A First Course in Machine Learning (Chapman & Hall/CRC Machine Learning & Pattern Recognition)

This book could be used for junior/senior undergraduate students or first-year graduate students, as well as individuals who want to explore the field of machine learning. The prerequisites on math or statistics are minimal and following the content is a fairly easy process. The book introduces not only the concepts but the underlying ideas on algorithm implementation from a critical thinking perspective.
-Guangzhi Qu, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

The new edition of A First Course in Machine Learning by Rogers and Girolami is an excellent introduction to the use of statistical methods in machine learning. The book introduces concepts such as mathematical modeling, inference, and prediction, providing `just in time' the essential background on linear algebra, calculus, and probability theory that the reader needs to understand these concepts. One of the strengths of the book is its practical approach. An extensive collection of code written in MATLAB/Octave, R, and Python is available from an associated web page that allows the reader to change models and parameter values to make [it] easier to understand and apply these models in real applications. The authors [also] introduce more advanced, state-of-the-art machine learning methods, such as Gaussian process models and advanced mixture models, which are used across machine learning. This makes the book interesting not only to students with little or no background in machine learning but also to more advanced graduate students interested in statistical approaches to machine learning.
-Daniel Ortiz-Arroyo, Associate Professor, Aalborg University Esbjerg, Denmark

A First Course in Machine Learning by Simon Rogers and Mark Girolami is the best introductory book for ML currently available. It combines rigor and precision with accessibility, starts from a detailed explanation of the basic foundations of Bayesian analysis in the simplest of settings, and goes all the way to the frontiers of the subject such as infinite mixture models, GPs, and MCMC.
-Devdatt Dubhashi, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University, Sweden

This textbook manages to be easier to read than other comparable books in the subject while retaining all the rigorous treatment needed. The new chapters put it at the forefront of the field by covering topics that have become mainstream in machine learning over the last decade.
-Daniel Barbara, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA

I was impressed by how closely the material aligns with the needs of an introductory course on machine learning, which is its greatest strength. While there are other books available that aim for completeness, with exhaustively comprehensive introductions to every branch of machine learning, the book by Rogers and Girolami starts with the basics, builds a solid and logical foundation of methodology, before introducing some more advanced topics. The essentials of the model construction, validation, and evaluation process are communicated clearly and in such a manner as to be accessible to the student taking such a course. I was also pleased to see that the authors have not shied away from producing algebraic derivations throughout, which are for many students an essential part of the learning process-many other texts omit such details, leaving them as `an exercise for the reader.' Being shown the explicit steps required for such derivations is an important part of developing a sense of confidence in the student. Overall, this is a pragmatic and helpful book, which is well-aligned to the needs of an introductory course and one that I will be looking at for my own students in coming months.
-David Clifton, University of Oxford, UK