Introduction

Abstract

Statistical learning plays a key role in many areas of science, finance and industry. Here are some examples of learning problems:

• • Predict whether a patient, hospitalized due to a heart attack, will have a second heart attack. The prediction is to be based on demographic, diet and clinical measurements for that patient.

• • Predict the price of a stock in 6 months from now, on the basis of company performance measures and economic data.

• • Identify the numbers in a handwritten ZIP code, from a digitized image.

• • Estimate the amount of glucose in the blood of a diabetic person, from the infrared absorption spectrum of that person’s blood.

• • Identify the risk factors for prostate cancer, based on clinical and demographic variables.