Random Forests: An Introduction

Michael Stephenson
3 min readFeb 23, 2023

Random forests are an ensemble machine-learning method used for classification and regression. They are a popular choice for predictive modeling since they are robust, powerful, and relatively easy to use. In this article, we’ll explore what random forests are, why they’re practical, and how to use them.

What are Random Forests?

Since random forests are a subset of supervised learning algorithms, they depend on labeled data. The algorithm builds a collection of decision trees and models that segment data into branches according to specific criteria. After then, the decision trees are joined to create a random forest.

Because they use labeled data, random forests are supervised learning methods. The technique generates a set of decision trees and models segment data into branches according to specific criteria. To create a random forest, the decision trees are then mixed.

Why Use Random Forests?

Because they may be used for both classification and regression problems, random forests are beneficial. They can manage massive amounts of data without becoming unstable since they are incredibly robust and noise-resistant. They can also deal with missing data and outliers without significantly reducing accuracy.

Random forests are also reasonably simple to comprehend. The decision trees in the model are easy to understand, and the results are precise. Assessing the results and understanding how the model arrived at its conclusions is very simple.

Additionally, random forests are simple to comprehend. The model’s decision trees are easy to understand, and the results are straightforward to visualize. As a result, analyzing the results and understanding how the model arrived at its conclusions are straightforward.

How to Use Random Forests

It is also quite simple to comprehend random forests. Both the decision trees and the model results are straightforward to understand. Because of this, analyzing the results and understanding how the model arrived at its conclusions are straightforward.

You’ll need to include a few settings while building a random forest model. The number of trees in the forest, the number of characteristics to be employed, and the maximum depth of the trees are some of these parameters. Additionally, you must describe the problem you’re attempting to solve (classification or regression).

Random forests resist overfitting because they use an ensemble method combining multiple decision trees. Each tree is trained independently and voted on to decide the final result. This reduces the chances of overfitting since the model relies on multiple sources rather than just one.

Additionally, bagging is used in random forests to generate each tree by taking random samples from the data. Since the trees are trained on specific data, this lessens the possibility of overfitting.

The final method used by random forests is known as “random subspace,” It randomly chooses a subset of features for each tree. Because each tree views distinct data, the likelihood of overfitting is decreased.

Conclusion

When it comes to classification and regression work, random forests are one of the most powerful and widely used machine learning methods. They are reliable, have a high level of interpretability, and are relatively easy to implement.

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Michael Stephenson

Applying Computer Vision Technologies to MLOps pipelines is my area of interest. I also have an Academic background in Data Analytics.