’ll need to secure your data pipelines end to end. About the Book Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning explores privacy preservation techniques through real-world use cases in facial recognition, cloud data storage, and more. You’ll learn about practical implementations you can deploy now, future privacy challenges, and how to adapt existing technologies to your needs. Your new skills build towards a complete security data platform project you’ll develop in the final chapter. What’s Inside Differential and compressive privacy techniques Privacy for frequency or mean estimation, naive Bayes classifier, and deep learning Privacy-preserving synthetic data generation Enhanced privacy for data mining and database applications About the Reader For machine learning engineers and developers. Examples in Python and Java. About the Author J. Morris Chang is a professor at the University of South Florida. His research projects have been funded by DARPA and the DoD. Di Zhuang is a security engineer at Snap Inc. Dumindu Samaraweera is an assistant research professor at the University of South Florida. The technical editor for this book, Wilko Henecka, is a senior software engineer at Ambiata where he builds privacy-preserving software. Table of Contents PART 1 - BASICS OF PRIVACY-PRESERVING MACHINE LEARNING WITH DIFFERENTIAL PRIVACY 1 Privacy considerations in machine learning 2 Differential privacy for machine learning 3 Advanced concepts of differential privacy for machine learning PART 2 - LOCAL DIFFERENTIAL PRIVACY AND SYNTHETIC DATA GENERATION 4 Local differential privacy for machine learning 5 Advanced LDP mechanisms for machine learning 6 Privacy-preserving synthetic data generation PART 3 - BUILDING PRIVACY-ASSURED MACHINE LEARNING APPLICATIONS 7 Privacy-preserving data mining techniques 8 Privacy-preserving data management and operations 9 Compressive privacy for machine learning 10 Putting it all together: Designing a privacy-enhanced platform (DataHub)




Artificial Intelligence in Medicine


Book Description

The LNAI 12299 constitutes the papers of the 18th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, AIME 2020, which will be held online in August 2020. The 42 full papers presented together with 1short papers in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 103 submissions. The AIME 2020 goals were to present and consolidate the international state of the art of AI in biomedical research from the perspectives of theory, methodology, systems, and applications.




Flow Architectures


Book Description

Software development today is embracing events and streaming data, which optimizes not only how technology interacts but also how businesses integrate with one another to meet customer needs. This phenomenon, called flow, consists of patterns and standards that determine which activity and related data is communicated between parties over the internet. This book explores critical implications of that evolution: What happens when events and data streams help you discover new activity sources to enhance existing businesses or drive new markets? What technologies and architectural patterns can position your company for opportunities enabled by flow? James Urquhart, global field CTO at VMware, guides enterprise architects, software developers, and product managers through the process. Learn the benefits of flow dynamics when businesses, governments, and other institutions integrate via events and data streams Understand the value chain for flow integration through Wardley mapping visualization and promise theory modeling Walk through basic concepts behind today's event-driven systems marketplace Learn how today's integration patterns will influence the real-time events flow in the future Explore why companies should architect and build software today to take advantage of flow in coming years