mlpack in Google Summer of Code 2016

This year is shaping up to be a productive and exciting year for mlpack; after being accepted into Google Summer of Code 2016, we received an astounding 119 applications and were able to accept 6 talented students. Here is what they will be working on this summer:

Neuroevolution Algorithms Implementation

by Bang Liu, mentored by Marcus Edel

Bang will implement neuroevolution algorithms for the neural network framework in mlpack, such as CNE, NEAT, and HyperNEAT. These will be tested on various problems, including applying HyperNEAT to NES games. In addition, benchmarking will be done to verify that mlpack's implementations are competitive with—or faster than—other implementations of these neuroevolution algorithms.

Bang is a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta; he likes swimming, playing table tennis, and badminton. His website contains more information.

Dataset and Experimentation Tools

by Keon Kim, mentored by Tham Ngap Wei

Keon will design and develop utilities for dataset management in mlpack. Specifically, Keon will create four separate modules for working with datasets: (1) dataset I/O (convert dataset formats, etc.); (2) data transformation (join/split data, clean missing data, etc.); (3) statistical analytics (mean/mode/median, t-test, etc.); (4) mathematical operators (rounding, timezone handling, etc.). These will supplement the existing mlpack machine learning algorithms and can be used for preprocessing (or postprocessing).

Keon is an undergraduate student at New York University and currently works as an intern for a startup in the financial sector that uses machine learning.

Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search

by Marcos Pividori, mentored by Sumedh Ghaisas

Marcos will extend the existing knn/kfn implementation to support approximation, and then implement spill trees and the "defeatist" strategy for approximate nearest neighbor search. Then, he will benchmark the mlpack aknn implementation against other aknn strategies using the mlpack benchmarking system.

Marcos is a computer science student from Argentina and is no newcomer to Google Summer of Code; this is the third year he has participated. In 2013 he worked with the Haskell project, and in 2015 he worked with the OpenCog project to provide Haskell bindings. He also likes to play table tennis and also regular tennis.

Implement tree types

by Mikhail Lozhnikov, mentored by Ryan Curtin

Mikhail will extend previous years' tree types projects by implementing several types of trees: R+ trees, Hilbert R Trees, vantage point trees, random projection trees, and UB trees. Each of these will be usable by mlpack's various dual-tree algorithms (like nearest neighbor search, range search, FastMKS, emst, and others).

Mikhail is a graduate student at Moscow State University, interested in computational mathematics and programming. When he has free time, he plays classical guitar and piano.

We need to go deeper - GoogLeNet

by Nilay Jain, mentored by Tham Ngap Wei and Marcus Edel

Nilay will implement the components of the GoogLeNet architecture (the inception layer, global average pooling, and other pieces), and then build a GoogLeNet on a sample of ImageNet data. The pieces of this architecture will be usable for other neural network applications.

Nilay is a third year undergraduate CS student from BITS Pilani; he is far from the only BITS Pilani student who has worked with mlpack in the past, as he is the fourth student we have accepted from there. Nilay enjoys football, watching movies, and reading.

Implementation of Multiprobe LSH and LSH Tuning

by Yannis Mentekidis, mentored by Ryan Curtin

Yannis will significantly improve the existing LSH framework we have in place by implementing multiprobe LSH and also LSH tuning, which is what the LSHKIT package implements, as well as OpenMP support since many parts of LSH are embarrassingly parallel. If time permits, he will implement more LSH strategies.

Yannis is a student from Thessaloniki who is currently finishing his Bachelor's thesis, also focused on LSH. He claims he talks too much and too loudly, and also doesn't remember what his hobbies are anymore since he has been in school too long. Hopefully this summer will leave a little free time so he can rediscover some fun activities.

You can find more information on each of the projects on the Summer of Code website.

Anyway, congratulations to Bang, Keon, Marcos, Mikhail, Nilay, and Yannis! The coding period will start next Monday (May 23rd).