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Assignment 2

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Sai Buvanesh
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11 views

Assignment 2

Uploaded by

Sai Buvanesh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSIGNMENT 2 - PROBLEMS IN KNN CLASSIFIER

1. High Dimensionality

Problem :

KNN relies on distance calculations to determine how similar or dissimilar data


points are. In high-dimensional spaces, the distance between points becomes
less meaningful because the points tend to be equidistant from each other.
This phenomenon is known as the "curse of dimensionality." As the number of
dimensions increases, the volume of the space increases exponentially, and
data points become sparse. As a result, the model may struggle to find
meaningful nearest neighbors.

Solutions :

- Dimensionality Reduction : Use techniques like:


- Principal Component Analysis (PCA) : This technique transforms your
features into a lower-dimensional space while preserving as much
variance as possible.
- t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) : A technique
particularly well-suited for visualizing high-dimensional data in two or
three dimensions.
- Feature Selection : Identify and retain only the most relevant features
based on statistical tests, correlation matrices, or domain knowledge.

2. Choice of K

Problem :

The parameter K (the number of nearest neighbors to consider) is crucial in


determining the performance of KNN. A small K can make the model sensitive
to noise in the data, while a large K can cause the model to overlook small,
potentially important patterns in the data.

Solutions :

- Cross-Validation : Use techniques like k-fold cross-validation to systematically


evaluate how different values of K affect model performance. This involves
dividing your dataset into k subsets, training the model on k-1 of them, and
testing on the remaining subset. This process is repeated k times, and the
performance metrics are averaged to find the optimal K.

- Error Analysis : Plot the training and validation errors for different values of
K. Look for the K that minimizes the validation error without increasing the
training error.

3. Distance Metric

Problem :

The default distance metric in KNN is Euclidean distance, which might not
always be appropriate, especially if your features are on different scales or
represent different types of data (categorical vs. continuous). This can lead to
misleading neighbor calculations.

Solutions :

- Feature Scaling : Normalize (scale features to a range between 0 and 1) or


standardize (transform features to have a mean of 0 and a standard deviation
of 1) your features before applying KNN. This ensures that each feature
contributes equally to the distance calculation.

- Alternative Distance Metrics : Experiment with other distance metrics, such


as:

- Manhattan Distance : Useful for high-dimensional data, as it sums the


absolute differences.

- Minkowski Distance : A generalized distance metric that includes both


Euclidean and Manhattan distances.

- Hamming Distance : Useful for categorical data.

4. Imbalanced Dataset

Problem :

In imbalanced datasets, one class significantly outnumbers the other. KNN


tends to favor the majority class because the majority of its neighbors will
belong to that class, leading to poor performance in predicting the minority
class.
Solutions :

- Resampling Techniques :

- Oversampling : Increase the number of instances in the minority class (e.g.,


using SMOTE - Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique).

- Undersampling : Reduce the number of instances in the majority class.

- Weighted KNN : Modify the KNN algorithm to give more weight to the
minority class during the distance calculation or when voting for the predicted
class.

5. Noise and Outliers

Problem :

KNN is sensitive to noise and outliers, which can skew the distance
calculations. An outlier can significantly impact the nearest neighbor
calculations and lead to incorrect predictions.

Solutions :

- Outlier Detection : Use techniques such as Z-score analysis, IQR, or clustering


algorithms (like DBSCAN) to identify and remove outliers before training the
KNN model.

- Robust Distance Metrics : Consider using distance metrics that are less
sensitive to outliers, such as the Mahalanobis distance.

6. Computational Complexity

Problem :

KNN has a time complexity of O(n) per query, where n is the number of
training instances. As the dataset grows, the prediction time can become
prohibitive, especially for real-time applications.

Solutions :
- KD-Tree : This data structure allows for faster nearest neighbor searches in
lower dimensions by partitioning the space.

- Ball Tree : Similar to KD-Tree but can be more efficient in higher dimensions.

- Approximate Nearest Neighbors : Algorithms like Annoy, FLANN, or FAISS can


speed up the neighbor search by trading off some accuracy for speed.

7. Overfitting

Problem :

If the training set is small or not representative of the overall distribution, KNN
can overfit to the training data, especially with a small K.

Solutions :

- Increase Training Data : Collect more data or use data augmentation


techniques if applicable.

- Use Cross-Validation : This can help assess the model's ability to generalize to
unseen data.

8. Feature Scaling

Problem :

If your features are not on the same scale, KNN may give undue weight to
features with larger ranges, leading to biased distance calculations.

Solutions :

- Standardization : Scale features so they have a mean of 0 and a standard


deviation of 1.

- Normalization : Scale features to a specific range, typically [0, 1].

Debugging Steps
1. Check Data Quality : Make sure your data is clean and free of errors (missing
values, incorrect labels, etc.). Use data exploration techniques to understand
your dataset better.

2. Visualize Data : Use plots (like scatter plots for 2D data or pair plots) to
identify clusters, outliers, or patterns in the data.

3. Evaluate Performance : After training the model, assess its performance


using metrics like:

- Accuracy : The percentage of correct predictions.

- Precision : The ratio of true positive predictions to the total predicted


positives.

- Recall : The ratio of true positive predictions to the total actual positives.

- F1-Score : The harmonic mean of precision and recall, which gives a


balanced view.

4. Iterate : Based on the evaluations, make necessary adjustments to feature


selection, distance metric, and hyperparameters. Always keep testing and
validating your approach.

By carefully addressing these issues and iterating on your approach, you can
significantly improve the performance of your KNN classifier! If you have a
specific issue or dataset you're working with, feel free to share, and I can
provide more targeted advice!

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