Taxonomy of Neural Network Optimality

[nelsonde%avlab.dnet@wrdc.af.mil]

                  I N T E R O F F I C E   M E M O R A N D U M

                                        Date:     30-Jul-1991 08:25am EST
                                        From:     Dale E. Nelson
                                                  NELSONDE
                                        Dept:     AAAT-1
                                        Tel No:   57646

TO:  Remote Addressee                     ( _LABDDN::"CONNECTIONISTS at CS.CMU.EDU" )


Subject: Taxonomy of Neural Network Optimality

We are working on a taxonomy of parameters which may be used to determine if one 
network is better than another.  To this end the following list has been 
developed.  I would be interested in any comments or references to this kind of 
listing.

PERFORMANCE:

1.  Most accurate on training set.
2.  Most accurate on test set.
3.  Best at generalization.
4.  Performance independent of starting weights.
5.  Performance independent of training exemplar order.

TRAINING:

6.  Trains in fewest epochs.
7.  Trains in fewest Floating Point/Integer Operations.
8.  Trains in least clock time.
9.  Trains in fewest exemplars.
10. Uses least memory.

TOPOLOGY:

11. Has fewest layers.
12. Has fewest nodes.
13. Has fewest interconnects.
14. Distributed representation (fault tolerant)

I know that there is no explaination of what each of these mean, which means 
that they are open to some interpretation.  I would appreciate any comments 
about additions to this list.

Dale E. Nelson
nelsonde%avlab.dnet at wrdc.af.mil