Annan Yu

Main Collaborators: N. Benjamin Erichson, Michael W. Mahoney, Dmitriy Morozov, Arnur Nigmetov, Alex Townsend

Description: Linear time-invariant (LTI) dynamical systems are crucial for understanding complex physical phenomena. They are extensively studied across fields such as electrical engineering, control theory, and numerical analysis. Often, LTI systems derived from complex applications are unnecessarily large. To utilize LTI systems more efficiently, we can reduce their size without significantly altering their behavior. This process is known as reduced-order modeling (ROM). Together with Prof. Alex Townsend, we have designed and analyzed both algebraic and data-driven ROM algorithms for LTI systems.

Meanwhile, recent advances in machine learning have highlighted the impressive capability of LTI systems to capture long-range dependencies in sequential data. This has led to the development of state-space models (SSMs) that outperform traditional recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and transformers on long-range sequential problems, finding applications in fields such as natural language processing and climate forecasting. Together with Dr. Arnur Nigmetov, Dr. Dmitriy Morozov, Prof. Michael Mahoney, and Dr. Benjamin Erichson, we have analyzed LTI systems within an SSM in the frequency domain and designed a robust initialization scheme by "approximately diagonalizing" the state matrix.

Relevant Publications:

• Annan Yu, Arnur Nigmetov, Dmitriy Morozov, Michael W. Mahoney, N. Benjamin Erichson, Robustifying state-space models for long sequences via approximate diagonalization, International Conference on Learning Representations (spotlight), 2024. (link)
• Annan Yu, Alex Townsend, Leveraging the Hankel norm approximation and data-driven algorithms in reduced order modeling, arXiv:2304.03813. (Accepted by Numerical Linear Algebra with Applications.) (link)

Main Collaborators: Chloe Becquey, N. Benjamin Erichson, Diana Halikias, Michael W. Mahoney, Matthew Esmaili Mallory, Dmitriy Morozov, Arnur Nigmetov, Alex Townsend, Yunan Yang

Description: Neural networks are powerful and empirically successful machine learning models. However, the complexity of their structures and training processes has left us with limited theoretical understanding, despite their practical success. This has sparked a strong interest in developing a deeper theoretical foundation for deep learning. My research has focused on the following areas:

• Expressiveness: The Universal Approximation Theorems (UATs) assert that neural networks can approximate any smooth ground truth to an arbitrary degree of accuracy by increasing the network's width or depth. While not directly addressing neural network training, these theorems validate that the models are reasonable. We proved a version of UAT, showing that continuous operators can be approximated by deep and narrow networks, in collaboration with Chloe Becquey, Diana Halikias, Matthew Esmaili Mallory, and Prof. Alex Townsend.
• Initialization: Proper initialization is critical for training neural networks with gradient-based optimization algorithms, especially in state-space models for long sequences. Previous initialization schemes, based on projecting input sequences onto the Legendre basis, have shown instability. In recent work with Dr. Arnur Nigmetov, Dr. Dmitriy Morozov, Prof. Michael Mahoney, and Dr. Benjamin Erichson, we proved the instability of a popular initialization scheme and proposed a stable alternative based on pseudospectral theory.
• Training: Analyzing neural network training is challenging due to complex structures and optimization algorithms. Neural Tangent Kernels (NTKs) offer a partial solution by assuming "infinite width" networks. Together with Prof. Yunan Yang and Prof. Alex Townsend, we investigated the training of a simple two-layer neural network, uncovering the frequency bias phenomenon—where low-frequency content is learned before high-frequency content. We proposed a new class of loss functions that can enhance, diminish, counteract, or even reverse this bias.

Relevant Publications:

• Annan Yu, Arnur Nigmetov, Dmitriy Morozov, Michael W. Mahoney, N. Benjamin Erichson, Robustifying state-space models for long sequences via approximate diagonalization, International Conference on Learning Representations (spotlight), 2024. (link)
• Annan Yu, Yunan Yang, Alex Townsend, Tuning frequency bias in neural network training with nonuniform data, International Conference on Learning Representations (poster), 2023. (link)
• Annan Yu, Chloe Becquey, Diana Halikias, Matthew E. Mallory, Alex Townsend, Arbitrary-depth universal approximation theorems for operator neural networks, arXiv:2109.11354. (link)

Main Collaborators: Alex Townsend, Yunan Yang

Description: In computing with periodic functions on the unit hypersphere, uniformly spaced samples are preferred. For instance, the discrete Fourier transform and its inverse are perfectly conditioned at evenly spaced grid points. However, challenges arise with nonuniform samples. In collaboration with Prof. Alex Townsend, we analyzed the stability and accuracy of interpolation and quadrature rules when samples deviate from evenly spaced points on the unit circle. With Prof. Yunan Yang and Prof. Alex Townsend, we extended the theoretical understanding of frequency bias in neural network training to nonuniform datasets, demonstrating that low-frequency content is typically learned before high-frequency content. Our findings build on previous work on uniform training datasets by applying a quadrature rule at the nonuniform locations of the training data, offering new insights into training with nonuniform datasets.

Relevant Publications:

• Annan Yu, Alex Townsend, On the stability of unevenly spaced samples for interpolation and quadrature, BIT Numerical Mathematics, vol 63(23), 2023. (link)
• Annan Yu, Yunan Yang, Alex Townsend, Tuning frequency bias in neural network training with nonuniform data, International Conference on Learning Representations (poster), 2023. (link)