Design space exploration of Convolutional Neural Networks based on Evolutionary Algorithms

This paper proposes a framework for design space exploration ofConvolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) using Genetic Algorithms(GAs). CNNs have many hyperparameters that need to be tunedcarefully in order to achieve favorable results when used for imageclassification tasks or similar vision applications. Genetic Algorithmsare adopted to efficiently traverse the huge search spaceof CNNs hyperparameters, and generate the best architecture thatfits the given task. Some of the hyperparameters that were testedinclude the number of convolutional and fully connected layers, thenumber of filters for each convolutional layer, and the number ofnodes in the fully connected layers. The proposed approach wastested using MNIST dataset for handwritten digit classification andresults obtained indicate that the proposed approach is able to generatea CNN architecture with validation accuracy up to 96.66% onaverage

An Impulse-C Hardware Accelerator for Packet Classification Based on Fine/Coarse Grain Optimization

Current software-based packet classification algorithms exhibit relatively poor performance, prompting many researchers to concentrate on novel frameworks and architectures that employ both hardware and software components. The Packet Classification with Incremental Update (PCIU) algorithm, Ahmed et al. (2010), is a novel and efficient packet classification algorithm with a unique incremental update capability that demonstrated excellent results and was shown to be scalable for many different tasks and clients. While a pure software implementation can generate powerful results on a server machine, an embedded solution may be more desirable for some applications and clients. Embedded, specialized hardware accelerator based solutions are typically much more efficient in speed, cost, and size than solutions that are implemented on general-purpose processor systems. This paper seeks to explore the design space of translating the PCIU algorithm into hardware by utilizing several optimization techniques, ranging from fine grain to coarse grain and parallel coarse grain approaches. The paper presents a detailed implementation of a hardware accelerator of the PCIU based on an Electronic System Level (ESL) approach. Results obtained indicate that the hardware accelerator achieves on average 27x speedup over a state-of-the-art Xeon processor

Memetic Multilevel Hypergraph Partitioning

Hypergraph partitioning has a wide range of important applications such as VLSI design or scientific computing. With focus on solution quality, we develop the first multilevel memetic algorithm to tackle the problem. Key components of our contribution are new effective multilevel recombination and mutation operations that provide a large amount of diversity. We perform a wide range of experiments on a benchmark set containing instances from application areas such VLSI, SAT solving, social networks, and scientific computing. Compared to the state-of-the-art hypergraph partitioning tools hMetis, PaToH, and KaHyPar, our new algorithm computes the best result on almost all instances

Cytokine regulation of matrix metalloproteinases in keratinocytes in periodontal disease

Periodontal disease is an inflammatory disease caused by interactions between host responses and periodontal pathogens and is characterised by increased production of proinflammatory mediators and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a risk factor for periodontal disease with upregulated cytokine and MMP secretion potentially contributing to the mechanistic links between the two conditions. The study aimed to investigate the effects of proinflammatory cytokines and P. gingivalis lipopolysaccharide (LPS) on MMP expression in a human oral keratinocyte cell line (OKF6) and primary oral epithelial cells. MMP-8 and MMP-9 levels were investigated in GCF and serum samples from individuals with or without T2DM and periodontal health, gingivitis or periodontis.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo