Soon on your screens: The LION way, Version 4.0

Machine Learning plus Intelligent Optimization
Roberto Battiti and Mauro Brunato

Five years after the latest published Version 3.0, and after the strong coupling between Mathematical Optimization and Machine Learning pioneered by LION is rapidly gaining momentum in different research and business projects, we are now working on Version 4.0. As for the previous versions we are searching for contributors in different aspects: reading and commenting on revised chapters, suggesting new topics, potentially writing new chapters, demo programs, images, etc. If interested, please email

roberto.battiti ((AT)) unitn.it

This book presents two topics which are in most cases separated: Machine Learning (the design of flexible models from data) and Intelligent Optimization (the automated creation and selection of optimal or improving solutions). More and more innovative people can now master the source of power arising from LION techniques to solve problems, improve businesses, create new applications.
Powerful tools are not only for cognoscenti and this book does a serious effort to distinguish the paradigm shift brought about by machine learning and intelligent optimization methods from the fine details, and it does not refrain from presenting concrete examples and vivid sticky images (made to stick to your mind).

Chapter 1 - Introduction (preliminary version)
Chapter 2 - Lazy learning: nearest neighbors (preliminary version)
Chapter 3 - Learning requires a method (preliminary version)
Chapter 4 - Linear models, non-linearities, and our brain (preliminary version)

Get The LION way, version 3.0

We believe that education should be for everybody and our book is available for free on this web site.

The opinions of our readers give additional hints about the book style. A wonderfully warm introduction to Machine Learning, Informative and well written, Couldn't stop reading, Smooth read, covers the essential ideas, will help even experienced practitioners avoid mistakes. After reading the awesome LIONbook, I'd like to play around and apply the methodologies in some of my personal research topics.

NOTE: we are currently completing Version 4.0, which will be ready at the beginning of 2023. Therefore the old version is not available anymore. In the meantime you can get the first chapters of Version 4.0 above.

If you are adopting the book for courses, some slides and exercises are available at the LIONcommunity

The messages we receive give us a boost to wake up on cloudy days, and we try to answer in person (but be patient, some days we are very loaded). Some excerpts from our emails: "what an amazing book", "thank you very much for your sharing!", "Very good book! Well done man!", "Thanks for this nice book!!!It's very interesting and useful!", "very entertaining!", "I want this book, I'm a coder!", "friends told me this book is awesome!".

Please cite our book as:
Roberto Battiti, Mauro Brunato
The LION way. Machine Learning plus Intelligent Optimization. Version 3.0.
LIONlab, University of Trento, Italy, 2017.
[ BibTeX ]
@book {
   author = "Roberto Battiti and Mauro Brunato",
   title = "The LION way. Machine Learning {\em plus} Intelligent Optimization",
   publisher = "LIONlab, University of Trento, Italy",
   year = "2017",
   url = "http://intelligent-optimization.org/LIONbook/"
}