What is relational learning and why does it matter?
Up to 90% of a data science project is spent on manual feature engineering. Relational learning automates this critical step, letting you build better models faster.
#1about 4 minutes
The challenge of using relational data in machine learning
Machine learning models require fixed-size feature vectors, which is straightforward for images or text but problematic for relational data with one-to-many relationships.
#2about 5 minutes
Why manual feature engineering is a major bottleneck
Manually creating features through aggregation is a slow, iterative process that requires deep domain expertise and can take weeks of a data scientist's time.
#3about 1 minute
Introducing relational learning to automate feature creation
Relational learning automates predictive analytics by using a two-step approach where an algorithm first learns features before they are passed to a prediction model.
#4about 4 minutes
Understanding the brute-force propositionalization approach
Propositionalization automates feature creation by applying a large bag of aggregations to every column, but this method is inefficient and generates many irrelevant features.
#5about 1 minute
Using supervised learning to find the best features
Advanced feature learning algorithms use supervised learning and statistical optimization to intelligently search for the most impactful features, avoiding a brute-force approach.
#6about 4 minutes
How the MultiRel algorithm builds complex features
The MultiRel algorithm iteratively builds complex features with hierarchical conditions by optimizing a loss function, enabling it to discover subtle and powerful patterns.
#7about 1 minute
Implementing pipelines with the getML Python API
The getML framework offers a high-performance C++ core with a simple Python API for building end-to-end pipelines that combine feature learners and predictors.
#8about 2 minutes
Getting started with automated feature engineering tools
Practitioners can start with open-source tools like feature-tools or use highly optimized implementations like the upcoming FastProp algorithm for significant performance gains.
#9about 5 minutes
Q&A on deep learning and alternative feature methods
The Q&A session clarifies why deep neural networks still require fixed-size inputs and how supervised feature learning is more efficient than brute-force generation followed by pruning.
Related jobs
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.
Dev Digest 204: Agentic AI Book, Creepy Links & Time to Ditch ProjectsInside last week’s Dev Digest 204 .
📘 The Agentic AI Handbook
💻 Writing a browser with AI
👔 LinkedIn Job Scams
🔗 The 2025 Web Almanac
📈 A cross-browser performance testing agent
💨 How Python’s packaging library got 3x faster
🫣 Create creepy links an...
5 Reasons Why Attending Conferences in 2026 Matters More Than You ThinkIt’s 2026, and the “remote vs. office” debate has finally settled into a high-tech hybrid reality. While we’ve perfected the art of shipping production-grade code from decentralized hubs and home setups, something shifted. We realized that while AI c...