Neuroevolution of Neural Network Architectures Using CoDeepNEAT and Keras
This work addresses the problem of reducing manual effort in designing neural networks for machine learning practitioners, but it is incremental as it adapts an existing method to a new framework.
The paper tackles the challenge of automating neural network architecture and hyperparameter selection by adapting the CoDeepNEAT evolutionary technique with Keras, presenting an implementation with documentation and examples for reproducibility.
Machine learning is a huge field of study in computer science and statistics dedicated to the execution of computational tasks through algorithms that do not require explicit instructions but instead rely on learning patterns from data samples to automate inferences. A large portion of the work involved in a machine learning project is to define the best type of algorithm to solve a given problem. Neural networks - especially deep neural networks - are the predominant type of solution in the field. However, the networks themselves can produce very different results according to the architectural choices made for them. Finding the optimal network topology and configurations for a given problem is a challenge that requires domain knowledge and testing efforts due to a large number of parameters that need to be considered. The purpose of this work is to propose an adapted implementation of a well-established evolutionary technique from the neuroevolution field that manages to automate the tasks of topology and hyperparameter selection. It uses a popular and accessible machine learning framework - Keras - as the back-end, presenting results and proposed changes concerning the original algorithm. The implementation is available at GitHub (https://github.com/sbcblab/Keras-CoDeepNEAT) with documentation and examples to reproduce the experiments performed for this work.