Decoupling the Layers in Residual Networks
We propose a Warped Residual Network (WarpNet) using a parallelizable warp operator for forward and backward propagation to distant layers that trains faster than the original residual neural network. We apply a perturbation theory on residual networks and decouple the interactions between residual units. The resulting warp operator is a first order approximation of the output over multiple layers. The first order perturbation theory exhibits properties such as binomial path lengths and exponential gradient scaling found experimentally by Veit et al (2016). We demonstrate through an extensive performance study that the proposed network achieves comparable predictive performance to the original residual network with the same number of parameters, while achieving a significant speed-up on the total training time. As WarpNet performs model parallelism in residual network training in which weights are distributed over different GPUs, it offers speed-up and capability to train larger networks compared to original residual networks.
 Paper proposes a shallow model for approximating stacks of Resnet layers, based on mathematical approximations to the Resnet equations and experimental insights, and uses this technique to train Resnet-like models in half the time on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. While the experiments are not particularly impressive, I liked the originality of this paper.
You are a member of the scientific community tasked with peer review. Review the following paper title and abstract.
### Title + Abstract
Decoupling the Layers in Residual Networks
We propose a Warped Residual Network (WarpNet) using a parallelizable warp operator for forward and backward propagation to distant layers that trains faster than the original residual neural network. We apply a perturbation theory on residual networks and decouple the interactions between residual units. The resulting warp operator is a first order approximation of the output over multiple layers. The first order perturbation theory exhibits properties such as binomial path lengths and exponential gradient scaling found experimentally by Veit et al (2016). We demonstrate through an extensive performance study that the proposed network achieves comparable predictive performance to the original residual network with the same number of parameters, while achieving a significant speed-up on the total training time. As WarpNet performs model parallelism in residual network training in which weights are distributed over different GPUs, it offers speed-up and capability to train larger networks compared to original residual networks.
user
<think>Okay, to do a decent peer review, I should start with summarizing what the work is about. This includes novelty, contributions, clarity, and impact. I might include suggestions to issues that I find critical to the usefulness of the work. Starting with novelty, there are different types of novelty. The first aspect of novelty is scope and scale. Is the work covering a broader perspective than previous works? The second aspect is methodology. Is the proposed methodology novel compared to previous methods? Do they provide any significant advantage over previous methodologies? The third aspect is results. Are the results different compared previous work? Does this lead to any novel theories or an extension of current theories? Next is clarity, I will be reading the work in depth and analyze if any sentences can be potentially ambiguous or misleading. If any sentences are ambiguous, I will state them and give a suggestion on how to rephrase such sentence or how to make more clear to the audience. Lastly, impact is important. I will attempt to predict how such work will impact the scientific community. This might include the applications of such work and how the work might transform the way we study a certain topic. Finally, I will might only mention issues that are critical. This is to keep the review as concise and helpful as possible.</think>



 Paper proposes a shallow model for approximating stacks of Resnet layers, based on mathematical approximations to the Resnet equations and experimental insights, and uses this technique to train Resnet-like models in half the time on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. While the experiments are not particularly impressive, I liked the originality of this paper.
assistant
 Paper proposes a shallow model for approximating stacks of Resnet layers, based on mathematical approximations to the Resnet equations and experimental insights, and uses this technique to train Resnet-like models in half the time on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100. While the experiments are not particularly impressive, I liked the originality of this paper.