Feature Engineering Courses

Feature engineering is a process within machine learning that transforms raw data into features that a machine can recognize as part of the problem to be solved. It's a way of manually improving the observations and variables that a machine is learning based upon the data that you have. Features are tables that consist of the variables and observations that are meaningful to the problem you're trying to solve. Feature engineering consists of determining which features work best with the problem you're solving, creating the features, checking how the features work, and improving them.‎

It's important to learn about the process of feature engineering because it can influence the result of solving a problem better than relying on algorithms alone, which means you can better solve problems based on the data that you have. When you use feature engineering properly, you can exert a positive influence on the results you achieve from the data that you're working with. To put it simply, the better features you put into the machine, the better problem solutions you'll see as a result. That's where a thorough knowledge of feature engineering comes in. The better you are at inputting features, the better you'll be at making the most of your data.‎

Data analysts and engineers call upon their knowledge of feature engineering in their careers. Engineers in a host of disciplines analyze, clean, and improve the data that they work with every day, and you'll find data specialists who work with feature engineering in fields as vast as healthcare, aerospace, and defense. The growing fields of mobile gaming and e-commerce also hire feature engineers to better analyze the data that they depend on.‎

Whether you're looking to learn the basics of feature engineering or acquire more advanced knowledge, taking online courses on Coursera and partners like IBM and Google can help you learn the concepts and practical applications of feature engineering. You can learn about how feature engineering works in certain applications like Google Cloud or MATLAB or aim for a specialized certificate. No matter which of the feature engineering courses you choose to take, you'll have the opportunity to learn new skills that may be beneficial to your career.‎