k-Separability Presentation

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Presentation Slides - 20th ICANN (2010)

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An Efficient Collaborative Recommender Systembased on k -separability

Georgios Alexandridis Georgios Siolas Andreas Stafylopatis

Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringNational Technical University of Athens

20th International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks(ICANN 2010)

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 1 / 16

Outline

1 Current Trends in Recommender SystemsRecommender SystemsDesign Issues

2 Theoretical & Practical Aspects of our Contributionk-SeparabilitySystem Architecture

3 Evaluating our SystemExperimentResultsConclusions

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 2 / 16

What are the Recommender Systems?

Recommender Systems attempt to present information items (e.g.movies, music, books, news stories) that are likely to be of interestto the user.

Some implementations

I AmazonF "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought"

I Google NewsF "Recommended Stories"

I Online Audio BroadcastersF last.fmF Pandora

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 3 / 16

What are the Recommender Systems?

Recommender Systems attempt to present information items (e.g.movies, music, books, news stories) that are likely to be of interestto the user.Some implementations

I AmazonF "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought"

I Google NewsF "Recommended Stories"

I Online Audio BroadcastersF last.fmF Pandora

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 3 / 16

Taxonomy of Recommender Systems

Criterion: How are the predictions made?I Content-Based Recommenders

F Locate "similar" itemsI Collaborative Recommenders

F Find "like-minded" usersI Hybrid Recommenders

F Combination of the two

Which method is the best?

I Open academic subjectI Highly dependent on the application domainI We followed the Collaborative Recommender approach

F Computationally simpler than the Hybrid approachF A user rating is more than a mere number; it is an aggregation of

various characteristics

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 4 / 16

Taxonomy of Recommender Systems

Criterion: How are the predictions made?I Content-Based Recommenders

F Locate "similar" itemsI Collaborative Recommenders

F Find "like-minded" usersI Hybrid Recommenders

F Combination of the two

Which method is the best?I Open academic subjectI Highly dependent on the application domainI We followed the Collaborative Recommender approach

F Computationally simpler than the Hybrid approachF A user rating is more than a mere number; it is an aggregation of

various characteristics

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 4 / 16

Collaborative Recommender Systems

Key Component: The User Ratings’ Matrix

Ratings

I Indicate how much a user likes an item

F "like" \"dislike"F 1-star up to 5-stars

I1 I2 I3 I4U1 5 3 2U2 3 5 2U3 1 2U4 2 3

Users become each other’s predictor

I By locating positive and negative correlations among them.

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 5 / 16

Collaborative Recommender Systems

Key Component: The User Ratings’ MatrixRatings

I Indicate how much a user likes an itemF "like" \"dislike"F 1-star up to 5-stars

I1 I2 I3 I4U1 5 3 2U2 3 5 2U3 1 2U4 2 3

Users become each other’s predictor

I By locating positive and negative correlations among them.

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 5 / 16

Collaborative Recommender Systems

Key Component: The User Ratings’ MatrixRatings

I Indicate how much a user likes an itemF "like" \"dislike"F 1-star up to 5-stars

I1 I2 I3 I4U1 5 3 2U2 3 5 2U3 1 2U4 2 3

Users become each other’s predictor

I By locating positive and negative correlations among them.

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 5 / 16

Collaborative Recommender Systems

Key Component: The User Ratings’ MatrixRatings

I Indicate how much a user likes an itemF "like" \"dislike"F 1-star up to 5-stars

I1 I2 I3 I4U1 5 3 2U2 3 5 2U3 1 2U4 2 3

Users become each other’s predictorI By locating positive and negative correlations among them.

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 5 / 16

Challanges in Collaborative Recommender SystemDesign

1 The cold-start problem

I Recommendations cannot be made unless a user has providedsome ratings

I Solutions:

F Recommend the most popular itemsF Explicity ask the user to rate some items prior to making

recommendations

2 The sparsity problem

I The ratings matrix is sparse

F Empty elements: More than 90%

I Solution: Dimensionality Reduction techniques

F Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) yields good results

I Pros: The resultant matrix is substantially smaller & densierI Cons: The dataset becomes very "noisy"

F Most elements assume values that are marginally larger than zero

I Conclusion: We are in need of techniques that can "learn" noisydatasets!

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 6 / 16

Challanges in Collaborative Recommender SystemDesign

1 The cold-start problemI Recommendations cannot be made unless a user has provided

some ratingsI Solutions:

F Recommend the most popular itemsF Explicity ask the user to rate some items prior to making

recommendations2 The sparsity problem

I The ratings matrix is sparse

F Empty elements: More than 90%

I Solution: Dimensionality Reduction techniques

F Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) yields good results

I Pros: The resultant matrix is substantially smaller & densierI Cons: The dataset becomes very "noisy"

F Most elements assume values that are marginally larger than zero

I Conclusion: We are in need of techniques that can "learn" noisydatasets!

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 6 / 16

Challanges in Collaborative Recommender SystemDesign

1 The cold-start problemI Recommendations cannot be made unless a user has provided

some ratingsI Solutions:

F Recommend the most popular itemsF Explicity ask the user to rate some items prior to making

recommendations2 The sparsity problem

I The ratings matrix is sparseF Empty elements: More than 90%

I Solution: Dimensionality Reduction techniquesF Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) yields good results

I Pros: The resultant matrix is substantially smaller & densierI Cons: The dataset becomes very "noisy"

F Most elements assume values that are marginally larger than zeroI Conclusion: We are in need of techniques that can "learn" noisy

datasets!

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 6 / 16

"Noisy" Datasets

The added noise in the dataset hinders the discovery of patternsin data

I Data clusters become difficult to separate

Machine Learning techniques for highly non-separable datasets

I Support Vector Machines, Radial Basis Functions

F Computing the support vector (or estimating the surface . . . ) can be acomputationally intensive task

I Evolutionary Algorithms

F Meaningful Recommendations are not always guaranteed(evolutionary dead-ends)

I Our approach: Use k -separability!

F Originally proposed by W. Duch1

F Special case of the more general method of Projection PursuitF Application to Feed-Forward ANNsF Extends linear separability of data clusters into k > 2 segments on

the discriminating hyperplane

1W. Duch, K-separability. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4131 (2006) 188-197

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 7 / 16

"Noisy" Datasets

The added noise in the dataset hinders the discovery of patternsin data

I Data clusters become difficult to separateMachine Learning techniques for highly non-separable datasets

I Support Vector Machines, Radial Basis Functions

F Computing the support vector (or estimating the surface . . . ) can be acomputationally intensive task

I Evolutionary Algorithms

F Meaningful Recommendations are not always guaranteed(evolutionary dead-ends)

I Our approach: Use k -separability!

F Originally proposed by W. Duch1

F Special case of the more general method of Projection PursuitF Application to Feed-Forward ANNsF Extends linear separability of data clusters into k > 2 segments on

the discriminating hyperplane

1W. Duch, K-separability. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4131 (2006) 188-197

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 7 / 16

"Noisy" Datasets

The added noise in the dataset hinders the discovery of patternsin data

I Data clusters become difficult to separateMachine Learning techniques for highly non-separable datasets

I Support Vector Machines, Radial Basis FunctionsF Computing the support vector (or estimating the surface . . . ) can be a

computationally intensive taskI Evolutionary Algorithms

F Meaningful Recommendations are not always guaranteed(evolutionary dead-ends)

I Our approach: Use k -separability!

F Originally proposed by W. Duch1

F Special case of the more general method of Projection PursuitF Application to Feed-Forward ANNsF Extends linear separability of data clusters into k > 2 segments on

the discriminating hyperplane

1W. Duch, K-separability. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4131 (2006) 188-197

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 7 / 16

"Noisy" Datasets

The added noise in the dataset hinders the discovery of patternsin data

I Data clusters become difficult to separateMachine Learning techniques for highly non-separable datasets

I Support Vector Machines, Radial Basis FunctionsF Computing the support vector (or estimating the surface . . . ) can be a

computationally intensive taskI Evolutionary Algorithms

F Meaningful Recommendations are not always guaranteed(evolutionary dead-ends)

I Our approach: Use k -separability!F Originally proposed by W. Duch1

F Special case of the more general method of Projection PursuitF Application to Feed-Forward ANNsF Extends linear separability of data clusters into k > 2 segments on

the discriminating hyperplane

1W. Duch, K-separability. Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4131 (2006) 188-197

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 7 / 16

Extending linear separability to 3-separabilityThe 2-bit XOR problem

A highly non-separable datasetIt can be learned by a 2-layered perceptron, or ......by a single layer percpetron that implements k -separability!

The activation function must partition the input space into 3distinct areas

I Soft-Windowed Activation Functions

−0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2−0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

(a) Input Space Partitioning

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 40

0.2

0.4

0.6

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(b) Soft-Windowed ActivationFunction

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 8 / 16

Extending linear separability to 3-separabilityThe 2-bit XOR problem

A highly non-separable datasetIt can be learned by a 2-layered perceptron, or ......by a single layer percpetron that implements k -separability!The activation function must partition the input space into 3distinct areas

I Soft-Windowed Activation Functions

−0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2−0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

(a) Input Space Partitioning

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 40

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

(b) Soft-Windowed ActivationFunction

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 8 / 16

Extending linear separability to 3-separabilityThe 2-bit XOR problem

A highly non-separable datasetIt can be learned by a 2-layered perceptron, or ......by a single layer percpetron that implements k -separability!The activation function must partition the input space into 3distinct areas

I Soft-Windowed Activation Functions

−0.2 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2−0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

(a) Input Space Partitioning

−2 −1 0 1 2 3 40

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

(b) Soft-Windowed ActivationFunction

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 8 / 16

Generalizing to k -separability

Complex DatasetsI Combine the output of two neurons (or more . . . )

I e.g. A 5-separable dataset can be learned by the combined outputof 2 neurons

Generalization by Induction

I m-neuron output ⇒ 2m + 1 regions on the discriminating line⇒ k = 2m + 1-separable dataset

Use in a Recommendation Engine

I Create a 2-layered perceptron

F n-sized input vector, m-sized hidden layer, single output layerF Overall, an n → m → 1 projection

I Build a model (NN) for each user

F Input: The ratings of the n "neighbors" of the target user on an itemhe hasn’t evaluated

F Output: A "score" for the unseen item

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 9 / 16

Generalizing to k -separability

Complex DatasetsI Combine the output of two neurons (or more . . . )

I e.g. A 5-separable dataset can be learned by the combined outputof 2 neurons

Generalization by InductionI m-neuron output ⇒ 2m + 1 regions on the discriminating line

⇒ k = 2m + 1-separable dataset

Use in a Recommendation Engine

I Create a 2-layered perceptronF n-sized input vector, m-sized hidden layer, single output layerF Overall, an n → m → 1 projection

I Build a model (NN) for each user

F Input: The ratings of the n "neighbors" of the target user on an itemhe hasn’t evaluated

F Output: A "score" for the unseen item

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 9 / 16

Generalizing to k -separability

Complex DatasetsI Combine the output of two neurons (or more . . . )

I e.g. A 5-separable dataset can be learned by the combined outputof 2 neurons

Generalization by InductionI m-neuron output ⇒ 2m + 1 regions on the discriminating line

⇒ k = 2m + 1-separable datasetUse in a Recommendation Engine

I Create a 2-layered perceptronF n-sized input vector, m-sized hidden layer, single output layerF Overall, an n → m → 1 projection

I Build a model (NN) for each userF Input: The ratings of the n "neighbors" of the target user on an item

he hasn’t evaluatedF Output: A "score" for the unseen item

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 9 / 16

Implementation Details

The index of separability (k ) is not known a-prioriI Setting k to a fixed value is of little helpI It can lead to either overspecialization or to large training errors

Therefore, k is a problem parameter: it has to be estimatedDynamic Network ArchitectureSparse user ratings’ matrix ⇒ small overall network size ⇒Constructive Network AlgorithmOur constructive network algorithm was derived from the NewConstructive Algorithm2

2Islam MM et al. A new constructive algorithm for architectural and functional adaptation of artificial neural

networks.

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 2009 Dec;39(6):1590-605

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 10 / 16

Implementation Details

The index of separability (k ) is not known a-prioriI Setting k to a fixed value is of little helpI It can lead to either overspecialization or to large training errors

Therefore, k is a problem parameter: it has to be estimated

Dynamic Network ArchitectureSparse user ratings’ matrix ⇒ small overall network size ⇒Constructive Network AlgorithmOur constructive network algorithm was derived from the NewConstructive Algorithm2

2Islam MM et al. A new constructive algorithm for architectural and functional adaptation of artificial neural

networks.

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 2009 Dec;39(6):1590-605

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 10 / 16

Implementation Details

The index of separability (k ) is not known a-prioriI Setting k to a fixed value is of little helpI It can lead to either overspecialization or to large training errors

Therefore, k is a problem parameter: it has to be estimatedDynamic Network Architecture

Sparse user ratings’ matrix ⇒ small overall network size ⇒Constructive Network AlgorithmOur constructive network algorithm was derived from the NewConstructive Algorithm2

2Islam MM et al. A new constructive algorithm for architectural and functional adaptation of artificial neural

networks.

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 2009 Dec;39(6):1590-605

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 10 / 16

Implementation Details

The index of separability (k ) is not known a-prioriI Setting k to a fixed value is of little helpI It can lead to either overspecialization or to large training errors

Therefore, k is a problem parameter: it has to be estimatedDynamic Network ArchitectureSparse user ratings’ matrix ⇒ small overall network size ⇒Constructive Network Algorithm

Our constructive network algorithm was derived from the NewConstructive Algorithm2

2Islam MM et al. A new constructive algorithm for architectural and functional adaptation of artificial neural

networks.

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 2009 Dec;39(6):1590-605

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 10 / 16

Implementation Details

The index of separability (k ) is not known a-prioriI Setting k to a fixed value is of little helpI It can lead to either overspecialization or to large training errors

Therefore, k is a problem parameter: it has to be estimatedDynamic Network ArchitectureSparse user ratings’ matrix ⇒ small overall network size ⇒Constructive Network AlgorithmOur constructive network algorithm was derived from the NewConstructive Algorithm2

2Islam MM et al. A new constructive algorithm for architectural and functional adaptation of artificial neural

networks.

IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern B Cybern. 2009 Dec;39(6):1590-605

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 10 / 16

Constructive Network Algorithm

1 Create a minimal architecture2 Train the network in two phases on the whole Training Set3 Iteratively add neurons in the hidden layer

I Create new Training Sets based on the Classification Error(Boosting Algorithm)

I Only the newly added neuron’s weights are adapted; all otherremain "frozen"

4 Stop network construction when the Classification Error stabilizes

Boosting AlgorithmInspired from AdaBoost and used in Network Training as a way ofavoiding local minimaFunctionality

I Unlearned samples ⇒ New neurons in the hidden layer ⇒ Newclusters discovered

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 11 / 16

Constructive Network Algorithm

1 Create a minimal architecture2 Train the network in two phases on the whole Training Set3 Iteratively add neurons in the hidden layer

I Create new Training Sets based on the Classification Error(Boosting Algorithm)

I Only the newly added neuron’s weights are adapted; all otherremain "frozen"

4 Stop network construction when the Classification Error stabilizes

Boosting AlgorithmInspired from AdaBoost and used in Network Training as a way ofavoiding local minimaFunctionality

I Unlearned samples ⇒ New neurons in the hidden layer ⇒ Newclusters discovered

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 11 / 16

Our Collaborative Recommender System

Input: The user ratings’ matrix and the target user

Output: A model (NN) for the target userSteps

1 Pick from the user ratings’ matrix all the co-raters of the target user2 Compute the SVD of the co-raters matrix, retaining only the

non-zero Singular Values3 Partition the resultant matrix in 3 different sets; the Training Set, the

Validation Set and the Test Set4 Train a Constructive ANN Architecture (as discussed previously...)

5 Compute the Performance Metrics on the Test Set

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 12 / 16

Our Collaborative Recommender System

Input: The user ratings’ matrix and the target userOutput: A model (NN) for the target user

Steps

1 Pick from the user ratings’ matrix all the co-raters of the target user2 Compute the SVD of the co-raters matrix, retaining only the

non-zero Singular Values3 Partition the resultant matrix in 3 different sets; the Training Set, the

Validation Set and the Test Set4 Train a Constructive ANN Architecture (as discussed previously...)

5 Compute the Performance Metrics on the Test Set

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 12 / 16

Our Collaborative Recommender System

Input: The user ratings’ matrix and the target userOutput: A model (NN) for the target userSteps

1 Pick from the user ratings’ matrix all the co-raters of the target user2 Compute the SVD of the co-raters matrix, retaining only the

non-zero Singular Values3 Partition the resultant matrix in 3 different sets; the Training Set, the

Validation Set and the Test Set4 Train a Constructive ANN Architecture (as discussed previously...)

5 Compute the Performance Metrics on the Test Set

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 12 / 16

ExperimentThe MovieLens Database

Contains the ratings of 943 users on1682 moviesSparse matrix (6.3% of non-zeroelements)Each user has rated at least 20movies (106 on average), but. . .Discrete Exponential Distribution

I 60% of all users have rated 100movies or less

I 40% of all users have rated 50movies or less

We followed a purely CollaborativeStrategy

I Taking into account only the userratings’ and not any otherdemographic information

0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 8000

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

(a) Rated items per user

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 13 / 16

ExperimentTest Sets & Metrics

Many users rate only a few movies. How would our systemperform?

I Group A: The few raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 20-50 movies

How would our system perform on the average case?

I Group B: The moderate raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 51-100 moviesF May be used in comparisons to other implementations

We randomly picked 20 users from each group (40 users in total).The results were averaged for each groupMetrics

1 Precision2 Recall3 F-measure

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 14 / 16

ExperimentTest Sets & Metrics

Many users rate only a few movies. How would our systemperform?

I Group A: The few raters user group.F Contains all users who have rated 20-50 movies

How would our system perform on the average case?

I Group B: The moderate raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 51-100 moviesF May be used in comparisons to other implementations

We randomly picked 20 users from each group (40 users in total).The results were averaged for each groupMetrics

1 Precision2 Recall3 F-measure

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 14 / 16

ExperimentTest Sets & Metrics

Many users rate only a few movies. How would our systemperform?

I Group A: The few raters user group.F Contains all users who have rated 20-50 movies

How would our system perform on the average case?I Group B: The moderate raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 51-100 moviesF May be used in comparisons to other implementations

We randomly picked 20 users from each group (40 users in total).The results were averaged for each groupMetrics

1 Precision2 Recall3 F-measure

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 14 / 16

ExperimentTest Sets & Metrics

Many users rate only a few movies. How would our systemperform?

I Group A: The few raters user group.F Contains all users who have rated 20-50 movies

How would our system perform on the average case?I Group B: The moderate raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 51-100 moviesF May be used in comparisons to other implementations

We randomly picked 20 users from each group (40 users in total).The results were averaged for each group

Metrics

1 Precision2 Recall3 F-measure

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 14 / 16

ExperimentTest Sets & Metrics

Many users rate only a few movies. How would our systemperform?

I Group A: The few raters user group.F Contains all users who have rated 20-50 movies

How would our system perform on the average case?I Group B: The moderate raters user group.

F Contains all users who have rated 51-100 moviesF May be used in comparisons to other implementations

We randomly picked 20 users from each group (40 users in total).The results were averaged for each groupMetrics

1 Precision2 Recall3 F-measure

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 14 / 16

Results

Table: Performance Results

Methodology Precision Recall F-measureOurSystem: User Group B (moderate ratings) 75.38% 82.21% 79.37%OurSystem: User Group A (few ratings) 74.07% 88.86% 78.97%MovieMagician Clique-based 74% 73% 74%Movielens 66% 74% 70%SVD/ANN 67.9% 69.7% 68.8%MovieMagician Feature-based 61% 75% 67%MovieMagician Hybrid 73% 56% 63%Correlation 64.4% 46.8% 54.2%

Observations

I Our system achieves good results in both usergroups andoutperforms the other approaches

I Recall is higher in the few raters group because they seem to rateonly the movies they like

F Therefore, the recommender cannot generalize

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 15 / 16

Results

Table: Performance Results

Methodology Precision Recall F-measureOurSystem: User Group B (moderate ratings) 75.38% 82.21% 79.37%OurSystem: User Group A (few ratings) 74.07% 88.86% 78.97%MovieMagician Clique-based 74% 73% 74%Movielens 66% 74% 70%SVD/ANN 67.9% 69.7% 68.8%MovieMagician Feature-based 61% 75% 67%MovieMagician Hybrid 73% 56% 63%Correlation 64.4% 46.8% 54.2%

Observations

I Our system achieves good results in both usergroups andoutperforms the other approaches

I Recall is higher in the few raters group because they seem to rateonly the movies they like

F Therefore, the recommender cannot generalize

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 15 / 16

Conclusions

We have presented a complete Collaborative RecommenderSystem that is specifically fit for those cases where information islimitedOur system achieves a good trade-off between Precision andRecall, a basic requirement for RecommendersThis is due to the fact that k -separability is able to uncovercomplex statistical dependencies (positive and negative)We don’t need to filter the neighborhood of the target user as othersystems do (e.g. by using the Pearson Correlation Formula).

I All "neighbors" are consideredI Extremely useful in cases of sparse datasets

Alexandridis, Siolas, Stafylopatis (NTUA) k -separability Collaborative Recommender ICANN’10 16 / 16