Boosting Active Learning to Optimality: A Tractable Monte-Carlo, Billiard-Based Algorithm

Abstract. This paper focuses on Active Learning with a limited number of queries; in application domains such as Numerical Engineering, the size of the training set might be limited to a few dozen or hundred examples due to computational constraints. Active Learning under bounded resources is formalized as a finite horizon Reinforcement Learning problem, where the sampling strategy aims at minimizing the expectation of the generalization error. A tractable approximation of the optimal (intractable) policy is presented, the Bandit-based Active Learner (BAAL) algorithm. Viewing Active Learning as a single-player game, BAAL combines UCT, the tree structured multi-armed bandit algorithm proposed by Kocsis and Szepesv´ari (2006), and billiard algorithms. A proof of principle of the approach demonstrates its good empirical convergence toward an optimal policy and its ability to incorporate prior AL criteria. Its hybridization with the Query-by-Committee approach is found to improve on both...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: PKDD
• Authors: Philippe Rolet, Michèle Sebag, Olivier Teytaud
• Keywords: Active Learning, Bandit-based Active Learner, PKDD 2009, Reinforcement Learning Problem