12 research outputs found
Large Scale Evolution of Convolutional Neural Networks Using Volunteer Computing
This work presents a new algorithm called evolutionary exploration of
augmenting convolutional topologies (EXACT), which is capable of evolving the
structure of convolutional neural networks (CNNs). EXACT is in part modeled
after the neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT) algorithm, with
notable exceptions to allow it to scale to large scale distributed computing
environments and evolve networks with convolutional filters. In addition to
multithreaded and MPI versions, EXACT has been implemented as part of a BOINC
volunteer computing project, allowing large scale evolution. During a period of
two months, over 4,500 volunteered computers on the Citizen Science Grid
trained over 120,000 CNNs and evolved networks reaching 98.32% test data
accuracy on the MNIST handwritten digits dataset. These results are even
stronger as the backpropagation strategy used to train the CNNs was fairly
rudimentary (ReLU units, L2 regularization and Nesterov momentum) and these
were initial test runs done without refinement of the backpropagation
hyperparameters. Further, the EXACT evolutionary strategy is independent of the
method used to train the CNNs, so they could be further improved by advanced
techniques like elastic distortions, pretraining and dropout. The evolved
networks are also quite interesting, showing "organic" structures and
significant differences from standard human designed architectures.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Submitted to the 2017 Genetic and Evolutionary
Computation Conference (GECCO 2017
EDEN: Evolutionary Deep Networks for Efficient Machine Learning
Deep neural networks continue to show improved performance with increasing
depth, an encouraging trend that implies an explosion in the possible
permutations of network architectures and hyperparameters for which there is
little intuitive guidance. To address this increasing complexity, we propose
Evolutionary DEep Networks (EDEN), a computationally efficient
neuro-evolutionary algorithm which interfaces to any deep neural network
platform, such as TensorFlow. We show that EDEN evolves simple yet successful
architectures built from embedding, 1D and 2D convolutional, max pooling and
fully connected layers along with their hyperparameters. Evaluation of EDEN
across seven image and sentiment classification datasets shows that it reliably
finds good networks -- and in three cases achieves state-of-the-art results --
even on a single GPU, in just 6-24 hours. Our study provides a first attempt at
applying neuro-evolution to the creation of 1D convolutional networks for
sentiment analysis including the optimisation of the embedding layer.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 3 tables and see video
https://vimeo.com/23451009
Evolutionary Construction of Convolutional Neural Networks
Neuro-Evolution is a field of study that has recently gained significantly
increased traction in the deep learning community. It combines deep neural
networks and evolutionary algorithms to improve and/or automate the
construction of neural networks. Recent Neuro-Evolution approaches have shown
promising results, rivaling hand-crafted neural networks in terms of accuracy.
A two-step approach is introduced where a convolutional autoencoder is created
that efficiently compresses the input data in the first step, and a
convolutional neural network is created to classify the compressed data in the
second step. The creation of networks in both steps is guided by by an
evolutionary process, where new networks are constantly being generated by
mutating members of a collection of existing networks. Additionally, a method
is introduced that considers the trade-off between compression and information
loss of different convolutional autoencoders. This is used to select the
optimal convolutional autoencoder from among those evolved to compress the data
for the second step. The complete framework is implemented, tested on the
popular CIFAR-10 data set, and the results are discussed. Finally, a number of
possible directions for future work with this particular framework in mind are
considered, including opportunities to improve its efficiency and its
application in particular areas
Image Classification for Breast Cancer Using a Modified Convolution Neural Network Architecture
The most common type of cancer that results in death is breast cancer. In the world, millions of people struggle with this disease. Breast cancer can affect men and women but women are more affected. For awareness, it is necessary to understand the sign and symptoms of breast cancer. The most common sign is an abnormal lump in the breast. But there may be many reasons of develop abnormal lumps. Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) is extensively used in pathological image analysis to help pathologists enhance diagnosis efficiency, accuracy, and consistency. Recent studies have looked into deep learning methodologies to improve the effectiveness of pathological CAD
Neuroevolution in Deep Neural Networks: Current Trends and Future Challenges
A variety of methods have been applied to the architectural configuration and
learning or training of artificial deep neural networks (DNN). These methods
play a crucial role in the success or failure of the DNN for most problems and
applications. Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) are gaining momentum as a
computationally feasible method for the automated optimisation and training of
DNNs. Neuroevolution is a term which describes these processes of automated
configuration and training of DNNs using EAs. While many works exist in the
literature, no comprehensive surveys currently exist focusing exclusively on
the strengths and limitations of using neuroevolution approaches in DNNs.
Prolonged absence of such surveys can lead to a disjointed and fragmented field
preventing DNNs researchers potentially adopting neuroevolutionary methods in
their own research, resulting in lost opportunities for improving performance
and wider application within real-world deep learning problems. This paper
presents a comprehensive survey, discussion and evaluation of the
state-of-the-art works on using EAs for architectural configuration and
training of DNNs. Based on this survey, the paper highlights the most pertinent
current issues and challenges in neuroevolution and identifies multiple
promising future research directions.Comment: 20 pages (double column), 2 figures, 3 tables, 157 reference
Optimization of convolutional neural networks for image classification using genetic algorithms and bayesian optimization
Notwithstanding the recent successes of deep convolutional neural networks for classification tasks, they are sensitive to the selection of their hyperparameters, which impose an exponentially large search space on modern convolutional models. Traditional hyperparameter selection methods include manual, grid, or random search, but these require expert knowledge or are computationally burdensome. Divergently, Bayesian optimization and evolutionary inspired techniques have surfaced as viable alternatives to the hyperparameter problem. Thus, an alternative hybrid approach that combines the advantages of these techniques is proposed. Specifically, the search space is partitioned into discrete-architectural, and continuous and categorical hyperparameter subspaces, which are respectively traversed by a stochastic genetic search, followed by a genetic-Bayesian search. Simulations on a prominent image classification task reveal that the proposed method results in an overall classification accuracy improvement of 0.87% over unoptimized baselines, and a greater than 97% reduction in computational costs compared to a commonly employed brute force approach.Electrical and Mining EngineeringM. Tech. (Electrical Engineering