Reducing parameter space for neural network training

ABSTRACT: For neural networks (NNs) with rectified linear unit (ReLU) or binary activation functions, we show that their training can be accomplished in a reduced parameter space. Specifically, the weights in each neuron can be trained on the unit sphere, as opposed to the entire space, and the thre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tong Qin, Ling Zhou, Dongbin Xiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020-03-01
Series:Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095034920300301
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT: For neural networks (NNs) with rectified linear unit (ReLU) or binary activation functions, we show that their training can be accomplished in a reduced parameter space. Specifically, the weights in each neuron can be trained on the unit sphere, as opposed to the entire space, and the threshold can be trained in a bounded interval, as opposed to the real line. We show that the NNs in the reduced parameter space are mathematically equivalent to the standard NNs with parameters in the whole space. The reduced parameter space shall facilitate the optimization procedure for the network training, as the search space becomes (much) smaller. We demonstrate the improved training performance using numerical examples.
ISSN:2095-0349