A GPU-based Evolution Strategy for Optic Disk Detection in Retinal Images

La ejecución paralela de aplicaciones usando unidades de procesamiento gráfico (gpu) ha ganado gran interés en la comunidad académica en los años recientes. La computación paralela puede ser aplicada a las estrategias evolutivas para procesar individuos dentro de una población, sin embargo, las estrategias evolutivas se caracterizan por un significativo consumo de recursos computacionales al resolver problemas de gran tamaño o aquellos que se modelan mediante funciones de aptitud complejas. Este artículo describe la implementación de una estrategia evolutiva para la detección del disco óptico en imágenes de retina usando Compute Unified Device Architecture (cuda). Los resultados experimentales muestran que el tiempo de ejecución para la detección del disco óptico logra una aceleración de 5 a 7 veces, comparado con la ejecución secuencial en una cpu convencional.Parallel processing using graphic processing units (GPUs) has attracted much research interest in recent years. Parallel computation can be applied to evolution strategy (ES) for processing individuals in a population, but evolutionary strategies are time consuming to solve large computational problems or complex fitness functions. In this paper we describe the implementation of an improved ES for optic disk detection in retinal images using the Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) environment. In the experimental results we show that the computational time for optic disk detection task has a speedup factor of 5x and 7x compared to an implementation on a mainstream CPU

Parallel memetic algorithms for independent job scheduling in computational grids

In this chapter we present parallel implementations of Memetic Algorithms (MAs) for the problem of scheduling independent jobs in computational grids. The problem of scheduling in computational grids is known for its high demanding computational time. In this work we exploit the intrinsic parallel nature of MAs as well as the fact that computational grids offer large amount of resources, a part of which could be used to compute the efficient allocation of jobs to grid resources. The parallel models exploited in this work for MAs include both fine-grained and coarse-grained parallelization and their hybridization. The resulting schedulers have been tested through different grid scenarios generated by a grid simulator to match different possible configurations of computational grids in terms of size (number of jobs and resources) and computational characteristics of resources. All in all, the result of this work showed that Parallel MAs are very good alternatives in order to match different performance requirement on fast scheduling of jobs to grid resources.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Distributed Correlation-Based Feature Selection in Spark

CFS (Correlation-Based Feature Selection) is an FS algorithm that has been successfully applied to classification problems in many domains. We describe Distributed CFS (DiCFS) as a completely redesigned, scalable, parallel and distributed version of the CFS algorithm, capable of dealing with the large volumes of data typical of big data applications. Two versions of the algorithm were implemented and compared using the Apache Spark cluster computing model, currently gaining popularity due to its much faster processing times than Hadoop's MapReduce model. We tested our algorithms on four publicly available datasets, each consisting of a large number of instances and two also consisting of a large number of features. The results show that our algorithms were superior in terms of both time-efficiency and scalability. In leveraging a computer cluster, they were able to handle larger datasets than the non-distributed WEKA version while maintaining the quality of the results, i.e., exactly the same features were returned by our algorithms when compared to the original algorithm available in WEKA.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

Petuum: A New Platform for Distributed Machine Learning on Big Data

What is a systematic way to efficiently apply a wide spectrum of advanced ML programs to industrial scale problems, using Big Models (up to 100s of billions of parameters) on Big Data (up to terabytes or petabytes)? Modern parallelization strategies employ fine-grained operations and scheduling beyond the classic bulk-synchronous processing paradigm popularized by MapReduce, or even specialized graph-based execution that relies on graph representations of ML programs. The variety of approaches tends to pull systems and algorithms design in different directions, and it remains difficult to find a universal platform applicable to a wide range of ML programs at scale. We propose a general-purpose framework that systematically addresses data- and model-parallel challenges in large-scale ML, by observing that many ML programs are fundamentally optimization-centric and admit error-tolerant, iterative-convergent algorithmic solutions. This presents unique opportunities for an integrative system design, such as bounded-error network synchronization and dynamic scheduling based on ML program structure. We demonstrate the efficacy of these system designs versus well-known implementations of modern ML algorithms, allowing ML programs to run in much less time and at considerably larger model sizes, even on modestly-sized compute clusters.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, final version in KDD 2015 under the same titl

Requirements for implementing real-time control functional modules on a hierarchical parallel pipelined system

Analysis of a robot control system leads to a broad range of processing requirements. One fundamental requirement of a robot control system is the necessity of a microcomputer system in order to provide sufficient processing capability.The use of multiple processors in a parallel architecture is beneficial for a number of reasons, including better cost performance, modular growth, increased reliability through replication, and flexibility for testing alternate control strategies via different partitioning. A survey of the progression from low level control synchronizing primitives to higher level communication tools is presented. The system communication and control mechanisms of existing robot control systems are compared to the hierarchical control model. The impact of this design methodology on the current robot control systems is explored