TinyML and Efficient Deep Learning Computing
This course focuses on efficient machine learning and systems. This is a crucial area as deep neural networks demand extraordinary levels of computation, hindering its deployment on everyday devices and burdening the cloud infrastructure. This course introduces efficient AI computing techniques that enable powerful deep learning applications on resource-constrained devices. Topics include model compression, pruning, quantization, neural architecture search, distributed training, data/model parallelism, gradient compression, and on-device fine-tuning. It also introduces application-specific acceleration techniques for large language models and diffusion models. Students will get hands-on experience implementing model compression techniques and deploying large language models (Llama2-7B) on a laptop.
- Lecture Videos:https://live.efficientml.ai/
- Time:
The course will not be offered in Fall 2025 due to Prof. Han is on sabbatical
- Location:34-101
- Office Hour:
Thursday 5:00-6:00 pm Eastern Time, 38-344 Meeting Room
- Discussion:Piazza
- Homework Submission:Canvas
- Contact:
- For external inquiries, personal matters, or emergencies, you can email us at efficientml-staff [at] mit.edu.
- If you are interested in getting updates, please sign up here to join our mailing list to get notified!
- Prerequisites: 6.191 Computation Structures and 6.390 Intro to Machine Learning. Students who don't full-fill the prerequisites will be de-registered in the second week of class. If you believe you have equivalent prior experience (e.g., a computer architecture course taken during your undergraduate studies at another institution), you may petition for consideration. Please submit your Petition Form by Sept. 6, 2024, 11:59:59 PM EST.
Teaching Assistants
Announcements
- 2024-10-24
Final project list is released.
- 2024-08-30
The TinyML and Efficient Deep Learning Computing course will be returning in Fall, with recorded sessions on YouTube!
Schedule
Date
Lecture
Logistics
LLM Post Training
Logistics
Grading
The class requirements include five labs, and one final project. This is a PhD level course, and by the end of this class you should have a good understanding of efficient deep learning techniques, and be able to deploy large language models (LLMs) on your laptop.
The grading breakdown is as follows:
- 5 Labs (15% x 5)
- Final Project (25%)
- Proposal (5%)
- Presentation + Final Report (20%)
- Participation Bonus (4%)
Note that this class does not have any tests or exams.
Labs
There will be 5 labs over the course of the semester.
- Lab1: Pruning
- Lab2: Quantization
- Lab3: Neural architecture search
- Lab4: LLM compression
- Lab5: LLM deployment on laptop
Collaboration Policy
Labs must be done individually: each student must hand in their own answers. However, it is acceptable to collaborate when figuring out answers and to help each other solve the problems. We will be assuming that, as participants in a graduate course, you will be taking the responsibility to make sure you personally understand the solution arising from such collaboration. You also must indicate on each homework with whom you have collaborated.
Late Policy
You will be allowed 6 total homework late days without penalty for the entire semester. You may be late by up to 6 days on any homework assignment. Once those days are used, you will be penalized according to the following policy:
- Homework is worth full credit at the due time on the due date.
- The allowed late days are counted by day (i.e., each new late day starts at 11:59 pm ET).
- Once the allowed late days are exceeded, the penalty is 50% per late day counted by day.
- The homework is worth zero credit 2 days after exceeding the late day limit.
You must turn in at least 4 of the 5 assignments, even if for zero credit, in order to pass the course.
Regrade Policy
If you feel that we have made a mistake in grading your work, please submit a regrading request to TAs during the office hour and we will consider your request. Please note that regrading of a homework may cause your grade to go either up or down.
Final Project
The class project will be carried out in groups of 4 or 5 people, and has three main parts:
- proposal: choose from a list of suggested projects, or propose your own project
- poster presentation
- final report (4 pages, using the NeurIPS template)
Participation Bonus
We appreciate everyone being actively involved in the class! Around the end of the semester, we will send out a survey to help us understand how the course is going, and how we can improve. Completing it is worth 4% in total.






