用连续放松方法高效搜索紧凑神经网络,提升性能同时减少参数。
Designing Compact Neural Architectures via Neuron Gating and Mixed Activation

- 将离散的神经元和激活选择转为连续可微优化,突破传统NAS计算瓶颈。
- 在MNIST上以仅0.26M参数实现99.63%准确率,CIFAR-10表现优于DARTS。
- 适用于MLP、CNN、Transformer等架构,适合追求轻量化模型的研究者。
神经架构搜索(NAS)天然可建模为双层优化问题:上层基于验证性能优化架构,下层基于训练损失优化网络参数。然而,由于离散架构决策、指数级增长的搜索空间以及候选架构训练成本高,传统NAS计算开销巨大。本文提出一种通用的双层优化框架,适用于MLP、CNN、RNN和Transformer等多种架构,旨在发现具备强预测能力的紧凑架构。通过三种可扩展的连续松弛形式,将神经元与激活级别的离散决策转化为可微优化,从而实现对原本组合式架构空间的有效搜索。由此衍生出三种NAS方法:基于神经元门控(NAS-NG)、基于混合激活(NAS-MA)及二者结合(NAS-NGMA)。在MNIST和CIFAR-10上的实验表明,所提方法持续生成性能优异且紧凑的架构。在MNIST上,NAS-NGMA以7.69M参数达到98.68%测试准确率,而NAS-NG仅用0.26M CNN参数即达99.63%准确率。在CIFAR-10上,所提方法始终优于原始DARTS。进一步实验显示,NAS-NG能显著优化过参数化及文献最优架构,在降低参数量的同时提升精度。结果证明,松弛化双层优化是离散NAS的可扩展替代方案,并提供了一个高效的神经元与激活层级架构优化通用框架。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
Neural Architecture Search (NAS) is naturally formulated as a bilevel optimization problem, where the upper-level optimizes the architecture using validation performance and the lower-level trains network parameters using training loss. However, NAS is computationally expensive due to discrete architectural decisions, exponentially growing search spaces, and the high cost of training candidate architectures. This work develops a general bilevel optimization framework for NAS across diverse architectures, including MLPs, CNNs, RNNs, and Transformers, to identify compact architectures with strong predictive performance. We propose three scalable formulations that replace discrete neuron- and activation-level decisions with continuous relaxations, enabling differentiable optimization over otherwise combinatorial architecture spaces. These formulations give rise to three NAS methods: NAS based on Neuron Gating (NAS-NG), NAS based on Mixed Activation (NAS-MA), and NAS based on Neuron Gating and Mixed Activation (NAS-NGMA). Experiments on MLPs and CNNs using MNIST and CIFAR-10 show that the proposed methods consistently identify compact architectures with competitive or improved predictive performance. On MNIST, NAS-NGMA achieves 98.68% test accuracy with 7.69M MLP parameters, while NAS-NG achieves 99.63% accuracy with only 0.26M CNN parameters. On CIFAR-10, the proposed methods consistently outperform vanilla DARTS. Further experiments demonstrate that NAS-NG can optimize substantially over-parameterized and literature-optimal architectures, improving accuracy while reducing parameters. These results establish relaxed bilevel optimization as a scalable alternative to discrete NAS and provide a general framework for efficient neuron- and activation-level architecture optimization.
Thank you to arXiv for use of its open access interoperability. PaperDance 不是 arXiv 官方产品;中文卡片由大模型生成,请以原文为准。