title: Prerequisites Needed to Read Books on Neural Networks (and understand them)
body: <p>I've been trying to learn about Neural Networks for a while now, and I can understand some basic tutorials online, and I've been able to get through  portions of <a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/com/0852742622" rel="noreferrer" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Neural Computing - An Introduction</a> but even there, I'm glazing over a lot of the math, and it becomes completely over my head after the first few chapters. Even then its the least book "math-y" I can find.  </p>
  
  <p>Its not that I'm afraid of the math or anything, its just I haven't learned what I need, and I'm not sure what I need exactly.  I'm currently enrolled at my local university, working on catching up on classes I need to enter the MS in Comp. Sci program (my BA is in Business/Info. Sys.) and  I haven't gotten very far.  According to the university's little course descriptions, NN's are actually covered in a Electrical Engineering course on Pattern Recognition (seems odd to me that this course is EE), which has a few EE prereq's that I don't need to get into the MS Comp. Sci. Program.</p>
  
  <p>I'm extremely interested in this topic, and know I eventually want to learn a lot more about it, the problem is, I don't know what I need to know first.  Here are topics I think I might need, but this is just speculation from ignorance:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Single Variable Calculus (I've had Calc I and II, so I think I'm covered here, just listing for completeness)</li>
  <li>Multi Variable Calculus</li>
  <li>Linear Algebra (I've not taken this formally yet, but can actually understand many of the concepts from what I've managed to grok on Wikipedia and other sites)</li>
  <li>Discrete Mathematics (Another I've not taken formally, but learned a portion of on my own</li>
  <li>Graph Theory</li>
  <li>Probability Theory</li>
  <li>Bayesian Statistics</li>
  <li>Circuit Design</li>
  <li>Other maths?</li>
  <li>Other comp sci topics </li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Obviously there is a neuroscience component here as well, but I actually haven't had any trouble understanding books when they talk about it as applied to NN's, largely because its conceptual</p>
  
  <p>In short, Can someone lay out a semi-clear path that one needs to really understand, read book on and eventually implement Neural Networks?</p>