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Hauptverfasser: Lin, Jiaqi, Bal, Malyaban, Sengupta, Abhronil
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15989
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author Lin, Jiaqi
Bal, Malyaban
Sengupta, Abhronil
author_facet Lin, Jiaqi
Bal, Malyaban
Sengupta, Abhronil
contents Equilibrium Propagation (EP) is a biologically inspired local learning rule first proposed for convergent recurrent neural networks (CRNNs), in which synaptic updates depend only on neuron states from two distinct phases. EP estimates gradients that closely align with those computed by Backpropagation Through Time (BPTT) while significantly reducing computational demands, positioning it as a potential candidate for on-chip training in neuromorphic architectures. However, prior studies on EP have been constrained to shallow architectures, as deeper networks suffer from the vanishing gradient problem, leading to convergence difficulties in both energy minimization and gradient computation. To alleviate the vanishing gradient problem in deep EP networks, we propose a novel EP framework that incorporates layer-wise learning signals to provide auxiliary supervision, which enhances the convergence of neuron dynamics. This is the first work to integrate knowledge distillation and local error signals into EP, enabling the training of significantly deeper architectures. Our proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets, showcasing its scalability on deep VGG architectures. These results represent a significant advancement in the scalability of EP, suggesting that intermediate learning signals can extend the practical applicability of EP to deeper architectures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_15989
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scalable Equilibrium Propagation via Intermediate Error Signals for Deep Convolutional CRNNs
Lin, Jiaqi
Bal, Malyaban
Sengupta, Abhronil
Machine Learning
Emerging Technologies
Equilibrium Propagation (EP) is a biologically inspired local learning rule first proposed for convergent recurrent neural networks (CRNNs), in which synaptic updates depend only on neuron states from two distinct phases. EP estimates gradients that closely align with those computed by Backpropagation Through Time (BPTT) while significantly reducing computational demands, positioning it as a potential candidate for on-chip training in neuromorphic architectures. However, prior studies on EP have been constrained to shallow architectures, as deeper networks suffer from the vanishing gradient problem, leading to convergence difficulties in both energy minimization and gradient computation. To alleviate the vanishing gradient problem in deep EP networks, we propose a novel EP framework that incorporates layer-wise learning signals to provide auxiliary supervision, which enhances the convergence of neuron dynamics. This is the first work to integrate knowledge distillation and local error signals into EP, enabling the training of significantly deeper architectures. Our proposed approach achieves state-of-the-art performance on the CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets, showcasing its scalability on deep VGG architectures. These results represent a significant advancement in the scalability of EP, suggesting that intermediate learning signals can extend the practical applicability of EP to deeper architectures.
title Scalable Equilibrium Propagation via Intermediate Error Signals for Deep Convolutional CRNNs
topic Machine Learning
Emerging Technologies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.15989