Random Feature Spiking Neural Networks

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Hauptverfasser: Gollwitzer, Maximilian, Dietrich, Felix
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Gollwitzer, Maximilian
Dietrich, Felix
author_facet Gollwitzer, Maximilian
Dietrich, Felix
contents Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) as Machine Learning (ML) models have recently received a lot of attention as a potentially more energy-efficient alternative to conventional Artificial Neural Networks. The non-differentiability and sparsity of the spiking mechanism can make these models very difficult to train with algorithms based on propagating gradients through the spiking non-linearity. We address this problem by adapting the paradigm of Random Feature Methods (RFMs) from Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to Spike Response Model (SRM) SNNs. This approach allows training of SNNs without approximation of the spike function gradient. Concretely, we propose a novel data-driven, fast, high-performance, and interpretable algorithm for end-to-end training of SNNs inspired by the SWIM algorithm for RFM-ANNs, which we coin S-SWIM. We provide a thorough theoretical discussion and supplementary numerical experiments showing that S-SWIM can reach high accuracies on time series forecasting as a standalone strategy and serve as an effective initialisation strategy before gradient-based training. Additional ablation studies show that our proposed method performs better than random sampling of network weights.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_01012
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Random Feature Spiking Neural Networks
Gollwitzer, Maximilian
Dietrich, Felix
Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
68T07
G.1; G.3
Spiking Neural Networks (SNNs) as Machine Learning (ML) models have recently received a lot of attention as a potentially more energy-efficient alternative to conventional Artificial Neural Networks. The non-differentiability and sparsity of the spiking mechanism can make these models very difficult to train with algorithms based on propagating gradients through the spiking non-linearity. We address this problem by adapting the paradigm of Random Feature Methods (RFMs) from Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to Spike Response Model (SRM) SNNs. This approach allows training of SNNs without approximation of the spike function gradient. Concretely, we propose a novel data-driven, fast, high-performance, and interpretable algorithm for end-to-end training of SNNs inspired by the SWIM algorithm for RFM-ANNs, which we coin S-SWIM. We provide a thorough theoretical discussion and supplementary numerical experiments showing that S-SWIM can reach high accuracies on time series forecasting as a standalone strategy and serve as an effective initialisation strategy before gradient-based training. Additional ablation studies show that our proposed method performs better than random sampling of network weights.
title Random Feature Spiking Neural Networks
topic Machine Learning
Neural and Evolutionary Computing
68T07
G.1; G.3
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01012