And it begins...

I was first introduced to neural networks during my cognitive science class in my first semester of undergrad, looked at them closer during my third year in undergrad in my first machine learning course, and thought carefully about them at least 3 more times since then in course-form (by taking or TA-ing various undergrad and grad versions of machine learning, where NN were merely tiny course modules... sometimes even optional). And as of about 3 years ago, everyone I know academically has taken them over... or rather, have been taken over by them. While I had some very high level ideas and was able to keep up casual conversations and follow the main trends, I didn't quite delve head deep into them, to start to understand the inner workings, the architectural decisions, or the computational possibilities. I decided that this summer I would take on the quest of learning more about that which will be ubiquitous. Here, I will attempt to document this journey... as well the resources and thoughts that surface.