Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Moser, Brian B., Nauen, Tobias C., Shanbhag, Arundhati S., Raue, Federico, Frolov, Stanislav, Folz, Joachim, Dengel, Andreas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21748
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912606468440064
author Moser, Brian B.
Nauen, Tobias C.
Shanbhag, Arundhati S.
Raue, Federico
Frolov, Stanislav
Folz, Joachim
Dengel, Andreas
author_facet Moser, Brian B.
Nauen, Tobias C.
Shanbhag, Arundhati S.
Raue, Federico
Frolov, Stanislav
Folz, Joachim
Dengel, Andreas
contents The goal of coreset selection is to identify representative subsets of datasets for efficient model training. Yet, existing approaches paradoxically require expensive training-based signals, e.g., gradients, decision boundary estimates or forgetting counts, computed over the entire dataset prior to pruning, which undermines their very purpose by requiring training on samples they aim to avoid. We introduce SubZeroCore, a novel, training-free coreset selection method that integrates submodular coverage and density into a single, unified objective. To achieve this, we introduce a sampling strategy based on a closed-form solution to optimally balance these objectives, guided by a single hyperparameter that explicitly controls the desired coverage for local density measures. Despite no training, extensive evaluations show that SubZeroCore matches training-based baselines and significantly outperforms them at high pruning rates, while dramatically reducing computational overhead. SubZeroCore also demonstrates superior robustness to label noise, highlighting its practical effectiveness and scalability for real-world scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_21748
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle SubZeroCore: A Submodular Approach with Zero Training for Coreset Selection
Moser, Brian B.
Nauen, Tobias C.
Shanbhag, Arundhati S.
Raue, Federico
Frolov, Stanislav
Folz, Joachim
Dengel, Andreas
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
The goal of coreset selection is to identify representative subsets of datasets for efficient model training. Yet, existing approaches paradoxically require expensive training-based signals, e.g., gradients, decision boundary estimates or forgetting counts, computed over the entire dataset prior to pruning, which undermines their very purpose by requiring training on samples they aim to avoid. We introduce SubZeroCore, a novel, training-free coreset selection method that integrates submodular coverage and density into a single, unified objective. To achieve this, we introduce a sampling strategy based on a closed-form solution to optimally balance these objectives, guided by a single hyperparameter that explicitly controls the desired coverage for local density measures. Despite no training, extensive evaluations show that SubZeroCore matches training-based baselines and significantly outperforms them at high pruning rates, while dramatically reducing computational overhead. SubZeroCore also demonstrates superior robustness to label noise, highlighting its practical effectiveness and scalability for real-world scenarios.
title SubZeroCore: A Submodular Approach with Zero Training for Coreset Selection
topic Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.21748