Greetings from NeuroDimension!

Makers of NeuroSolutions, the Neural Network Simulation Environment.

NeuroDimension is starting off the summer with two brand new products and a full week of training courses. This issue of the newsletter highlights those developments and provides you with more tips and hints for designing neural networks from the professionals at ND!

In this issue you’ll find:

What’s New?

Designing Neural Networks

NeuroSolutions Tip Box

Did You Know?

Customer Spotlight

Note: You are receiving this newsletter because you requested to stay informed concerning new developments at NeuroDimension. If you would like to stop receiving these newsletters, please see the bottom of this page for removal instructions.

What’s New?

June Neural Network Courses Filling Up Fast

There are only two positions left for our June neural network courses in Orlando. If you are interested, please sign-up as soon as possible. Our new overlapping course layout allows all users (from beginners to experts) to choose the course content most appropriate for them. For more information, see our course web page at http://www.nd.com/course

We also offer on-site corporate courses for five or more people. These courses can be general neural network courses or customized to the needs of a particular corporation. For more information, see our corporate education web page at http://www.nd.com/services/corporate_train.htm

Genetic Server / Genetic Library Released

NeuroDimension has released two new products – the Genetic Server and the Genetic Library. Each of these products provides a general purpose application programmer’s interface (API) for genetic algorithm (GA) design. The Genetic Server is an Active X component designed to be used within Visual Basic or software supporting Visual Basic for Applications (such as Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Access, etc.). The Genetic Library is a C++ library designed to be used within Visual C++. If you’ve been waiting to try out GA on one of your problems, now is the time. With their intuitive APIs, the Genetic Server and Genetic Library make using genetic algorithms easy. For more information, see http://www.nd.com/products/genetic.htm

Online Price Quote System Now Available

Now you can receive a price quote for any group of products at NeuroDimension. Easily figure out how different discounts will affect your total cost and find out the best combination of products to meet your needs and budget. To receive a price quote in real-time, just fill out the form at: http://www.nd.com/quote.htm

Designing Neural Networks

This Month: "Keep It Simple" as Applied to Temporal Training

Last month we discussed network size and suggested you start with the smallest, simplest network first. For the fastest training and best generalization, the same principle applies to training temporal neural networks. Instead of adding memory at every layer of a network, start by adding memory only at the input layer. This is called a "focused" network architecture. Not only does this reduce the number of weights in your network, but an additional advantage of a focused network is that the memory does not affect the backpropagation of errors through the rest of the network (since the memory is at the end of the backpropagation chain).

For fixed memory architectures such as the tap-delay line (TDNN), you can train a focused network with static training, which is faster than trajectory training. If you use adjustable memories like the gamma or laguarre memory, or include memory in the hidden layers, then you need to use trajectory training, which takes into account the backpropagation of errors through memory.

In summary, start with a focused temporal neural network, then try the more complex and more powerful networks and training algorithms.

NeuroSolutions Tip Box

This Month: The Power of Macros

NeuroSolutions v3.02 includes a macro language that consists of hundreds of function calls, all of which are available for you to create and run elaborate scripts of operations. In fact, each of the NeuroSolutions demos was created entirely with macros. To see the power that macros have to offer, view the demos by selecting "Demos" from the NeuroSolutions "Help" menu.

It is simple to create effective macro scripts using the MacroWizard. Just press the "Record at Cursor" button on the MacroWizard Edit Page and let NeuroSolutions record your actions. Once a macro is created, it can be run from the MacroWizard, a ButtonEngine component, or a Macro Bar. Macro Bars allow you to easily run macros directly from the main window of NeuroSolutions. Simply clicking a button on a macro bar will run the associated Macro.

Many users of NeuroSolutions v3.02 do not realize that there are three pre-defined Macro Bars containing some useful macros. To access these Macro Bars, simply select the first three menu cells of the NeuroSolutions "View" menu. For a summary of the macros associated with the macro buttons, open the NeuroSolutions Help file ("Help Topics" from the NeuroSolutions "Help" menu), switch to the "Index" tab, type in "Macro" <enter>, select "Macro Bars" <enter>, then scroll down to the "Common Macros" section.

The latest versions of the macros associated with the macro bars can be obtained by downloading http://www.nd.com/public/support/macro302.zip and unzipping the files into the "Macros" directory of NeuroSolutions.

Did You Know?

This Month: Optimizing Models with NeuroSolutions for Excel

NeuroSolutions for Excel takes some of the trial and error out of developing neural network models. This program has a very useful feature that lets you train a neural network multiple times while varying a network parameter between user-specified starting and ending values. This functionality can be very useful in determining the optimal number of processing elements to use in a hidden layer, the best step size to use for the fastest convergence, etc.

To use the "Vary a Parameter" feature, select "Train Network" then "Run Batch" from the "NeuroSolutions" menu within Microsoft Excel. This will display the "Run Train Network Batch" dialog. Within this dialog, select the "Vary a Parameter" batch then click the "OK" button. This will display the "Vary A Parameter Options" dialog. Within this dialog, select the parameter you want to vary, the starting value, the number of times to vary the parameter, the amount to vary the parameter by each time, then click the "OK" button. NeuroSolutions for Excel will train the active neural network while varying the chosen parameter according to the specified options then print out a report which will illustrate any trends that may exist due to the parameter variation. In addition, NeuroSolutions for Excel will save the weights for the best overall model it finds while performing this function.

For more information about this feature of NeuroSolutions for Excel, see the "Vary a Parameter" topic in the NeuroSolutions for Excel help.

Customer Spotlight

This Month: CQG, Inc. and Financial Forecasting

Brian Bell (BBell@cqg.com) at CQG, Inc.

Our investigation is two-pronged. First, we are looking at the feasibility of using NN's in a mechanical trading system for S&P futures. Any results we find in this area will be used internally. The second part of our investigation is to evaluate NeuroSolutions in terms of how our customers could use the product in conjunction with our flagship product, CQG For Windows (TM), to conduct their own NN research.

The data for the network is provided in real time by CQG For Windows, using custom DLL's written for the File and Pre-Post-Processor components. Results are fed back to CQG For Windows in the same way, where the historical results of trading signals from the network are evaluated. Results to date are promising.

CQG Inc. provides real-time market data and analytics to large financial institutions and professional traders via leased lines and satellite in North America, Europe, and Japan and via the Internet throughout the rest of the world. Established in 1979, CQG is headquartered in Colorado and maintains Sales & Support facilities in ten major financial capitals worldwide. CQG is renown for the cleanliness and reliability of its data and the ease-of-use and sophistication of its analytical software.

For more information on CQG For Windows, please visit the CQG, Inc. web site at http://www.cqg.com

Want to have your solutions spotlighted? We strongly encourage our customers to send their 1-2 page application summaries to submissions@nd.com so that we may post them on our web site at: http://www.nd.com/appliactionsum.htm. In each newsletter, we’ll spotlight a new solution and include a link for people to get more information.

Comments or Suggestions?

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