[Day 143] Forward, backward prop and param update by hand

 Hello :)
Today is Day 143!


A quick summary of today:
  • did forward and backprop of a toy neural net by hand and confirmed with python
  • set up my station at the student lab at uni


The idea of doing backprop manually again came back yesterday night. But this time I wanted to do it 'as in the old days'. In one of the lectures of CS109 Professor Chris Piech said he used to do forward/backprop manually back before autograd, so I wanted to experience that as well (in a toy example). 

Below are my handwritten notes of the forward, backprop and param update for the 1st iteration of a toy neural net. 

My tablet battery died towards the end so I wrote it on the board.

I confirmed all the numbers with python - the used notebook is here.

As for my 1st day at the lab

I liked it. It was mostly waiting for downloads and setting up cuda/torch/python/etc because it was a new PC. There was a seminar where 2 of the students talked a bit about what they are doing.

At the end of the day, I had a chat with Professor Park about potential competitions I can join and he can help me. So it is something to look into tomorrow. 


That is all for today!

See you tomorrow :) 

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