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Active Learning

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Encyclopedia of Systems Biology
  • 187 Accesses

Synonyms

Experimental design; Learning by queries

Definition

Given a set of unlabeled training examples, an active learning algorithm is allowed to select a number of training examples (one by one or in batches) and to obtain their target value at a certain cost per example. Next, the learning algorithm should predict the target value of a number of unseen test examples, incurring a certain cost per mistake. The goal of the active learning algorithm is to minimize the total cost.

Characteristics

Obtaining target values of training examples may be expensive. For example, in experimental research requiring microarrays, bioassays, patients, clinical trials, mass-spectrography, crystallography, or other physical experiments in order to collect data, the amount of available resources limits the amount of experimental data which can be obtained.

In an active learning setting, the learning algorithm must take this economic reality into account. Every target value has a cost, and once a model...

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Correspondence to Jan Ramon .

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Ramon, J. (2013). Active Learning. In: Dubitzky, W., Wolkenhauer, O., Cho, KH., Yokota, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Systems Biology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-9863-7_605

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