1. ECE 539 Final Project Mark Slosarek
Optimal Brain Surgeon
ECE 539 Final Project
Mark Slosarek

2. Background
Optimal Brain Surgeon Algorithm (OBS) is a pruning algorithm
Reduces weights to reduce overall complexity of network

3. Benefits A pruned network has several benefits
Quicker Calculations
Less Storage Space required
A pruned network should not have significantly more error than an non-pruned network

4. Steps to Perform OBS Train the given MLP to minimize mean-square error
Calculate the cost of the equation
Compute the inverse Hessian
Find the smallest Saliency
If Saliency is much smaller than mean-square, delete that weight and repeat for next weight, other go to next step
Update all weights

5. Tests Performed and Results
To test the effectiveness of the OSB, I used the wine data from the homework
The pruned network contained approximately 60% fewer weights
Results from both networks, however results of pruning were very inconclusive
The results were not very consistant

6. Conclusion A pruned network can save much space and time
My algorithm is not perfect, and could be recoded to be more efficient
Results not noticeable in simple networks, but in real world problems, could be results could be great