This course is about the discussion of sampling and exploring data, as well as basic probability theory and Bayes' rule. A variety of exploratory data analysis techniques will be covered, including numeric summary statistics and basic data visualization. The concepts and techniques you will find in this course will serve as building blocks for the inference and modeling courses in the Specialization.

NASA's tiny CAPSTONE spacecraft has run into trouble on its way to the moon and is currently tumbling out of control. The US space agency's $30 million probe, which is around the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds, has also been experiencing temperature issues and had problems generating power from its solar panels. Toward the end of a major engine burn last Thursday (September 9), CAPSTONE experienced an anomaly that put the probe in a protective'safe mode', mission team members said. In an update issued this week, Advanced Space – the company that is managing the project for NASA – described it as a'dynamic operational situation'. It is not the first time CAPSTONE has hit a snag.

NASA is finally set to launch its'CAPSTONE' spacecraft mission on Tuesday morning, marking an important early stage in its Artemis programme. The spacecraft, which is about the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds, will blast off from Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand at 5:55 EDT (10:55 BST). Over six months, it will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the moon before this orbit is used by Lunar Gateway, NASA's planned lunar outpost. Lunar Gateway will serve as a'staging area' for landing humans on the moon for the first time in 50 years and potentially as a jumping-off point for missions to Mars. The public can watch today's CAPSTONE launch from New Zealand on NASA Live.

NASA is set to launch its'CAPSTONE' spacecraft mission later this month to orbit around the moon, in preparation for a new lunar space station. The craft, which is around the size of a microwave oven and weighs just 55 pounds, will blast off from the Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand some time between June 13-22. It will test the stability of a halo-shaped orbit around the moon before this is used by Lunar Gateway, NASA's planned lunar outpost. Lunar Gateway will one day serve as a'staging area' for landing humans on the moon and potentially as a jumping point for missions to Mars. Pictured is an artist's impression of CAPSTONE in orbit around the moon with the Earth in the background.

In this final course, you will put together your knowledge from Courses 1, 2 and 3 to implement a complete RL solution to a problem. This capstone will let you see how each component---problem formulation, algorithm selection, parameter selection and representation design---fits together into a complete solution, and how to make appropriate choices when deploying RL in the real world. This project will require you to implement both the environment to stimulate your problem, and a control agent with Neural Network function approximation. In addition, you will conduct a scientific study of your learning system to develop your ability to assess the robustness of RL agents. To use RL in the real world, it is critical to (a) appropriately formalize the problem as an MDP, (b) select appropriate algorithms, (c) identify what choices in your implementation will have large impacts on performance and (d) validate the expected behaviour of your algorithms.

As readers recall, I'd previously reviewed Richard Abbott's debut sci-fi novel, Far from the Spaceports, later returning for more Mitnash and Slate in its sequel, Timing. It was rather exciting listening to it, and I am so pleased to have the opportunity to share it here, along with some author comments as to the linguistics involved in setting up the pieces. First, for those unfamiliar with the novels and their plots, I've linked the book covers to their respective Amazon blurbs. Abbott's world-building opens a new type of sci-fi, one accessible even to those not typically enamored of the genre (such as myself), and the above-mentioned duo will capture your imagination as they seek to solve the mysteries of high-tech crime in space. Today you'll hear--and can read along--a bit of discussion between Mitnash and Slate, along with another pair, Rydal and Capstone, as the group talks about oddities in the data they are studying.

The OSSU curriculum is a complete education in computer science using online materials. It's for those who want a proper, well-rounded grounding in concepts fundamental to all computing disciplines, and for those who have the discipline, will, and (most importantly!) good habits to obtain this education largely on their own, but with support from a worldwide community of fellow learners. It is designed according to the degree requirements of undergraduate computer science majors, minus general education (non-CS) requirements, as it is assumed most of the people following this curriculum are already educated outside the field of CS. The courses themselves are among the very best in the world, often coming from Harvard, Princeton, MIT, etc., but specifically chosen to meet the following criteria. When no course meets the above criteria, the coursework is supplemented with a book.