Feature selection for MAUC-oriented classification systems

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Feature selection is an important preprocessing step for many pattern classification tasks. Traditionally, feature selection methods are designed to obtain a feature subset that can lead to high classification accuracy. However, classification accuracy has recently been shown to be an inappropriate performance metric of classification systems in many cases. Instead, the Area Under the receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC) and its multi-class extension, MAUC, have been proved to be better alternatives. Hence, the target of classification system design is gradually shifting from seeking a system with the maximum classification accuracy to obtain a system with the maximum AUC/MAUC. Previous investigations have shown that traditional feature selection methods need to be modified to cope with this new objective. These methods, however, are restricted to binary classification problems only. In this study, a filter feature selection method, namely MAUC Decomposition based Feature Selection (MDFS), is proposed for multi-class classification systems that aim for maximum MAUC. To the best of our knowledge, MDFS is the first method specifically designed to select features for building classification systems with maximum MAUC. Extensive empirical results demonstrate the advantage of MDFS over several compared feature selection methods.