How Do Neural Networks Work? Your 2025 Guide
January 6, 2025
Article
Get job-ready as an AI engineer . Build the AI engineering skills and practical experience you need to catch the eye of an employer in less than 4 months. Power up your resume!
Instructors: Sina Nazeri
118,766 already enrolled
Included with
(7,034 reviews)
Recommended experience
Intermediate level
A working knowledge of Python and Data Analysis and Visualization techniques. A minimum of high school math. And, fundamentals of Generative AI.
(7,034 reviews)
Recommended experience
Intermediate level
A working knowledge of Python and Data Analysis and Visualization techniques. A minimum of high school math. And, fundamentals of Generative AI.
Describe machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, and ML algorithms like classification, regression, clustering, and dimensional reduction
Implement supervised and unsupervised machine learning models using SciPy and ScikitLearn
Deploy machine learning algorithms and pipelines on Apache Spark
Build deep learning models and neural networks using Keras, PyTorch, and TensorFlow
Add to your LinkedIn profile
October 2024
AI is expected to grow 36.6% by 2030 (Forbes). This IBM AI Engineering Professional Certificate is ideal for data scientists, machine learning engineers, software engineers, and other technical specialists looking to get job-ready as an AI engineer.
During this program, you’ll learn to build, train, and deploy different types of deep architectures, including convolutional neural networks, recurrent networks, autoencoders,and generative AI models including large language models (LLMs).
You’ll master fundamental concepts of machine learning and deep learning, including supervised and unsupervised learning, using Python. You’ll apply popular libraries such as SciPy, ScikitLearn, Keras, PyTorch, and TensorFlow to industry problems using object recognition, computer vision, image and video processing, text analytics, natural language processing (NLP), and recommender systems. Build Generative AI applications using LLMs and RAG with frameworks like Hugging Face and LangChain.
You’ll work on labs and projects that will give you practical working knowledge of deep learning frameworks.
If you’re looking to build job-ready skills and practical experience employers are looking for, ENROLL TODAY and build a resume and portfolio that stand out!
Applied Learning Project
Hands-on, Practical Project Work to Showcase Your Skills to Employers
The best way to convince employers you’re the right person for the job is to highlight your relevant hands-on experience in an interview.
This PC is specifically designed to help you build the practical experience employers look for. Throughout the program, you’ll apply your skills in hands-on labs and projects that fine-tune your new competencies. You’ll:
Build deep learning models and neural networks using Keras, PyTorch, and TensorFlow.
Implement supervised and unsupervised machine learning models using SciPy and ScikitLearn, positional encoding, masking, attention mechanism, and document classification.
Create LLMs like GPT and BERT.
Develop transfer learning applications in NLP using major language model frameworks like LangChain, Hugging Face, & PyTorch.
Set up a Gradio interface for model interaction and construct a QA bot using LangChain and LLM to answer questions from loaded documents.
Job-ready foundational machine learning skills in Python in just 6 weeks, including how to utilizeScikit-learn to build, test, and evaluate models.
How to apply data preparation techniques and manage bias-variance tradeoffs to optimize model performance.
How to implement core machine learning algorithms, including linear regression, decision trees, and SVM, for classification and regression tasks.
How to evaluate model performance using metrics, cross-validation, and hyperparameter tuning to ensure accuracy and reliability.
Looking to start a career in Deep Learning? Look no further. This course will introduce you to the field of deep learning and help you answer many questions that people are asking nowadays, like what is deep learning, and how do deep learning models compare to artificial neural networks? You will learn about the different deep learning models and build your first deep learning model using the Keras library.
After completing this course, learners will be able to: • Describe what a neural network is, what a deep learning model is, and the difference between them. • Demonstrate an understanding of unsupervised deep learning models such as autoencoders and restricted Boltzmann machines. • Demonstrate an understanding of supervised deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks and recurrent networks. • Build deep learning models and networks using the Keras library.
Create custom layers and models in Keras and integrate Keras with TensorFlow 2.x
Develop advanced convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using Keras
Develop Transformer models for sequential data and time series prediction
Explain key concepts of Unsupervised learning in Keras, Deep Q-networks (DQNs), and reinforcement learning
Job-ready PyTorch skills employers need in just 6 weeks
How to implement and train linear regression models from scratch using PyTorch’s functionalities
Key concepts of logistic regression and how to apply them to classification problems
How to handle data and train models using gradient descent for optimization
Key concepts on Softmax regression and understand its application in multi-class classification problems.
How to develop and train shallow neural networks with various architectures.
Key concepts of deep neural networks, including techniques like dropout, weight initialization, and batch normalization.
How to develop convolutional neural networks, apply layers and activation functions.
Build a deep learning model to solve a real problem.
Execute the process of creating a deep learning pipeline.
Apply knowledge of deep learning to improve models using real data.
Demonstrate ability to present and communicate outcomes of deep learning projects.
Differentiate between generative AI architectures and models, such as RNNs, Transformers, VAEs, GANs, and Diffusion Models.
Describe how LLMs, such as GPT, BERT, BART, and T5, are used in language processing.
Implement tokenization to preprocess raw textual data using NLP libraries such as NLTK, spaCy, BertTokenizer, and XLNetTokenizer.
Create an NLP data loader using PyTorch to perform tokenization, numericalization, and padding of text data.
Explain how to use one-hot encoding, bag-of-words, embedding, and embedding bags to convert words to features.
Build and use word2vec models for contextual embedding.
Build and train a simple language model with a neural network.
Utilize N-gram and sequence-to-sequence models for document classification, text analysis, and sequence transformation.
Explain the concept of attention mechanisms in transformers, including their role in capturing contextual information.
Describe language modeling with the decoder-based GPT and encoder-based BERT.
Implement positional encoding, masking, attention mechanism, document classification, and create LLMs like GPT and BERT.
Use transformer-based models and PyTorch functions for text classification, language translation, and modeling.
Sought-after job-ready skills businesses need for working with transformer-based LLMs for generative AI engineering... in just 1 week.
How to perform parameter-efficient fine-tuning (PEFT) using LoRA and QLoRA
How to use pretrained transformers for language tasks and fine-tune them for specific tasks.
How to load models and their inferences and train models with Hugging Face.
In-demand gen AI engineering skills in fine-tuning LLMs employers are actively looking for in just 2 weeks
Instruction-tuning and reward modeling with the Hugging Face, plus LLMs as policies and RLHF
Direct preference optimization (DPO) with partition function and Hugging Face and how to create an optimal solution to a DPO problem
How to use proximal policy optimization (PPO) with Hugging Face to create a scoring function and perform dataset tokenization
In-demand job-ready skills businesses need for building AI agents using RAG and LangChain in just 8 hours.
How to apply the fundamentals of in-context learning and advanced methods of prompt engineering to enhance prompt design.
Key LangChain concepts, tools, components, chat models, chains, and agents.
How to apply RAG, PyTorch, Hugging Face, LLMs, and LangChain technologies to different applications.
Gain practical experience building your own real-world gen AI application that you can talk about in interviews.
Get hands-on using LangChain to load documents and apply text splitting techniques with RAG and LangChain to enhance model responsiveness.
Create and configure a vector database to store document embeddings and develop a retriever to fetch document segments based on queries.
Set up a simple Gradio interface for model interaction and construct a QA bot using LangChain and an LLM to answer questions from loaded documents.
Add this credential to your LinkedIn profile, resume, or CV. Share it on social media and in your performance review.
When you complete this Professional Certificate, you may be able to have your learning recognized for credit if you are admitted and enroll in one of the following online degree programs.¹
When you complete this Professional Certificate, you may be able to have your learning recognized for credit if you are admitted and enroll in one of the following online degree programs.¹
Illinois Tech
Degree · 12-15 months
University of London
Degree · 3 – 6 years
Ball State University
Degree · 24 months
¹Successful application and enrollment are required. Eligibility requirements apply. Each institution determines the number of credits recognized by completing this content that may count towards degree requirements, considering any existing credits you may have. Click on a specific course for more information.
At IBM, we know how rapidly tech evolves and recognize the crucial need for businesses and professionals to build job-ready, hands-on skills quickly. As a market-leading tech innovator, we’re committed to helping you thrive in this dynamic landscape. Through IBM Skills Network, our expertly designed training programs in AI, software development, cybersecurity, data science, business management, and more, provide the essential skills you need to secure your first job, advance your career, or drive business success. Whether you’re upskilling yourself or your team, our courses, Specializations, and Professional Certificates build the technical expertise that ensures you, and your organization, excel in a competitive world.
Unlimited access to 10,000+ world-class courses, hands-on projects, and job-ready certificate programs - all included in your subscription
Earn a degree from world-class universities - 100% online
Upskill your employees to excel in the digital economy
Upon completion of the program, you will receive an email from Acclaim with your IBM Badge recognising your expertise in the field. Some badges are issues almost immediately after completion of the badge activities, while others may take 1-2 weeks before they are issued. Once issued, you will receive a notification email from admin@youracclaim.com with instructions for claiming the badge. Learn more about IBM Badges
An understanding of artificial intelligence can be used to support many careers, but some careers specifically require a background in AI. Some examples of careers in AI include:
- AI Developer
- Data Analyst
- Data Engineer
- Data Scientist
- Machine Learning Engineer
- Marketing Analyst
- Operations Analyst
- Quantitative Analyst
- Software Analyst
- Software Developer
- Software Engineer
- User Experience Engineer
This Professional Certificate consists of 6 self-paced courses. Each course takes 4-5 weeks to complete if you spend 2-4 hours working through the course per week. At this rate, the entire Professional Certificate can be completed in 3-6 months. However, you are welcome to complete the program more quickly or more slowly, depending on your preference.
This Professional Certificate's pre-requisites includes the following skills:
Working knowledge of Python and Jupyter Notebooks (Don't have these skills? Try taking the Python for Data Science and course)
High school mathematics or math for machine learning
It is highly recommended that you complete either or both of the following Professional Certificates before starting this one:
It is highly recommended to complete the courses in the suggested order.
At this time there is no university credit for completing courses in this program.
Upon completing this Professional Certificate you will be able to:
Describe what machine learning (ML), deep learning (DL), and neural networks are
Explain ML algorithms including classification, regression, clustering, and dimensional reduction
Implement supervised and unsupervised ML models using Scipy and Scikitlearn
Express how Apache Spark works and how to perform machine learning on big data
Deploy ML algorithms and pipelines on Apache Spark
Demonstrate an understanding of deep learning models such as autoencoders, restricted Boltzmann machines, convolutional networks, recursive neural networks, and recurrent networks
Build deep learning models and neural networks using the Keras library
Utilize the PyTorch library for deep learning applications and build deep neural networks
Explain foundational TensorFlow concepts like main functions, operations & execution pipelines
Apply deep learning using TensorFlow and perform back propagation to tune the weights and biases
Determine what kind of deep learning method to use in which situation and build a deep learning model to solve a real problem
Demonstrate ability to present and communicate outcomes of deep learning projects
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Certificate, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Certificate. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
¹ Median salary and job opening data are sourced from Lightcast™ Job Postings Report. Data for job roles relevant to featured programs (2/1/2024 - 2/1/2025)
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.