Papers for

machine learning model builders

Papers whose findings have a practical use for this group, as judged from the abstract. Open a paper to read what it means in practice.

Topology optimization automatically tunes design hyperparameters during optimization

Bilevel Optimization of Topology and Hyperparameters (BOTH)

Abstract: Topology optimization (TO) represents a significant step towards automating the design process: given a working simulation, TO can produce a viable prototype at the press of a button by differentiating the simulation and iteratively improving the design. In practice, however, TO is riddled with ``magic numbers''---hyperparameters whose tuning significantly affects the outcome. Finding the right values typically requires not only deep problem-specific knowledge but also extensive trial-and-error. While practitioners can use surrogate-assisted hyperparameter optimization as an alternative, this approach requires strictly limiting the number of hyperparameters through careful problem formulation. Here, we propose differentiating TO itself using automatic differentiation. This yields ``hypergradients'' that allow us to tune these hyperparameters in tandem with the primary optimization. We show that evaluating just one or two steps of TO is sufficiently informative and that the method scales favorably to thousands of hyperparameters at an expense comparable to only a few standard TO runs. We demonstrate this approach on stress-constrained and compliance problems, with the latter utilizing a neural parameterization of the density field.

Fri 18 SeptMachine Learning
The gist
Designing objects often involves picking settings called hyperparameters, which are usually hard to choose and need lots of trial and error. The authors show how to automatically adjust these settings while designing, by calculating how small changes affect the design quality. This approach uses information from just a few optimization steps and can handle many hyperparameters efficiently. It helps create better designs by tuning settings alongside the main design process without extra guesswork.
Open → 2609.21758v1