This guideline is to guide you to train/test the original DenseNet model or the Student-Teacher model. All of our codes are based on Tensorflow and Python. The file organization is shown below.
teacher_student
----data_providers
--------cifar.py(for original training data)
--------mnist.py(for original MNIST data training)
--------base_provider.py(for original training data)
--------cifar2.py(for intermediate outputs)
--------mnist2.py(for intermediate outputs)
--------data_providers2.py(for intermediate outputs)
----models
--------dense_net.py
----eval.py (for model evaluation)
----get_teacher.py (for get intermediate outputs)
----run_dense_net.py (for training/test student network)
----student1.py
----student2.py
----student3.py
multi-gpu
----cifar100
--------train
--------test
----architectures
--------densene.py
----arch.py
----data_loader.py(read data)
----train.py
----eval.py

Here are the paper and official implementation of DenseNet: Paper: DenseNet Offical Implementation: https://github.com/liuzhuang13/DenseNet In our implementation, we use multiple GPUs to train DenseNet-BC (L=190, k=40), and single GPU to train DenseNet-BC (L=100, k=12). The details are shown below.

Our codes (teacher_student folder) are based on Illarion Khlestov's implementation

How to Run

• First, install the requirements in "requirements.txt" in "teacher_student" folder.
• Start a new train. The model will be saved in "saves" folder. The logs will be saved in "log" folder. Example run:

  $ python run_dense_net.py --train \
                          --dataset=C100 \
                          --epoch=300 \
                          --growth_rate=12 \
                          --depth=100 

• Continue training with previous model. The command is same as train a new model. You need to confirm the dataset name, growth rate and depth are same as what you set before.
• Test model. Example run:

  python run_dense_net.py --test \
                          --dataset=C100 \
                          --epoch=300 \
                          --growth_rate=12 \
                          --depth=100 

• For more details, please follow the comments in python files.

Our codes (multi-gpu folder) are based on Arashno's implementation

How to Run

• First, install the requirements in "requirements.txt" in "multi-gpu" folder.
• Start a new train. Example run:

  $ CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1,2 python train.py --architecture densenet \
                                             --data_info=./dense/cifar100/train \
                                             --num_epoch=100 \
                                             --num_gpu=3 \
                                             --batch_size=64

  CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES is to set GPUs you want to use. Please change the numbers according to your machine.
• Continue training with previous model. Example run:

  $ CUDA_VISIBLE_DEVICES=1,2 python train.py --architecture densenet \
                                             --data_info=./cifar100/train \
                                             --num_epoch=100 \
                                             --num_gpu=3 \
                                             --batch_size=64 \
                                             --retrain_from=./multi-gpu/dense-190/

• Test model. Example run:

  $ python eval.py --architecture=densenet \
                   --data_info=./cifar100/test \
                   --batch_size=200

• For more details, please follow the comments in python files.

The basic idea is to use intermediate outputs of the teacher network to guide the student network. For more details about the Student-Teacher Network and our training strategies, please reference to my thesis Deep Network Compression based on Student-Teacher Network. Our codes are bassed on Illarion Khlestov's implementation.

Before training the student network, you need to save the intermediate outputs from teacher for convenience. The main codes are in "get_teacher.py" file. Usage:

$ python get_teacher.py

It will generate "train_data.h5" (contain the original images, labels and all of the intermediate outputs) and "test_data.h5" files.

In our project, we use three training strategies: same learning rate without extended layer (student1.py, Section 3.3.1), same learning rate with extended layer (student2.py, Section 3.3.2) and different learning rates(student3.py, Section 3.3.3).

1. Use same learning rate

• First, install the requirements in "requirements.txt" in "teacher_student" folder.
• Second, follow the comments and change configurations in file ./teacher_student/data_providers/cifar2.py.
• Third, make sure the network structure and training configurations in file student1.py or student2.py are right.
• Run student1.py or student2.py
• Run eval.py to evaluate model (follow the comments in file to change setting)

2. Use different learning rate

• First, install the requirements in "requirements.txt" in "teacher_student" folder.
• Second, follow the comments and change configurations in file ./teacher_student/data_providers/cifar2.py.
• Third, make sure the network structure and training configurations in file student3.py are right.
• Run student3.py
• Run eval.py to evaluate model (follow the comments in file to change setting)

Tensorboard is a convenient tool to check training. The details can be found at https://www.tensorflow.org/programmers_guide/summaries_and_tensorboard.

It will install tensorboard automatically when installing tensorflow.

When training model on same laptop, you just need to input this command in your terminal, and set the directory as which you save the summaries.

$ tensorboard --logdir=path/to/log-directory

If you face the error like locale.Error: unsupported locale setting, you need to set your encoding format to "English, UTF-8":

$ export LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
$ export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
$ export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

Then run TensorBoardd again. Once the TensorBoard has be opened sucessfully, you will see

TensorBoard 1.5.1 at http://127.0.0.1:6006

Now you can open TensorBoard at http://127.0.0.1:6006. (recommand Chrome)

When training on the server, the summary files will be saved on the server, too. You need to transfer the port 6006 of the remote server into the port 16006 (or other free port) of your machine. Use below command to connect to the server:

$ ssh -L 16006:127.0.0.1:6006 user@server-address

Then start TensorBoard in server with same command. Now you can open TensorBoard at http://127.0.0.1:16006 in your machine's browser.