Chaouki Kasmi

2papers

2 Papers

LGApr 8, 2021
Exact Stochastic Second Order Deep Learning

Fares B. Mehouachi, Chaouki Kasmi

Optimization in Deep Learning is mainly dominated by first-order methods which are built around the central concept of backpropagation. Second-order optimization methods, which take into account the second-order derivatives are far less used despite superior theoretical properties. This inadequacy of second-order methods stems from its exorbitant computational cost, poor performance, and the ineluctable non-convex nature of Deep Learning. Several attempts were made to resolve the inadequacy of second-order optimization without reaching a cost-effective solution, much less an exact solution. In this work, we show that this long-standing problem in Deep Learning could be solved in the stochastic case, given a suitable regularization of the neural network. Interestingly, we provide an expression of the stochastic Hessian and its exact eigenvalues. We provide a closed-form formula for the exact stochastic second-order Newton direction, we solve the non-convexity issue and adjust our exact solution to favor flat minima through regularization and spectral adjustment. We test our exact stochastic second-order method on popular datasets and reveal its adequacy for Deep Learning.

CRFeb 14, 2019
Spy the little Spies - Security and Privacy issues of Smart GPS trackers

Pierre Barre, Chaouki Kasmi, Eiman Al Shehhi

Tracking expensive goods and/or targeted individuals with high-tech devices has been of high interest for the last 30 years. More recently, other use cases such as parents tracking their children have become popular. One primary functionality of these devices has been the collection of GPS coordinates of the location of the trackers, and to send these to remote servers through a cellular modem and a SIM card. Reviewing existing devices, it has been observed that beyond simple GPS trackers many devices intend to enclose additional features such as microphones, cameras, or Wi-Fi interfaces enabling advanced spying activities. In this study, we propose to describe the methodology applied to evaluate the security level of GPS trackers with different capabilities. Several security flaws have been discovered during our security assessment highlighting the need of a proper hardening of these devices when used in critical environments.