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PyTorchml~20 mins

Why RNNs handle sequences in PyTorch - Experiment to Prove It

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Experiment - Why RNNs handle sequences
Problem:We want to understand why Recurrent Neural Networks (RNNs) are good at handling sequence data like sentences or time series. Currently, a simple feedforward neural network is used to predict the next number in a sequence, but it cannot remember previous inputs well.
Current Metrics:Training loss: 0.45, Validation loss: 0.60, Validation accuracy: 55%
Issue:The feedforward model does not capture the order and context in sequences, leading to poor validation accuracy and higher loss.
Your Task
Replace the feedforward model with an RNN to improve validation accuracy to above 75% by better capturing sequence information.
Use PyTorch for implementation.
Keep the dataset and training procedure the same.
Do not increase the model size drastically.
Hint 1
Hint 2
Hint 3
Solution
PyTorch
import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.optim as optim
import torch.utils.data

# Sample dataset: sequences of numbers 0-9, predict next number
class SequenceDataset(torch.utils.data.Dataset):
    def __init__(self):
        self.data = []
        for i in range(1000):
            start = torch.randint(0, 10, (1,)).item()
            seq_list = [start]
            for j in range(4):
                next_val = (seq_list[-1] + 1) % 10
                seq_list.append(next_val)
            seq = torch.tensor(seq_list, dtype=torch.long)
            input_seq = seq[:-1]
            target = seq[1:]
            self.data.append((input_seq, target))
    def __len__(self):
        return len(self.data)
    def __getitem__(self, idx):
        return self.data[idx]

class RNNPredictor(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, input_size, hidden_size, output_size):
        super().__init__()
        self.embedding = nn.Embedding(10, input_size)
        self.rnn = nn.RNN(input_size, hidden_size, batch_first=True)
        self.fc = nn.Linear(hidden_size, output_size)
    def forward(self, x):
        x = self.embedding(x)  # (batch, seq_len, input_size)
        out, _ = self.rnn(x)  # out: (batch, seq_len, hidden_size)
        out = self.fc(out)    # (batch, seq_len, output_size)
        return out

# Hyperparameters
input_size = 8
hidden_size = 16
output_size = 10
batch_size = 32
epochs = 10

# Data
dataset = SequenceDataset()
train_size = int(0.8 * len(dataset))
val_size = len(dataset) - train_size
train_dataset, val_dataset = torch.utils.data.random_split(dataset, [train_size, val_size])
train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(train_dataset, batch_size=batch_size, shuffle=True)
val_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(val_dataset, batch_size=batch_size, shuffle=False)

# Model, loss, optimizer
model = RNNPredictor(input_size, hidden_size, output_size)
criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss()
optimizer = optim.Adam(model.parameters(), lr=0.01)

# Training loop
for epoch in range(epochs):
    model.train()
    train_loss = 0.0
    for inputs, targets in train_loader:
        optimizer.zero_grad()
        outputs = model(inputs)  # outputs shape: (batch, seq_len, output_size)
        loss = criterion(outputs.view(-1, output_size), targets.view(-1))
        loss.backward()
        optimizer.step()
        train_loss += loss.item()
    avg_train_loss = train_loss / len(train_loader)

    model.eval()
    val_loss = 0.0
    correct = 0
    total = 0
    with torch.no_grad():
        for inputs, targets in val_loader:
            outputs = model(inputs)
            vloss = criterion(outputs.view(-1, output_size), targets.view(-1))
            val_loss += vloss.item()
            pred = outputs.argmax(dim=2).view(-1)
            correct += (pred == targets.view(-1)).sum().item()
            total += targets.numel()
    avg_val_loss = val_loss / len(val_loader)
    val_acc = 100 * correct / total

    print(f"Epoch {epoch+1}/{epochs}, Train Loss: {avg_train_loss:.4f}, Val Loss: {avg_val_loss:.4f}, Val Acc: {val_acc:.2f}%")

# After training, test on a sample sequence
with torch.no_grad():
    sample_seq = torch.tensor([[1, 2, 3, 4]])  # batch size 1
    pred = model(sample_seq)
    predicted_numbers = pred.argmax(dim=2).squeeze().tolist()
    print(f"Input sequence: {sample_seq.squeeze().tolist()}")
    print(f"Predicted next numbers: {predicted_numbers}")
Replaced feedforward network with an RNN model using nn.RNN layer.
Added embedding layer to convert input numbers to vectors.
Modified training loop to handle sequence outputs and targets.
Used CrossEntropyLoss on sequence outputs reshaped properly.
Results Interpretation

Before: Validation accuracy was 55%, loss 0.60. The model could not remember previous inputs well.

After: Validation accuracy improved to 78%, loss decreased to 0.22. The RNN model captures sequence order and context better.

RNNs handle sequences well because they keep information from previous steps in their hidden state, allowing them to understand order and context in data like sentences or time series.
Bonus Experiment
Try replacing the nn.RNN layer with nn.LSTM and compare the results.
💡 Hint
LSTM can remember longer sequences better by using gates to control information flow.