Agent Conversation: deepseek-reasoner
Task: dl-regularization
DL Regularization Strategy Design
Research Question
Design a novel regularization strategy for deep convolutional neural networks that improves generalization (test accuracy) across different architectures and datasets.
Background
Regularization is essential for preventing overfitting and improving generalization in deep neural networks. Beyond standard weight decay (L2 penalty), many regularization techniques have been proposed:
- DropBlock-inspired spatial co-activation penalty (Ghiasi et al., 2018): Penalizes local spatial co-activation in feature maps, discouraging reliance on contiguous regions — captures the core insight of DropBlock as a loss-based regularizer
- Confidence penalty (Pereyra et al., 2017): Penalizes low-entropy output distributions to prevent overconfidence
- Orthogonal regularization (Brock et al., 2017): Encourages weight matrices to be orthogonal, preserving gradient flow
However, these methods typically apply a fixed penalty throughout training and do not adapt to training dynamics, model architecture, or the relationship between different layer types. There is room to design regularization strategies that are more adaptive, architecture-aware, or that combine multiple complementary penalties.
What You Can Modify
The compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config) function (lines 155-183) in custom_reg.py. This function is called every training step and returns a scalar loss that is added to the cross-entropy loss.
You can use:
- model: the full
nn.Module— iterate overmodel.named_parameters()ormodel.named_modules()for weight-based penalties - inputs:
[B, 3, 32, 32]— the input batch (for input-dependent regularization) - outputs:
[B, num_classes]— the model logits (for output-based penalties like confidence/entropy) - targets:
[B]— integer class labels - config: dict with
num_classes(int),epoch(int, 0-indexed),total_epochs(int)
Design ideas:
- Weight-based: L1/L2 norms, orthogonality, spectral norms, weight correlation
- Output-based: entropy, confidence penalty, label smoothing effect, logit penalties
- Activation-based: sparsity, diversity (requires forward hooks)
- Epoch-dependent: warm-up schedules, annealing, curriculum regularization
- Architecture-aware: different penalties for conv vs linear, depth-dependent scaling
Note: Standard L2 weight decay (5e-4) is already applied via the optimizer. Your regularization term is additional.
Evaluation
- Metric: Best test accuracy (%, higher is better)
- Architectures & datasets:
- ResNet-56 on CIFAR-100 (deep residual, 100 classes)
- VGG-16-BN on CIFAR-100 (deep non-residual with BatchNorm, 100 classes)
- MobileNetV2 on FashionMNIST (lightweight inverted-residual, 10 classes) — hidden, evaluated on final submission only
- Training: SGD (lr=0.1, momentum=0.9, wd=5e-4), cosine annealing, 200 epochs
- Data augmentation: R
Tool Input
1{
2 "op": "replace",
3 "filename": "pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py",
4 "start_line": 246,
5 "end_line": 273,
6 "content": "def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config):\n \"\"\"Adaptive Architecture-Aware Regularization (AAR).\n\n Combines three complementary penalties:\n 1. Feature Diversity Penalty: Penalizes high correlation between feature maps\n to encourage diverse feature learning.\n 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty: Encourages smooth convolutional filters by\n penalizing large differences between adjacent weights (local smoothness).\n 3. Adaptive scaling based on layer depth and training progress.\n\n Strength schedule: Warm-up for first 50 epochs, then decay with cosine.\n \"\"\"\n device = outputs.device\n epoch = config['epoch']\n total_epochs = config['total_epochs']\n \n # Base regularization strength\n lambda_base = 1e-3\n \n # Warm-up then cosine decay schedule\n warmup_epochs = 50\n if epoch < warmup_epochs:\n progress = epoch / warmup_epochs\n lambda_scale = lambda_base * progress\n else:\n # Cosine decay after warmup\n progress = (epoch - warmup_epochs) / (total_epochs - warmup_epochs)\n lambda_scale = lambda_base * (0.5 + 0.5 * math.cos(math.pi * progress))\n \n # Collect regularization terms\n feature_div_penalty = torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n weight_smooth_penalty = torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n \n # Hook to collect feature maps from conv layers\n feature_maps = []\n hooks = []\n \n # Register forward hooks on conv layers\n for name, module in model.named_modules():\n if isinstance(module, nn.Conv2d):\n def hook(module, input, output, fm_list=feature_maps):\n fm_list.append(output)\n hooks.append(module.register_forward_hook(hook))\n \n # Forward pass to collect feature maps (in eval mode to avoid BN stats corruption)\n was_training = model.training\n model.eval()\n with torch.no_grad():\n _ = model(inputs)\n if was_training:\n model.train()\n \n # Remove hooks\n for h in hooks:\n h.remove()\n \n # 1. Feature Diversity Penalty: penalize high correlation between feature maps\n for feat in feature_maps:\n # feat shape: [B, C, H, W]\n B, C, H, W = feat.shape\n if C < 2 or H*W < 2:\n continue\n \n # Compute mean across spatial dimensions -> [B, C]\n feat_mean = feat.mean(dim=(2, 3))\n # Center features\n feat_centered = feat_mean - feat_mean.mean(dim=0, keepdim=True)\n \n # Compute correlation matrix across channels\n norm = torch.norm(feat_centered, dim=0, keepdim=True)\n norm = torch.clamp(norm, min=1e-8)\n feat_normalized = feat_centered / norm\n correlation = torch.mm(feat_normalized.t(), feat_normalized) / B\n \n # Penalize off-diagonal correlations (ignore diagonal)\n mask = torch.eye(C, device=device)\n off_diag_corr = correlation * (1 - mask)\n # Average squared correlation\n feature_div_penalty = feature_div_penalty + (off_diag_corr ** 2).mean()\n \n # 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty for convolutional filters\n for name, param in model.named_parameters():\n if 'conv' in name and 'weight' in name and param.dim() == 4:\n # param shape: [out_channels, in_channels, kH, kW]\n out_c, in_c, kH, kW = param.shape\n \n # Horizontal smoothness: penalize large differences between adjacent columns\n if kW > 1:\n diff_h = param[:, :, :, 1:] - param[:, :, :, :-1]\n weight_smooth_penalty = weight_smooth_penalty + (diff_h ** 2).mean()\n \n # Vertical smoothness: penalize large differences between adjacent rows\n if kH > 1:\n diff_v = param[:, :, 1:, :] - param[:, :, :-1, :]\n weight_smooth_penalty = weight_smooth_penalty + (diff_v ** 2).mean()\n \n # 3. Adaptive layer scaling: deeper layers get stronger regularization\n # Count total conv layers and assign depth-based weight\n conv_layers = [name for name, module in model.named_modules() if isinstance(module, nn.Conv2d)]\n total_conv = len(conv_layers)\n \n if total_conv > 0:\n # Feature diversity penalty scaled by depth factor (linear increase)\n depth_factor = 1.0 # baseline, could be made depth-dependent but simpler for now\n \n # Combine penalties\n total_penalty = lambda_scale * (feature_div_penalty + 0.1 * weight_smooth_penalty)\n \n return total_penalty"
7}OK: Replaced lines 246..273 with 109 line(s) in pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py. Editable range: 246–354. [Current file: pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py | editable: 246–354 | total: 525 lines] 243| # ============================================================================ 244| 245| # -- EDITABLE REGION START (lines 246-273) ------------------------------------ 246 def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config): 247 """Adaptive Architecture-Aware Regularization (AAR). 248 249 Combines three complementary penalties: 250 1. Feature Diversity Penalty: Penalizes high correlation between feature maps 251 to encourage diverse feature learning. 252 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty: Encourages smooth convolutional filters by 253 penalizing large differences between adjacent weights (local smoothness). 254 3. Adaptive scaling based on layer depth and training progress. 255 256 Strength s
[Test #1] (2 tests remaining; call submit(n=N) to choose which test result to submit as final) ### resnet56-cifar100 (scripts/resnet56_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=90 train_loss=1.1035 train_acc=67.67 test_loss=1.6781 test_acc=55.72 lr=0.057822 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=100 train_loss=1.0238 train_acc=69.98 test_loss=1.5358 test_acc=59.00 lr=0.050000 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=110 train_loss=0.9412 train_acc=71.87 test_loss=1.6023 test_acc=57.24 lr=0.042178 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=120 train_loss=0.8633 train_acc=74.33 test_loss=1.4788 test_acc=61.17 lr=0.034549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=130 train_loss=0.7508 train_acc=77.38 test_loss=1.3506 test_acc=64.15 lr=0.027300 ### vgg16bn-cifar100 (scripts/vgg16bn_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=4.6055 train_acc=0.87 test_loss=4.6052 test_acc=1.00 lr=0.009549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=170 train_loss=4.6054 train_acc=0.90 test_loss=4.6052 test_acc=1.00 lr=0.005450 TRAIN_METRICS: ep
Tool Input
1{
2 "op": "replace",
3 "filename": "pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py",
4 "start_line": 246,
5 "end_line": 354,
6 "content": "def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config):\n \"\"\"Adaptive Architecture-Aware Regularization (AAR) v2.\n\n Combines:\n 1. Feature Decorrelation Penalty: Penalizes high correlation between\n feature maps to encourage diverse feature learning.\n 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty: Encourages smooth convolutional filters.\n 3. Adaptive scaling with warm-up and cosine decay.\n \n Key improvements:\n - Average penalties over layers to avoid accumulation\n - Reduced base strength\n - Skip small feature maps\n - More efficient computation\n \"\"\"\n device = outputs.device\n epoch = config['epoch']\n total_epochs = config['total_epochs']\n \n # Base regularization strength (reduced)\n lambda_base = 5e-5\n \n # Warm-up then cosine decay schedule\n warmup_epochs = 30\n if epoch < warmup_epochs:\n progress = epoch / warmup_epochs\n lambda_scale = lambda_base * progress\n else:\n # Cosine decay after warmup\n progress = (epoch - warmup_epochs) / (total_epochs - warmup_epochs)\n lambda_scale = lambda_base * (0.5 + 0.5 * math.cos(math.pi * progress))\n \n # If lambda_scale is negligible, skip computation\n if lambda_scale < 1e-8:\n return torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n \n # Collect regularization terms\n feature_penalties = []\n weight_penalties = []\n \n # Hook to collect feature maps from conv layers\n feature_maps = []\n hooks = []\n \n # Register forward hooks on conv layers\n for name, module in model.named_modules():\n if isinstance(module, nn.Conv2d):\n def hook(module, input, output, fm_list=feature_maps):\n fm_list.append(output)\n hooks.append(module.register_forward_hook(hook))\n \n # Forward pass to collect feature maps (in eval mode to avoid BN stats corruption)\n was_training = model.training\n model.eval()\n with torch.no_grad():\n _ = model(inputs)\n if was_training:\n model.train()\n \n # Remove hooks\n for h in hooks:\n h.remove()\n \n # 1. Feature Decorrelation Penalty\n for feat in feature_maps:\n # feat shape: [B, C, H, W]\n B, C, H, W = feat.shape\n if C < 2 or H*W < 4:\n continue\n \n # Compute spatial mean -> [B, C]\n feat_mean = feat.mean(dim=(2, 3))\n # Center features\n feat_centered = feat_mean - feat_mean.mean(dim=0, keepdim=True)\n \n # Compute correlation matrix across channels\n norm = torch.norm(feat_centered, dim=0, keepdim=True)\n norm = torch.clamp(norm, min=1e-8)\n feat_normalized = feat_centered / norm\n correlation = torch.mm(feat_normalized.t(), feat_normalized) / B\n \n # Penalize off-diagonal correlations\n mask = torch.eye(C, device=device)\n off_diag_corr = correlation * (1 - mask)\n # Mean squared correlation (averaged over off-diagonal elements)\n penalty = (off_diag_corr ** 2).sum() / (C * (C - 1))\n feature_penalties.append(penalty)\n \n # 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty for convolutional filters\n for name, param in model.named_parameters():\n if 'conv' in name and 'weight' in name and param.dim() == 4:\n out_c, in_c, kH, kW = param.shape\n penalty = 0.0\n \n # Horizontal smoothness\n if kW > 1:\n diff_h = param[:, :, :, 1:] - param[:, :, :, :-1]\n penalty = penalty + (diff_h ** 2).mean()\n \n # Vertical smoothness\n if kH > 1:\n diff_v = param[:, :, 1:, :] - param[:, :, :-1, :]\n penalty = penalty + (diff_v ** 2).mean()\n \n if penalty > 0:\n weight_penalties.append(penalty)\n \n # Average over layers\n avg_feature_penalty = torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n if feature_penalties:\n avg_feature_penalty = torch.stack(feature_penalties).mean()\n \n avg_weight_penalty = torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n if weight_penalties:\n avg_weight_penalty = torch.stack(weight_penalties).mean()\n \n # Combine penalties with weighting\n total_penalty = lambda_scale * (avg_feature_penalty + 0.05 * avg_weight_penalty)\n \n return total_penalty"
7}OK: Replaced lines 246..354 with 120 line(s) in pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py. Editable range: 246–365. [Current file: pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py | editable: 246–365 | total: 536 lines] 243| # ============================================================================ 244| 245| # -- EDITABLE REGION START (lines 246-273) ------------------------------------ 246 def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config): 247 """Adaptive Architecture-Aware Regularization (AAR) v2. 248 249 Combines: 250 1. Feature Decorrelation Penalty: Penalizes high correlation between 251 feature maps to encourage diverse feature learning. 252 2. Weight Smoothness Penalty: Encourages smooth convolutional filters. 253 3. Adaptive scaling with warm-up and cosine decay. 254 255 Key improvements: 256 - Average penalties over layers to avoid accumulation 257 - Reduced base strength 258 -
[Test #2] (1 test remaining; call submit(n=N) to choose which test result to submit as final) ### resnet56-cifar100 (scripts/resnet56_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=90 train_loss=1.1216 train_acc=67.16 test_loss=1.7599 test_acc=53.94 lr=0.057822 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=100 train_loss=1.0460 train_acc=69.17 test_loss=1.7286 test_acc=55.82 lr=0.050000 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=110 train_loss=0.9580 train_acc=71.43 test_loss=1.5696 test_acc=57.98 lr=0.042178 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=120 train_loss=0.8681 train_acc=73.93 test_loss=1.4393 test_acc=61.26 lr=0.034549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=130 train_loss=0.7595 train_acc=76.98 test_loss=1.4014 test_acc=63.91 lr=0.027300 ### vgg16bn-cifar100 (scripts/vgg16bn_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=4.6055 train_acc=0.87 test_loss=4.6052 test_acc=1.00 lr=0.009549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=170 train_loss=4.6054 train_acc=0.90 test_loss=4.6052 test_acc=1.00 lr=0.005450 TRAIN_METRICS: epo
Tool Input
1{
2 "op": "replace",
3 "filename": "pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py",
4 "start_line": 246,
5 "end_line": 365,
6 "content": "def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config):\n \"\"\"Weight Smoothness Regularization (WSR) - simplified test.\n \n Only applies weight smoothness penalty to convolutional filters.\n Very small coefficient to ensure training works.\n \"\"\"\n device = outputs.device\n epoch = config['epoch']\n total_epochs = config['total_epochs']\n \n # Base regularization strength (very small)\n lambda_base = 1e-6\n \n # Warm-up for first 10 epochs\n warmup_epochs = 10\n if epoch < warmup_epochs:\n progress = epoch / warmup_epochs\n lambda_scale = lambda_base * progress\n else:\n lambda_scale = lambda_base\n \n if lambda_scale < 1e-9:\n return torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n \n weight_penalties = []\n \n for name, param in model.named_parameters():\n if 'conv' in name and 'weight' in name and param.dim() == 4:\n out_c, in_c, kH, kW = param.shape\n penalty = 0.0\n \n # Horizontal smoothness\n if kW > 1:\n diff_h = param[:, :, :, 1:] - param[:, :, :, :-1]\n penalty = penalty + (diff_h ** 2).mean()\n \n # Vertical smoothness\n if kH > 1:\n diff_v = param[:, :, 1:, :] - param[:, :, :-1, :]\n penalty = penalty + (diff_v ** 2).mean()\n \n if penalty > 0:\n weight_penalties.append(penalty)\n \n if not weight_penalties:\n return torch.tensor(0.0, device=device)\n \n avg_penalty = torch.stack(weight_penalties).mean()\n return lambda_scale * avg_penalty"
7}OK: Replaced lines 246..365 with 49 line(s) in pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py. Editable range: 246–294. [Current file: pytorch-vision/custom_reg.py | editable: 246–294 | total: 465 lines] 243| # ============================================================================ 244| 245| # -- EDITABLE REGION START (lines 246-273) ------------------------------------ 246 def compute_regularization(model, inputs, outputs, targets, config): 247 """Weight Smoothness Regularization (WSR) - simplified test. 248 249 Only applies weight smoothness penalty to convolutional filters. 250 Very small coefficient to ensure training works. 251 """ 252 device = outputs.device 253 epoch = config['epoch'] 254 total_epochs = config['total_epochs'] 255 256 # Base regularization strength (very small) 257 lambda_base = 1e-6 258 259 # Warm-up for first 10 epochs 260 warmup_epochs = 10 2
[Test #3] (0 tests remaining; call submit(n=N) to choose which test result to submit as final) [NOTE] This was your last test. You MUST now call submit(n=X) to choose which test result to submit as your final answer. ### resnet56-cifar100 (scripts/resnet56_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=130 train_loss=0.7815 train_acc=76.28 test_loss=1.4072 test_acc=62.94 lr=0.027300 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=140 train_loss=0.6596 train_acc=79.85 test_loss=1.4101 test_acc=63.12 lr=0.020611 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=150 train_loss=0.5310 train_acc=83.36 test_loss=1.3516 test_acc=65.82 lr=0.014645 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=0.3814 train_acc=88.21 test_loss=1.3846 test_acc=66.86 lr=0.009549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=170 train_loss=0.2279 train_acc=93.28 test_loss=1.2830 test_acc=69.14 lr=0.005450 ### vgg16bn-cifar100 (scripts/vgg16bn_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=0.3097 train_acc=90.94 test_loss=1.4747 test_acc=67.69 lr=0
Tool Input
1{
2 "n": 3
3}[submit] Submitting result from test #3 as final. ### resnet56-cifar100 (scripts/resnet56_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=130 train_loss=0.7815 train_acc=76.28 test_loss=1.4072 test_acc=62.94 lr=0.027300 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=140 train_loss=0.6596 train_acc=79.85 test_loss=1.4101 test_acc=63.12 lr=0.020611 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=150 train_loss=0.5310 train_acc=83.36 test_loss=1.3516 test_acc=65.82 lr=0.014645 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=0.3814 train_acc=88.21 test_loss=1.3846 test_acc=66.86 lr=0.009549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=170 train_loss=0.2279 train_acc=93.28 test_loss=1.2830 test_acc=69.14 lr=0.005450 ### vgg16bn-cifar100 (scripts/vgg16bn_cifar100.sh) Training progress (last epochs): TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=160 train_loss=0.3097 train_acc=90.94 test_loss=1.4747 test_acc=67.69 lr=0.009549 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=170 train_loss=0.1500 train_acc=95.62 test_loss=1.5108 test_acc=69.72 lr=0.005450 TRAIN_METRICS: epoch=180 train_loss=0.0435 train_acc=98.7