Training hierarchical networks for function approximation

In this work we investigate function approximation using Hierarchical Networks. We start of by investigating the theory proposed by Poggio et al [2] that Deep Learning Convolutional Neural Networks (DCN) can be equivalent to hierarchical kernel machines with the Radial Basis Functions (RBF).We investigate the difficulty of training RBF networks with stochastic gradient descent (SGD) and hierarchical RBF. We discovered that training singled layered RBF networks can be quite simple with a good initialization and good choice of standard deviation for the Gaussian. Training hierarchical RBFs remains as an open question, however, we clearly identified the issue surrounding training hierarchical RBFs and potential methods to resolve this. We also compare standard DCN networks to hierarchical Radial Basis Functions in tasks that has not been explored yet; the role of depth in learning compositional functions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Miranda, Brando, M. Eng. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Tomaso Poggio.

• Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/113159

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/113159