15 research outputs found
Neural Networks for Predicting Algorithm Runtime Distributions
Many state-of-the-art algorithms for solving hard combinatorial problems in
artificial intelligence (AI) include elements of stochasticity that lead to
high variations in runtime, even for a fixed problem instance. Knowledge about
the resulting runtime distributions (RTDs) of algorithms on given problem
instances can be exploited in various meta-algorithmic procedures, such as
algorithm selection, portfolios, and randomized restarts. Previous work has
shown that machine learning can be used to individually predict mean, median
and variance of RTDs. To establish a new state-of-the-art in predicting RTDs,
we demonstrate that the parameters of an RTD should be learned jointly and that
neural networks can do this well by directly optimizing the likelihood of an
RTD given runtime observations. In an empirical study involving five algorithms
for SAT solving and AI planning, we show that neural networks predict the true
RTDs of unseen instances better than previous methods, and can even do so when
only few runtime observations are available per training instance
Fine-grained Search Space Classification for Hard Enumeration Variants of Subset Problems
We propose a simple, powerful, and flexible machine learning framework for
(i) reducing the search space of computationally difficult enumeration variants
of subset problems and (ii) augmenting existing state-of-the-art solvers with
informative cues arising from the input distribution. We instantiate our
framework for the problem of listing all maximum cliques in a graph, a central
problem in network analysis, data mining, and computational biology. We
demonstrate the practicality of our approach on real-world networks with
millions of vertices and edges by not only retaining all optimal solutions, but
also aggressively pruning the input instance size resulting in several fold
speedups of state-of-the-art algorithms. Finally, we explore the limits of
scalability and robustness of our proposed framework, suggesting that
supervised learning is viable for tackling NP-hard problems in practice.Comment: AAAI 201
SenTag: A Web-Based Tool for Semantic Annotation of Textual Documents
In this work, we present SenTag, a lightweight web-based tool focused on semantic annotation of textual documents. The platform allows multiple users to work on a corpus of documents. The tool enables to tag a corpus of documents through an intuitive and easy-to-use user interface that adopts the Extensible Markup Language (XML) as output format. The main goal of the application is two-fold: facilitating the tagging process and reducing or avoiding errors in the output documents. It allows also to identify arguments and other entities that are used to build an arguments graph. It is also possible to assess the level of agreement of annotators working on a corpus of text
Efficient Benchmarking of Algorithm Configuration Procedures via Model-Based Surrogates
The optimization of algorithm (hyper-)parameters is crucial for achieving
peak performance across a wide range of domains, ranging from deep neural
networks to solvers for hard combinatorial problems. The resulting algorithm
configuration (AC) problem has attracted much attention from the machine
learning community. However, the proper evaluation of new AC procedures is
hindered by two key hurdles. First, AC benchmarks are hard to set up. Second
and even more significantly, they are computationally expensive: a single run
of an AC procedure involves many costly runs of the target algorithm whose
performance is to be optimized in a given AC benchmark scenario. One common
workaround is to optimize cheap-to-evaluate artificial benchmark functions
(e.g., Branin) instead of actual algorithms; however, these have different
properties than realistic AC problems. Here, we propose an alternative
benchmarking approach that is similarly cheap to evaluate but much closer to
the original AC problem: replacing expensive benchmarks by surrogate benchmarks
constructed from AC benchmarks. These surrogate benchmarks approximate the
response surface corresponding to true target algorithm performance using a
regression model, and the original and surrogate benchmark share the same
(hyper-)parameter space. In our experiments, we construct and evaluate
surrogate benchmarks for hyperparameter optimization as well as for AC problems
that involve performance optimization of solvers for hard combinatorial
problems, drawing training data from the runs of existing AC procedures. We
show that our surrogate benchmarks capture overall important characteristics of
the AC scenarios, such as high- and low-performing regions, from which they
were derived, while being much easier to use and orders of magnitude cheaper to
evaluate
Automatic Algorithm Selection for Pseudo-Boolean Optimization with Given Computational Time Limits
Machine learning (ML) techniques have been proposed to automatically select
the best solver from a portfolio of solvers, based on predicted performance.
These techniques have been applied to various problems, such as Boolean
Satisfiability, Traveling Salesperson, Graph Coloring, and others.
These methods, known as meta-solvers, take an instance of a problem and a
portfolio of solvers as input. They then predict the best-performing solver and
execute it to deliver a solution. Typically, the quality of the solution
improves with a longer computational time. This has led to the development of
anytime selectors, which consider both the instance and a user-prescribed
computational time limit. Anytime meta-solvers predict the best-performing
solver within the specified time limit.
Constructing an anytime meta-solver is considerably more challenging than
building a meta-solver without the "anytime" feature. In this study, we focus
on the task of designing anytime meta-solvers for the NP-hard optimization
problem of Pseudo-Boolean Optimization (PBO), which generalizes Satisfiability
and Maximum Satisfiability problems. The effectiveness of our approach is
demonstrated via extensive empirical study in which our anytime meta-solver
improves dramatically on the performance of Mixed Integer Programming solver
Gurobi, which is the best-performing single solver in the portfolio. For
example, out of all instances and time limits for which Gurobi failed to find
feasible solutions, our meta-solver identified feasible solutions for 47% of
these
Joint QoS-Aware Scheduling and Precoding for Massive MIMO Systems via Deep Reinforcement Learning
The rapid development of mobile networks proliferates the demands of high
data rate, low latency, and high-reliability applications for the
fifth-generation (5G) and beyond (B5G) mobile networks. Concurrently, the
massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technology is essential to
realize the vision and requires coordination with resource management functions
for high user experiences. Though conventional cross-layer adaptation
algorithms have been developed to schedule and allocate network resources, the
complexity of resulting rules is high with diverse quality of service (QoS)
requirements and B5G features. In this work, we consider a joint user
scheduling, antenna allocation, and precoding problem in a massive MIMO system.
Instead of directly assigning resources, such as the number of antennas, the
allocation process is transformed into a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)
based dynamic algorithm selection problem for efficient Markov decision process
(MDP) modeling and policy training. Specifically, the proposed utility function
integrates QoS requirements and constraints toward a long-term system-wide
objective that matches the MDP return. The componentized action structure with
action embedding further incorporates the resource management process into the
model. Simulations show 7.2% and 12.5% more satisfied users against static
algorithm selection and related works under demanding scenarios
sunny-as2: Enhancing SUNNY for Algorithm Selection
SUNNY is an Algorithm Selection (AS) technique originally tailored for
Constraint Programming (CP). SUNNY enables to schedule, from a portfolio of
solvers, a subset of solvers to be run on a given CP problem. This approach has
proved to be effective for CP problems, and its parallel version won many gold
medals in the Open category of the MiniZinc Challenge -- the yearly
international competition for CP solvers. In 2015, the ASlib benchmarks were
released for comparing AS systems coming from disparate fields (e.g., ASP, QBF,
and SAT) and SUNNY was extended to deal with generic AS problems. This led to
the development of sunny-as2, an algorithm selector based on SUNNY for ASlib
scenarios. A preliminary version of sunny-as2 was submitted to the Open
Algorithm Selection Challenge (OASC) in 2017, where it turned out to be the
best approach for the runtime minimization of decision problems. In this work,
we present the technical advancements of sunny-as2, including: (i)
wrapper-based feature selection; (ii) a training approach combining feature
selection and neighbourhood size configuration; (iii) the application of nested
cross-validation. We show how sunny-as2 performance varies depending on the
considered AS scenarios, and we discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Finally,
we also show how sunny-as2 improves on its preliminary version submitted to
OASC