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Poster

Neural Network Architecture Beyond Width and Depth

Shijun Zhang · Zuowei Shen · Haizhao Yang

Hall J (level 1) #825

Keywords: [ Neural Network Approximation ] [ Nested Architecture ] [ Function Composition ] [ Parameter Sharing ]


Abstract: This paper proposes a new neural network architecture by introducing an additional dimension called height beyond width and depth. Neural network architectures with height, width, and depth as hyper-parameters are called three-dimensional architectures. It is shown that neural networks with three-dimensional architectures are significantly more expressive than the ones with two-dimensional architectures (those with only width and depth as hyper-parameters), e.g., standard fully connected networks. The new network architecture is constructed recursively via a nested structure, and hence we call a network with the new architecture nested network (NestNet). A NestNet of height s is built with each hidden neuron activated by a NestNet of height s1. When s=1, a NestNet degenerates to a standard network with a two-dimensional architecture. It is proved by construction that height-s ReLU NestNets with O(n) parameters can approximate 1-Lipschitz continuous functions on [0,1]d with an error O(n(s+1)/d), while the optimal approximation error of standard ReLU networks with O(n) parameters is O(n2/d). Furthermore, such a result is extended to generic continuous functions on [0,1]d with the approximation error characterized by the modulus of continuity. Finally, we use numerical experimentation to show the advantages of the super-approximation power of ReLU NestNets.

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