Dataset

This dataset was created by satya

Contents

It contains the following files:

Abstract

In the last years, neural networks have evolved from laboratory environments to the state-of-the-art for many real-world problems. Our hypothesis is that neural network models (i.e., their weights and biases) evolve on unique, smooth trajectories in weight space during training. Following, a population of such neural network models (refereed to as “model zoo”) would form topological structures in weight space. We think that the geometry, curvature and smoothness of these structures contain information about the state of training and can be reveal latent properties of individual models. With such zoos, one could investigate novel approaches for (i) model analysis, (ii) discover unknown learning dynamics, (iii) learn rich representations of such populations, or (iv) exploit the model zoos for generative modelling of neural network weights and biases. Unfortunately, the lack of standardized model zoos and available benchmarks significantly increases the friction for further research about populations of neural networks. With this work, we publish a novel dataset of model zoos containing systematically generated and diverse populations of neural network models for further research. In total the proposed model zoo dataset is based on six image datasets, consist of 24 model zoos with varying hyperparameter combinations are generated and includes 47’360 unique neural network models resulting in over 2’415’360 collected model states. Additionally, to the model zoo data we provide an in-depth analysis of the zoos and provide benchmarks for multiple downstream tasks as mentioned before.

Dataset

This dataset is part of a larger collection of model zoos and contains the zoos trained on the labelled samples from MNIST. All zoos with extensive information and code can be found at www.modelzoos.cc.

This repository contains two types of files: the raw model zoos as collections of models (file names beginning with "mnist_"), as well as preprocessed model zoos wrapped in a custom pytorch dataset class (filenames beginning with "dataset"). Zoos are trained in three configurations varying the seed only (seed), varying hyperparameters with fixed seeds (hyp_fix) or varying hyperparameters with random seeds (hyp_rand). The index_dict.json files contain information on how to read the vectorized models.

For more information on the zoos and code to access and use the zoos, please see www.modelzoos.cc.

The MNIST database (Modified National Institute of Standards and Technology database) is a large collection of handwritten digits. It has a training set of 60,000 examples, and a test set of 10,000 examples. It is a subset of a larger NIST Special Database 3 (digits written by employees of the United States Census Bureau) and Special Database 1 (digits written by high school students) which contain monochrome images of handwritten digits. The digits have been size-normalized and centered in a fixed-size image. The original black and white (bilevel) images from NIST were size normalized to fit in a 20x20 pixel box while preserving their aspect ratio. The resulting images contain grey levels as a result of the anti-aliasing technique used by the normalization algorithm. the images were centered in a 28x28 image by computing the center of mass of the pixels, and translating the image so as to position this point at the center of the 28x28 field.

The not-MNIST dataset is a dataset of handwritten digits. It is a challenging dataset that can be used for machine learning and artificial intelligence research. The dataset consists of 100,000 images of handwritten digits. The images are divided into a training set of 60,000 images and a test set of 40,000 images. The images are drawn from a variety of fonts and styles, making them more challenging than the MNIST dataset. The images are 28x28 pixels in size and are grayscale. The dataset is available under the Creative Commons Zero Public Domain Dedication license.

Dataset Card for MNIST

  Dataset Summary

The MNIST dataset consists of 70,000 28x28 black-and-white images of handwritten digits extracted from two NIST databases. There are 60,000 images in the training dataset and 10,000 images in the validation dataset, one class per digit so a total of 10 classes, with 7,000 images (6,000 train images and 1,000 test images) per class. Half of the image were drawn by Census Bureau employees and the other half by high school… See the full description on the dataset page: https://huggingface.co/datasets/ylecun/mnist.