HPOptim is a Lua module that allows the user to interface with the Bayesian Optimization software package known as Spearmint via the Torch shell or within a Torch script. Before getting started, make sure that you have Spearmint setup properly as well as Torch. The goal of this project is to provide a convenient way for Torch users to perform hyper-parameter optimization using only Lua and the Torch framework.

STEP 1: Spearmint Location & Clone HPOptim

1. By default, HPOptim assumes the Spearmint folder exists at location $HOME/Desktop/Spearmint. You can change this location in HPOptim.lua in the HPOptim.findHP() function.
2. git clone https://github.com/mechaman/HPOptim

STEP 2: Create model.lua & config.json

1. The HPOptim folder & model.py script must always exist in the same directory as config.json and model.lua.

2. The config.json file is a list of the different hyper-parameters along with properties such as the type or range of values to try for each hyper-parameter.

3. The model.lua file must contain a function named trainHyper that takes a table as input and returns an error. The table is made up of key-value pairs where the keys are the names of the parameters you defined in config.json and the values are the suggested hyper-parameter values from Spearmint. Access these suggested values in model.lua to completely define your objective function or model. Samples of these files can be found in the sample directory.

4. After both these files are completed move into the HPOptim directory and run setup.sh.

5. Important: I have made it such that the input type for each parameter can only be FLOAT. In order for Spearmint to be most effective, it is suggested that the user project their input range to log-space. When a hyper-parameter value has been suggested to model.lua, simply use: math.pow(10,hp_value) to map it back to its proper value. The following paper provides more information on this technique:

    Input Warping for Bayesian Optimization of Non-stationary Functions  
    Jasper Snoek, Kevin Swersky, Richard Zemel and Ryan Prescott Adams  
    International Conference on Machine Learning, 2014 
   

6. To use all of Spearmints different options such as taking advantage of clusters, you can go into findhp.sh and change the Spearmint call with the desired parameters.

Place your Lua script in the same directory as the HPOptim directory and add the following lines:

local HPOptim = require('/HPOptim/HPOptim.lua')
HPOptim.init()
HPOptim.findHP(60)

To access the hyper-parameters found by Spearmint in the rest of the code use HPOptim.params['key'] where 'key' is the name of the hyper-parameter.

Sample Usage

To test a working example, move the contents in the sample directory into the same directory as HPOptim and model.py. You should have added the config file, model.lua containing trainHyper(...), the sample.lua script that uses the HPOptim module and finally a folder with data. Both config.json and model.lua can be used as templates for future reference. By running sample.lua, you should see results.

This particular sample optimizes a neural network for both the number of hidden layers and well as the number of hidden units in each layer. I will add a simpler example soon.

Data Members

• HPOptim.params['key']

  Returns the current optimal value for the hyper-parameter you defined in config.json. Replace 'key' with the name of the hyper-parameter you want the value for. For example, HPOptim.params['learningRate'] returns the optimal learningRate.

Functions

• HPOptim.init()

  Initializes HPOptim module.

• HPOptim.clean()

  Wipes all information from previous experiments including the state of previous Spearmint runs.

• HPOptim.findHP(seconds)

  Runs Spearmint for the number of seconds that you specify.