Acceleration techniques for optimization over trained neural network ensembles
Keliang Wang, Leonardo Lozano, Carlos Cardonha, David Bergman
We study optimization problems where the objective function is modeled
through feedforward neural networks with rectified linear unit (ReLU)
activation. Recent literature has explored the use of a single neural network
to model either uncertain or complex elements within an objective function.
However, it is well known that ensembles of neural networks produce more stable
predictions and have better generalizability than models with single neural
networks, which suggests the application of ensembles of neural networks in a
decision-making pipeline. We study how to incorporate a neural network ensemble
as the objective function of an optimization model and explore computational
approaches for the ensuing problem. We present a mixed-integer linear program
based on existing popular big-$M$ formulations for optimizing over a single
neural network. We develop two acceleration techniques for our model, the first
one is a preprocessing procedure to tighten bounds for critical neurons in the
neural network while the second one is a set of valid inequalities based on
Benders decomposition. Experimental evaluations of our solution methods are
conducted on one global optimization problem and two real-world data sets; the
results suggest that our optimization algorithm outperforms the adaption of an
state-of-the-art approach in terms of computational time and optimality gaps.