Files
priya-sundaram-dev 659b468cab ci: reduce pytest --ignore list in build.yml (re-enable local_weighted_learning) (#15118)
* ci: un-ignore local_weighted_learning doctests in build.yml

machine_learning/local_weighted_learning/local_weighted_learning.py only
imports numpy and matplotlib (both already project dependencies) and its
5 doctests pass headlessly. Removing it from the pytest --ignore list so
the module is covered by CI again.

* fix(local_weighted_learning): use a well-conditioned bandwidth in doctests

The doctests used tau=0.6 on data with feature values ~17-25, so the
Gaussian weights underflowed to ~0 (e.g. 8e-118, 1e-177). That made
X\u1d40WX numerically singular (cond ~5.6e18), so its inverse - and the
resulting predictions - were nondeterministic across numpy/BLAS builds.
That is why the module was on the pytest --ignore list; on the CI numpy
the first prediction came out 0.0 instead of the documented 1.07.

Switch the doctests to tau=5 (cond ~2e2), matching the bandwidth the
module's own main() already uses, and round the outputs so they are
stable across platforms. Deterministic now; removed from --ignore.
2026-08-30 09:04:20 +02:00
..
2021-10-31 12:27:50 +01:00

Locally Weighted Linear Regression

It is a non-parametric ML algorithm that does not learn on a fixed set of parameters such as linear regression.
So, here comes a question of what is linear regression?
Linear regression is a supervised learning algorithm used for computing linear relationships between input (X) and output (Y). \

Terminology Involved

number_of_features(i) = Number of features involved.
number_of_training_examples(m) = Number of training examples.
output_sequence(y) = Output Sequence.
\theta ^T x = predicted point.
J(\theta) = COst function of point.

The steps involved in ordinary linear regression are:

Training phase: Compute \theta to minimize the cost.
J(\theta) = \sum_{i=1}^m ((\theta)^T x^i - y^i)^2

Predict output: for given query point x,
return: (\theta)^T x

Linear Regression

This training phase is possible when data points are linear, but there again comes a question can we predict non-linear relationship between x and y ? as shown below

Non-linear Data

So, here comes the role of non-parametric algorithm which doesn't compute predictions based on fixed set of params. Rather parameters $\theta$ are computed individually for each query point/data point x.

While Computing $\theta$ , a higher preference is given to points in the vicinity of x than points farther from x.

Cost Function J(\theta) = \sum_{i=1}^m w^i ((\theta)^T x^i - y^i)^2

w^i is non-negative weight associated to training point x^i.
w^i is large fr $x^i$'s lying closer to query point x_i.
w^i is small for $x^i$'s lying farther to query point x_i.

A Typical weight can be computed using \

w^i = $\exp$(-\frac{(x^i-x)(x^i-x)^T}{2\tau^2})

Where \tau is the bandwidth parameter that controls w^i distance from x.

Let's look at a example :

Suppose, we had a query point x=5.0 and training points $x^1$=4.9 and $x^2$=5.0 than we can calculate weights as :

w^i = $\exp$(-\frac{(x^i-x)(x^i-x)^T}{2\tau^2}) with $\tau$=0.5

w^1 = $\exp$(-\frac{(4.9-5)^2}{2(0.5)^2}) = 0.9802

w^2 = $\exp$(-\frac{(3-5)^2}{2(0.5)^2}) = 0.000335

So, J(\theta) = 0.9802*(\theta ^T x^1 - y^1) + 0.000335*(\theta ^T x^2 - y^2)

So, here by we can conclude that the weight fall exponentially as the distance between x & x^i increases and So, does the contribution of error in prediction for x^i to the cost.

Steps involved in LWL are :
Compute \theta to minimize the cost. J(\theta) = \sum_{i=1}^m w^i ((\theta)^T x^i - y^i)^2
Predict Output: for given query point x,
return : \theta ^T x

LWL