Loading Data from TensorFlow Datasets

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Loading Data from TensorFlow Datasets

TensorFlow provides easy access to many common public datasets. In this lab, you will learn to load the MNIST database of handwritten digits, a common entry-level machine learning dataset, from TensorFlow Datasets. Using this data, you will build a simple model that will learn to predict numbers found in the images.

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Lab Info

Level

Intermediate

Last updated

Sep 22, 2025

Duration

45m

Challenge

Load the MNIST Dataset

Using TensorFlow Datasets, load the MNIST training and testing data into your program. Additionally, load the dataset information provided by TensorFlow.
Challenge

Explore the MNIST Dataset
1. Display the dataset information provided by TensorFlow.
2. Display the class label names.
3. Display some example images.
Challenge

Wrangle the MNIST Dataset
1. Normalize image pixel data to values between 0 and 1.
2. Since the dataset is small, load all of it into memory for better performance.
3. Shuffle the training data to help the model generalize, but don't shuffle the test data.
4. Batch the data to make training faster.
Challenge

Teach a Model to Predict Handwritten Digits
1. Create a basic Keras Sequential deep neural network to predict the number in each image.
2. Compile the model with an appropriate optimizer and loss function.
3. Train the model for a few epochs using the training data.
4. Evaluate the model using the test data.
5. Save the model for later use.

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