SMU Guildhall Graduate Catalog Spring 2019 — Cohort 27 | Page 100

Hongjin Yu Software Development « Convolutional Kernel Optimization for Deep Neural Networks using Constructivist Augmented Machine Learning (CAML) Methodology Deep neural networks have beaten I was always interested in how neural Go and more recently Starcraft II. Despite approach the subject because it seemed humans at image recognition in the game these achievements, the inner workings of these networks have remained a black box. The first half of my thesis focused on understanding the hidden layers through visualization. I gave the network different stimuli and observed how different regions in the network reacted. In the second half of my thesis, I used the patterns found in the visualizations, combined with human knowledge and intuition, to manually adjust the networks to improve them. My results showed that humans could predict where networks converged. With further research, this could greatly reduce the amount of time and data needed for training networks. 100 SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT networks worked but never dared daunting. This project gave me the perfect opportunity to challenge and force myself to study something that I’ve really wanted to learn. When I actually dug into the project, I found out that it really was not that complicated. Fear was the only thing that made it seem impossible. After completing this project, I now have the confidence to take on more challenging problems in the future.