Space Of Network Architectures Research Articles

NAS-Navigator: Visual Steering for Explainable One-Shot Deep Neural Network Synthesis.

The success of DL can be attributed to hours of parameter and architecture tuning by human experts. Neural Architecture Search (NAS) techniques aim to solve this problem by automating the search procedure for DNN architectures making it possible for non-experts to work with DNNs. Specifically, One-shot NAS techniques have recently gained popularity as they are known to reduce the search time for NAS techniques. One-Shot NAS works by training a large template network through parameter sharing which includes all the candidate NNs. This is followed by applying a procedure to rank its components through evaluating the possible candidate architectures chosen randomly. However, as these search models become increasingly powerful and diverse, they become harder to understand. Consequently, even though the search results work well, it is hard to identify search biases and control the search progression, hence a need for explainability and human-in-the-loop (HIL) One-Shot NAS. To alleviate these problems, we present NAS-Navigator, a visual analytics (VA) system aiming to solve three problems with One-Shot NAS; explainability, HIL design, and performance improvements compared to existing state-of-the-art (SOTA) techniques. NAS-Navigator gives full control of NAS back in the hands of the users while still keeping the perks of automated search, thus assisting non-expert users. Analysts can use their domain knowledge aided by cues from the interface to guide the search. Evaluation results confirm the performance of our improved One-Shot NAS algorithm is comparable to other SOTA techniques. While adding Visual Analytics (VA) using NAS-Navigator shows further improvements in search time and performance. We designed our interface in collaboration with several deep learning researchers and evaluated NAS-Navigator through a control experiment and expert interviews.

Training Deep Reactive Policies for Probabilistic Planning Problems

State-of-the-art probabilistic planners typically apply look- ahead search and reasoning at each step to make a decision. While this approach can enable high-quality decisions, it can be computationally expensive for problems that require fast decision making. In this paper, we investigate the potential for deep learning to replace search by fast reactive policies. We focus on supervised learning of deep reactive policies for probabilistic planning problems described in RDDL. A key challenge is to explore the large design space of network architectures and training methods, which was critical to prior deep learning successes. We investigate a number of choices in this space and conduct experiments across a set of benchmark problems. Our results show that effective deep reactive policies can be learned for many benchmark problems and that leveraging the planning problem description to define the network structure can be beneficial.

BioJazz: in silico evolution of cellular networks with unbounded complexity using rule-based modeling.

Systems biologists aim to decipher the structure and dynamics of signaling and regulatory networks underpinning cellular responses; synthetic biologists can use this insight to alter existing networks or engineer de novo ones. Both tasks will benefit from an understanding of which structural and dynamic features of networks can emerge from evolutionary processes, through which intermediary steps these arise, and whether they embody general design principles. As natural evolution at the level of network dynamics is difficult to study, in silico evolution of network models can provide important insights. However, current tools used for in silico evolution of network dynamics are limited to ad hoc computer simulations and models. Here we introduce BioJazz, an extendable, user-friendly tool for simulating the evolution of dynamic biochemical networks. Unlike previous tools for in silico evolution, BioJazz allows for the evolution of cellular networks with unbounded complexity by combining rule-based modeling with an encoding of networks that is akin to a genome. We show that BioJazz can be used to implement biologically realistic selective pressures and allows exploration of the space of network architectures and dynamics that implement prescribed physiological functions. BioJazz is provided as an open-source tool to facilitate its further development and use. Source code and user manuals are available at: http://oss-lab.github.io/biojazz and http://osslab.lifesci.warwick.ac.uk/BioJazz.aspx.

A Swarm Intelligence Framework for Reconstructing Gene Networks: Searching for Biologically Plausible Architectures

In this paper, we investigate the problem of reverse engineering the topology of gene regulatory networks from temporal gene expression data. We adopt a computational intelligence approach comprising swarm intelligence techniques, namely particle swarm optimization (PSO) and ant colony optimization (ACO). In addition, the recurrent neural network (RNN) formalism is employed for modeling the dynamical behavior of gene regulatory systems. More specifically, ACO is used for searching the discrete space of network architectures and PSO for searching the corresponding continuous space of RNN model parameters. We propose a novel solution construction process in the context of ACO for generating biologically plausible candidate architectures. The objective is to concentrate the search effort into areas of the structure space that contain architectures which are feasible in terms of their topological resemblance to real-world networks. The proposed framework is initially applied to the reconstruction of a small artificial network that has previously been studied in the context of gene network reverse engineering. Subsequently, we consider an artificial data set with added noise for reconstructing a subnetwork of the genetic interaction network of S. cerevisiae (yeast). Finally, the framework is applied to a real-world data set for reverse engineering the SOS response system of the bacterium Escherichia coli. Results demonstrate the relative advantage of utilizing problem-specific knowledge regarding biologically plausible structural properties of gene networks over conducting a problem-agnostic search in the vast space of network architectures.

Evaluation of global and local training techniques over feed-forward neural network architecture spaces for computer-aided medical diagnosis

In this paper, we investigate the performance of global vs. local techniques applied to the training of neural network classifiers for solving medical diagnosis problems. The presented methodology of the investigation involves systematic and exhaustive evaluation of the classifier performance over a neural network architecture space and with respect to training depth for a particular problem. In this study, the architecture space is defined over feed-forward, fully-connected artificial neural networks (ANNs) which have been widely used in computer-aided decision support systems in medical domain, and for which two popular neural network training methods are explored: conventional backpropagation (BP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Both training techniques are compared in terms of classification performance over three medical diagnosis problems ( breast cancer, heart disease, and diabetes) from Proben1 benchmark dataset and computational and architectural analysis are performed for an extensive assessment. The results clearly demonstrate that it is not possible to compare and evaluate the performance of the two algorithms over a single network and with a fixed set of training parameters, as most of the earlier work in this field has been carried out, since training and test classification performances vary significantly and depend directly on the network architecture, the training depth and method used and the available dataset. We, therefore, show that an extensive evaluation method such as the one proposed in this paper is basically needed to obtain a reliable and detailed performance assessment, in that, we can conclude that the PSO algorithm has usually a better generalization ability across the architecture space whereas BP can occasionally provide better training and/or test classification performance for some network configurations. Furthermore, we can in general say that the PSO, as a global training algorithm, is capable of achieving minimum test classification errors regardless of the training depth, i.e. shallow or deep, and its average classification performance shows less variations with respect to network architecture. In terms of computational complexity, BP is in general superior to PSO for the entire architecture space used.

Improving neural network models of physical systems through dimensional analysis

The paper presents a technique for generating concise neural network models of physical systems. The neural network models are generated through a two-stage process. The first stage uses information embedded in the dimensions or units in which the data is represented. Dimensional analysis techniques are used initially to make this information explicit, and a limited search in the neural network architecture space is then conducted to determine dimensionless representations of variables/parameters that perform well for a given model complexity. The second stage uses information available in the numerical values of the data to search for high-level dimensionless variables/parameters, generated from simple combinations of dimensionless quantities generated in the first stage and which result in concise neural network models with improved performance characteristics. The search for these high-level dimensionless variables/parameters is conducted in an enhanced representation space using functional link networks with flat or near flat architectures. The use and effectiveness of the technique is demonstrated for three applications. The first is the design and analysis of reinforced concrete beams, which is representative of the class of problems associated with the design and analysis of composites. The second is the classical elastica problem, for predicting non-linear post-buckled behaviour of columns and the third, the analysis of a bent bar under a specified combination of loads. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.