On Training Efficiency and Computational Costs of a Feed Forward Neural Network: A Review

A comprehensive review on the problem of choosing a suitable activation function for the hidden layer of a feed forward neural network has been widely investigated. Since the nonlinear component of a neural network is the main contributor to the network mapping capabilities, the different choices that may lead to enhanced performances, in terms of training, generalization, or computational costs, are analyzed, both in general-purpose and in embedded computing environments. Finally, a strategy to convert a network configuration between different activation functions without altering the network mapping capabilities will be presented

Hardware-Accelerated neural network

This work presents a parametrizable design of a neural network on an FPGA, being trained previously in the CPU using backpropagation. We test different configurations and report delay, power and area

An Efficient Architecture for Floating Point based MISO Neural Neworks on FPGA

The present paper documents the research towards the development of an efficient algorithm to compute the result from a multiple-input-single-output Neural Network using floating-point arithmetic on FPGA. The proposed algorithm focus on optimizing pipeline delays by splitting the "Multiply and accumulate" algorithm into separate steps using partial products. It is a revisit of the classical algorithm for NN computation, able to overcome the main computation bottleneck in FPGA environment. The proposed algorithm can be implemented into an architecture that fully exploits the pipeline performance of the floating-point arithmetic blocks, thus allowing a very fast computation for the neural network. The performance of the proposed architecture is presented using as target a Cyclone II FPGA Device

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen