Using simulated annealing to optimize receptive fields for MLP networks with ensemble encoding

Ensemble encoding is a distributed data representation scheme that uses multiple, overlapping receptive fields to encode inputs to MLP networks. The number, placement, and form of the receptive fields can have a significant impact on the effectiveness of ensemble encoding. This paper demonstrates the use of simulated annealing as an optimization technique to determine the optimal shape and placement of receptive fields. Experimental results in the context of predicting protein localization sites suggest that the proposed technique improves generalization by 30%, when compared to ad hoc techniques for determining receptive field parameters