Artificial Neural Networks for Beginners

The scope of this teaching package is to make a brief induction to Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) for people who have no previous knowledge of them. We first make a brief introduction to models of networks, for then describing in general terms ANNs. As an application, we explain the backpropagation algorithm, since it is widely used and many other algorithms are derived from it. The user should know algebra and the handling of functions and vectors. Differential calculus is recommendable, but not necessary. The contents of this package should be understood by people with high school education. It would be useful for people who are just curious about what are ANNs, or for people who want to become familiar with them, so when they study them more fully, they will already have clear notions of ANNs. Also, people who only want to apply the backpropagation algorithm without a detailed and formal explanation of it will find this material useful. This work should not be seen as “Nets for dummies”, but of course it is not a treatise. Much of the formality is skipped for the sake of simplicity. Detailed explanations and demonstrations can be found in the referred readings. The included exercises complement the understanding of the theory. The on-line resources are highly recommended for extending this brief induction.