Honours Adv.

Topic: Artificial Neural Networks 1st Semester 2001

Honours Advanced Topic: Artificial Neural Networks

Semester 1, 2001
Written Examination

INSTRUCTIONS

This an open book examination.

Time: 3 hours and 10 minutes (reading time).

There are 5 questions.

Answer all questions.

1
Honours Adv. Topic: Artificial Neural Networks 1st Semester 2001

Question 1 (18 marks)

a) (8 marks)
Describe what you know about the structure of a biological neuron and learning in
biological systems.
Discuss the McCulloch-Pitt model of a biological neuron. Is it a linear or non-linear
system? Explain your answer. What about biological neurons?

b) (6 marks)
The most common application of neural networks is pattern recognition.
What are the main stages in the pattern recognition process? Describe with examples, the
concepts of feature vectors and discriminant functions in this context.

c) (4 marks)
Describe with example, what is meant by the standard basis vectors of a multi-dimensional
space.
What are the implications of two pattern vectors being orthogonal?
Give examples of two pairs of such patterns, one of them binary and the other continuous
valued.

Question 2 (20 marks)

a) (6 marks)
What is an ADALINE? Describe the learning rule used for an ADALINE.
Describe with an example problem the major drawback of a single layer of perceptrons.

b) (8 marks)
Derive the formula used for adjusting weights during the training of a multilayer
perceptron.
Discuss the statement - any function can be represented by a multilayer perceptron for no
more than three layers.

c) (6 marks)
Describe the concept of the error surface in a neural network
Discuss the techniques for overcoming learning difficulties in multilayer perceptrons.

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Honours Adv. Topic: Artificial Neural Networks 1st Semester 2001

Question 3 (21 marks)

a) (7 marks)
Describe the architecture of the Kohonen network and the formation of the so-called
topological map through training.

b) (8 marks)
Discuss the characteristics of the Hopfield model followed by an account of its training
and recognition stages.

c) (6 marks)
Justify the setting of connection weights in the training stage of the Hopfield net by
deriving an expression for the weight term w from the Hopfield net energy function.

Question 4 (21 marks)

a) (6 marks)
Discuss simulated annealing and its use in assisting convergence to global minima in the
Boltzmann machine.

b) (8 marks)
What is known as the stability-plasticity problem? Explain how this problem is solved in
the neural network model proposed by Grossberg and Carpenter.
Discuss the limitations of the ART paradigm in general.

c) (7 marks)
Describe with a suitable diagram what fuzzy cognitive maps are.
How can FCMs be used to simulate dynamic systems and make predictions on their future
states?

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Honours Adv. Topic: Artificial Neural Networks 1st Semester 2001

Question 5 (20 marks)

a) (6 marks)
Describe the architecture and operation of the counterpropagation network with emphasis
on the training process. Compare counterpropagation and backpropagation networks.

b) (4 marks)
How does problem solving using an artificial neural network differ from that using a
digital computer?
What types of problems are not considered suitable for neural nets?

c) (4 marks)
Discuss the decisions to be made at the node and network levels, during the design phase
of an artificial neural network.

d) (6 marks)
Discuss the application of artificial neural networks in business or industry.

END OF PAPER