20 research outputs found
Multiclass Learning with Simplex Coding
In this paper we discuss a novel framework for multiclass learning, defined
by a suitable coding/decoding strategy, namely the simplex coding, that allows
to generalize to multiple classes a relaxation approach commonly used in binary
classification. In this framework, a relaxation error analysis can be developed
avoiding constraints on the considered hypotheses class. Moreover, we show that
in this setting it is possible to derive the first provably consistent
regularized method with training/tuning complexity which is independent to the
number of classes. Tools from convex analysis are introduced that can be used
beyond the scope of this paper
Dirichlet-based Gaussian Processes for Large-scale Calibrated Classification
This paper studies the problem of deriving fast and accurate classification algorithms with uncertainty quantification. Gaussian process classification provides a principled approach, but the corresponding computational burden is hardly sustainable in large-scale problems and devising efficient alternatives is a challenge. In this work, we investigate if and how Gaussian process regression directly applied to classification labels can be used to tackle this question. While in this case training is remarkably faster, predictions need to be calibrated for classification and uncertainty estimation. To this aim, we propose a novel regression approach where the labels are obtained through the interpretation of classification labels as the coefficients of a degenerate Dirichlet distribution. Extensive experimental results show that the proposed approach provides essentially the same accuracy and uncertainty quantification as Gaussian process classification while requiring only a fraction of computational resources
Convex Learning of Multiple Tasks and their Structure
Reducing the amount of human supervision is a key problem in machine learning
and a natural approach is that of exploiting the relations (structure) among
different tasks. This is the idea at the core of multi-task learning. In this
context a fundamental question is how to incorporate the tasks structure in the
learning problem.We tackle this question by studying a general computational
framework that allows to encode a-priori knowledge of the tasks structure in
the form of a convex penalty; in this setting a variety of previously proposed
methods can be recovered as special cases, including linear and non-linear
approaches. Within this framework, we show that tasks and their structure can
be efficiently learned considering a convex optimization problem that can be
approached by means of block coordinate methods such as alternating
minimization and for which we prove convergence to the global minimum.Comment: 26 pages, 1 figure, 2 table
On the Generalization of the C-Bound to Structured Output Ensemble Methods
This paper generalizes an important result from the PAC-Bayesian literature for binary classification to the case of ensemble methods for structured outputs. We prove a generic version of the \Cbound, an upper bound over the risk of models expressed as a weighted majority vote that is based on the first and second statistical moments of the vote's margin. This bound may advantageously be applied on more complex outputs such as multiclass labels and multilabel, and allow to consider margin relaxations. These results open the way to develop new ensemble methods for structured output prediction with PAC-Bayesian guarantees
Leveraging Low-Rank Relations Between Surrogate Tasks in Structured Prediction
We study the interplay between surrogate methods for structured prediction
and techniques from multitask learning designed to leverage relationships
between surrogate outputs. We propose an efficient algorithm based on trace
norm regularization which, differently from previous methods, does not require
explicit knowledge of the coding/decoding functions of the surrogate framework.
As a result, our algorithm can be applied to the broad class of problems in
which the surrogate space is large or even infinite dimensional. We study
excess risk bounds for trace norm regularized structured prediction, implying
the consistency and learning rates for our estimator. We also identify relevant
regimes in which our approach can enjoy better generalization performance than
previous methods. Numerical experiments on ranking problems indicate that
enforcing low-rank relations among surrogate outputs may indeed provide a
significant advantage in practice.Comment: 42 pages, 1 tabl
A Consistent Regularization Approach for Structured Prediction
We propose and analyze a regularization approach for structured prediction
problems. We characterize a large class of loss functions that allows to
naturally embed structured outputs in a linear space. We exploit this fact to
design learning algorithms using a surrogate loss approach and regularization
techniques. We prove universal consistency and finite sample bounds
characterizing the generalization properties of the proposed methods.
Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the practical usefulness of
the proposed approach.Comment: 39 pages, 2 Tables, 1 Figur
Improved Multi-Class Cost-Sensitive Boosting via Estimation of the Minimum-Risk Class
We present a simple unified framework for multi-class cost-sensitive boosting.
The minimum-risk class is estimated directly, rather than via an approximation
of the posterior distribution. Our method jointly optimizes binary weak learners
and their corresponding output vectors, requiring classes to share features at each
iteration. By training in a cost-sensitive manner, weak learners are invested in separating
classes whose discrimination is important, at the expense of less relevant
classification boundaries. Additional contributions are a family of loss functions
along with proof that our algorithm is Boostable in the theoretical sense, as well
as an efficient procedure for growing decision trees for use as weak learners. We
evaluate our method on a variety of datasets: a collection of synthetic planar data,
common UCI datasets, MNIST digits, SUN scenes, and CUB-200 birds. Results
show state-of-the-art performance across all datasets against several strong baselines,
including non-boosting multi-class approaches