Meta-Learning For Better Machine Learning

In a related post we discussed the Cold Start Problem in Data Science -- how do you start to build a model when you have either no training data or no clear choice of model parameters. An example of a cold start problem is k-Means Clustering, where the number of clusters k in the data set is not known in advance, and the locations of those clusters in feature space (i.e., the cluster means) are not known either. So, you start by assuming a value for k and making random assumptions about the cluster means, and then iterate until you find the optimal set of clusters, based upon some evaluation metric. See the related post for more details about the cold start challenge. See the attached graphic below for a simple demonstration of a k-Means Clustering application.