wekaminimize

Weka can I train a model to minimize or maximize an input value?


Is it possible in Weka to train a model minimizing a cost factor? I have a data set containing a cost factor in each sample. It defines what using this sample would cost. Now, I would like to select as much of the samples as possible while minimizing this cost factor. E.g. with Multilayer perceptron, I want to train the neurons in a way, that it chooses as many samples as possible while minimizing the sum of the cost factor.

I've checked all the model options and also searched the package manager for something like that, but I was unable to find anything. Could someone tell me whether this can be done using Weka?


Solution

  • What you are describing sounds more like an optimization problem rather than a classification or regression problem (for which you would use a Weka classifier).

    Weka does have some limited support for optimization through its abstract weka.core.Optimization class (e.g., used internally by weka.classifiers.functions.Logistic). But that requires implementing some methods.

    To cast your net wider, you might want to take a look at the following article that describes various optimization techniques:

    https://machinelearningmastery.com/tour-of-optimization-algorithms/