The Essence of Neural Networks is designed to be a first course on neural networks for undergraduate students, with the mathematics contained to a minimum. The book's main aim is to cover the basic concepts, with the key neural network models explored sufficiently deeply to allow a competent programmer to implement the networks in a language of their choice. The first six chapters cover the main neural models that are essential for a fundamental grounding in the subject, and the last two chapters are devoted to an overview of some of the links being developed between neural networks and traditional AI.