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From: YiZhi Liu <javelinjs@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 16:36:54 +0800
Message-ID: <CANCAKkVdkZ6jv=uSSg9AAy-0=YPNyL3CoxbyTaBH0Cw8D-H4sQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [DISCUSS] Proposing MXNet for the Apache Incubator
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archived-at: Sat, 14 Jan 2017 08:37:28 -0000

Confirmed, and please update my affiliation to 'Qihoo 360'. Thanks.

2017-01-14 16:08 GMT+08:00 =E6=A2=81=E5=BE=B7=E6=BE=8E <liangdepeng@gmail.c=
om>:
> Hi,
>
> I=E2=80=99ve been working on the MXNet-ScalaPkg for a while with Yizhi Li=
u
> (@javelinjs).
> Please sign me up as a committer of MxNet.
>
> GitHub ID: Ldpe2G
> Email: liangdepeng@gmail.com
> Affiliations: Sun Yat-sen University
>
> 2017-01-14 13:49 GMT+08:00 Henri Yandell <bayard@apache.org>:
>
>> Thanks for all the feedback and interested parties :)
>>
>> My aim is to propose a vote on Monday, unless someone raises an issue
>> before then.
>>
>> Hen
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 5, 2017 at 9:12 PM, Henri Yandell <bayard@apache.org> wrote:
>>
>> > Hello Incubator,
>> >
>> > I'd like to propose a new incubator Apache MXNet podling.
>> >
>> > The existing MXNet project (http://mxnet.io - 1.5 years old, 15
>> > committers, 200 contributors) is very interested in joining Apache. MX=
Net
>> > is an open-source deep learning framework that allows you to define,
>> train,
>> > and deploy deep neural networks on a wide array of devices, from cloud
>> > infrastructure to mobile devices.
>> >
>> > The wiki proposal page is located here:
>> >
>> >   https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/MXNetProposal
>> >
>> > I've included the text below in case anyone wants to focus on parts of=
 it
>> > in a reply.
>> >
>> > Looking forward to your thoughts, and for lots of interested Apache
>> > members to volunteer to mentor the project in addition to Sebastian an=
d
>> > myself.
>> >
>> > Currently the list of committers is based on the current active coders=
,
>> so
>> > we're also very interested in hearing from anyone else who is interest=
ed
>> in
>> > working on the project, be they current or future contributor!
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> > Hen
>> > On behalf of the MXNet project
>> >
>> > ---------
>> >
>> > =3D MXNet: Apache Incubator Proposal =3D
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Abstract =3D=3D
>> >
>> > MXNet is a Flexible and Efficient Library for Deep Learning
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Proposal =3D=3D
>> >
>> > MXNet is an open-source deep learning framework that allows you to
>> define,
>> > train, and deploy deep neural networks on a wide array of devices, fro=
m
>> > cloud infrastructure to mobile devices. It is highly scalable, allowin=
g
>> for
>> > fast model training, and supports a flexible programming model and
>> multiple
>> > languages. MXNet allows you to mix symbolic and imperative programming
>> > flavors to maximize both efficiency and productivity. MXNet is built o=
n a
>> > dynamic dependency scheduler that automatically parallelizes both
>> symbolic
>> > and imperative operations on the fly. A graph optimization layer on to=
p
>> of
>> > that makes symbolic execution fast and memory efficient. The MXNet
>> library
>> > is portable and lightweight, and it scales to multiple GPUs and multip=
le
>> > machines.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Background =3D=3D
>> >
>> > Deep learning is a subset of Machine learning and refers to a class of
>> > algorithms that use a hierarchical approach with non-linearities to
>> > discover and learn representations within data. Deep Learning has
>> recently
>> > become very popular due to its applicability and advancement of domain=
s
>> > such as Computer Vision, Speech Recognition, Natural Language
>> Understanding
>> > and Recommender Systems. With pervasive and cost effective cloud
>> computing,
>> > large labeled datasets and continued algorithmic innovation, Deep
>> Learning
>> > has become the one of the most popular classes of algorithms for machi=
ne
>> > learning practitioners in recent years.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Rational =3D=3D
>> >
>> > The adoption of deep learning is quickly expanding from initial deep
>> > domain experts rooted in academia to data scientists and developers
>> working
>> > to deploy intelligent services and products. Deep learning however has
>> many
>> > challenges.  These include model training time (which can take days to
>> > weeks), programmability (not everyone writes Python or C++ and like
>> > symbolic programming) and balancing production readiness (support for
>> > things like failover) with development flexibility (ability to program
>> > different ways, support for new operators and model types) and speed o=
f
>> > execution (fast and scalable model training).  Other frameworks excel =
on
>> > some but not all of these aspects.
>> >
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Initial Goals =3D=3D
>> >
>> > MXNet is a fairly established project on GitHub with its first code
>> > contribution in April 2015 and roughly 200 contributors. It is used by
>> > several large companies and some of the top research institutions on t=
he
>> > planet. Initial goals would be the following:
>> >
>> >  1. Move the existing codebase(s) to Apache
>> >  1. Integrate with the Apache development process/sign CLAs
>> >  1. Ensure all dependencies are compliant with Apache License version =
2.0
>> >  1. Incremental development and releases per Apache guidelines
>> >  1. Establish engineering discipline and a predictable release cadence=
 of
>> > high quality releases
>> >  1. Expand the community beyond the current base of expert level users
>> >  1. Improve usability and the overall developer/user experience
>> >  1. Add additional functionality to address newer problem types and
>> > algorithms
>> >
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Current Status =3D=3D
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Meritocracy =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > The MXNet project already operates on meritocratic principles. Today,
>> > MXNet has developers worldwide and has accepted multiple major patches
>> from
>> > a diverse set of contributors within both industry and academia. We wo=
uld
>> > like to follow ASF meritocratic principles to encourage more developer=
s
>> to
>> > contribute in this project. We know that only active and committed
>> > developers from a diverse set of backgrounds can make MXNet a successf=
ul
>> > project.  We are also improving the documentation and code to help new
>> > developers get started quickly.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Community =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Acceptance into the Apache foundation would bolster the growing user a=
nd
>> > developer community around MXNet. That community includes around 200
>> > contributors from academia and industry. The core developers of our
>> project
>> > are listed in our contributors below and are also represented by logos=
 on
>> > the mxnet.io site including Amazon, Baidu, Carnegie Mellon University,
>> > Turi, Intel, NYU, Nvidia, MIT, Microsoft, TuSimple, University of
>> Alberta,
>> > University of Washington and Wolfram.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Core Developers =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > (with GitHub logins)
>> >
>> >  * Tianqi Chen (@tqchen)
>> >  * Mu Li (@mli)
>> >  * Junyuan Xie (@piiswrong)
>> >  * Bing Xu (@antinucleon)
>> >  * Chiyuan Zhang (@pluskid)
>> >  * Minjie Wang (@jermainewang)
>> >  * Naiyan Wang (@winstywang)
>> >  * Yizhi Liu (@javelinjs)
>> >  * Tong He (@hetong007)
>> >  * Qiang Kou (@thirdwing)
>> >  * Xingjian Shi (@sxjscience)
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Alignment =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > ASF is already the home of many distributed platforms, e.g., Hadoop,
>> Spark
>> > and Mahout, each of which targets a different application domain. MXNe=
t,
>> > being a distributed platform for large-scale deep learning, focuses on
>> > another important domain for which there still lacks a scalable,
>> > programmable, flexible and super fast open-source platform. The recent
>> > success of deep learning models especially for vision and speech
>> > recognition tasks has generated interests in both applying existing de=
ep
>> > learning models and in developing new ones. Thus, an open-source platf=
orm
>> > for deep learning backed by some of the top industry and academic play=
ers
>> > will be able to attract a large community of users and developers. MXN=
et
>> is
>> > a complex system needing many iterations of design, implementation and
>> > testing. Apache's collaboration framework which encourages active
>> > contribution from developers will inevitably help improve the quality =
of
>> > the system, as shown in the success of Hadoop, Spark, etc. Equally
>> > important is the community of users which helps identify real-life
>> > applications of deep learning, and helps to evaluate the system's
>> > performance and ease-of-use. We hope to leverage ASF for coordinating =
and
>> > promoting both communities, and in return benefit the communities with
>> > another useful tool.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Known Risks =3D=3D
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Orphaned products =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Given the current level of investment in MXNet and the stakeholders us=
ing
>> > it - the risk of the project being abandoned is minimal. Amazon, for
>> > example, is in active development to use MXNet in many of its services
>> and
>> > many large corporations use it in their production applications.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Inexperience with Open Source =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > MXNet has existed as a healthy open source project for more than a yea=
r.
>> > During that time, the project has attracted 200+ contributors.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Homogenous Developers =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > The initial list of committers and contributors includes developers fr=
om
>> > several institutions and industry participants (see above).
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Reliance on Salaried Developers =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Like most open source projects, MXNet receives a substantial support f=
rom
>> > salaried developers. A large fraction of MXNet development is supporte=
d
>> by
>> > graduate students at various universities in the course of research
>> degrees
>> > - this is more a =E2=80=9Cvolunteer=E2=80=9D relationship, since in mo=
st cases students
>> > contribute vastly more than is necessary to immediately support resear=
ch.
>> > In addition, those working from within corporations are devoting
>> > significant time and effort in the project - and these come from sever=
al
>> > organizations.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D A Excessive Fascination with the Apache Brand =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > We choose Apache not for publicity. We have two purposes. First, we ho=
pe
>> > that Apache's known best-practices for managing a mature open source
>> > project can help guide us.  For example, we are feeling the growing pa=
ins
>> > of a successful open source project as we attempt a major refactor of =
the
>> > internals while customers are using the system in production. We seek
>> > guidance in communicating breaking API changes and version revisions.
>> > Also, as our involvement from major corporations increases, we want to
>> > assure our users that MXNet will stay open and not favor any particula=
r
>> > platform or environment. These are some examples of the know-how and
>> > discipline we're hoping Apache can bring to our project.
>> >
>> > Second, we want to leverage Apache's reputation to recruit more
>> developers
>> > to create a diverse community.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Relationship with Other Apache Products =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Apache Mahout and Apache Spark's MLlib are general machine learning
>> > systems. Deep learning algorithms can thus be implemented on these two
>> > platforms as well. However, in practice, the overlap will be minimal.
>> Deep
>> > learning is so computationally intensive that it often requires
>> specialized
>> > GPU hardware to accomplish tasks of meaningful size.  Making efficient
>> use
>> > of GPU hardware is complex because the hardware is so fast that the
>> > supporting systems around it must be carefully optimized to keep the G=
PU
>> > cores busy.  Extending this capability to distributed multi-GPU and
>> > multi-host environments requires great care.  This is a critical
>> > differentiator between MXNet and existing Apache machine learning
>> systems.
>> >
>> > Mahout and Spark ML-LIB follow models where their nodes run
>> synchronously.
>> > This is the fundamental difference to MXNet who follows the parameter
>> > server framework. MXNet can run synchronously or asynchronously. In
>> > addition, MXNet has optimizations for training a wide range of deep
>> > learning models using a variety of approaches (e.g., model parallelism
>> and
>> > data parallelism) which makes MXNet much more efficient (near-linear
>> > speedup on state of the art models). MXNet also supports both imperati=
ve
>> > and symbolic approaches providing ease of programming for deep learnin=
g
>> > algorithms.
>> >
>> > Other Apache projects that are potentially complimentary:
>> >
>> > Apache Arrow - read data in Apache Arrow=E2=80=98s internal format fro=
m MXNet,
>> > that would allow users to run ETL/preprocessing in Spark, save the
>> results
>> > in Arrow=E2=80=99s format and then run DL algorithms on it.
>> >
>> > Apache Singa - MXNet and Singa are both deep learning projects, and ca=
n
>> > benefit from a larger deep learning community at Apache.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Documentation =3D=3D
>> >
>> > Documentation has recently migrated to http://mxnet.io.  We continue t=
o
>> > refine and improve the documentation.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Initial Source =3D=3D
>> >
>> > We currently use Github to maintain our source code,
>> > https://github.com/MXNet
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Source and Intellectual Property Submission Plan =3D=3D
>> >
>> > MXNet Code is available under Apache License, Version 2.0. We will wor=
k
>> > with the committers to get CLAs signed and review previous contributio=
ns.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D External Dependencies =3D=3D
>> >
>> >  * required by the core code base: GCC or CLOM, Clang, any BLAS librar=
y
>> > (ATLAS, OpenBLAS, MKL), dmlc-core, mshadow, ps-lite (which requires
>> > lib-zeromq), TBB
>> >  * required for GPU usage: cudnn, cuda
>> >  * required for python usage: Python 2/3
>> >  * required for R module: R, Rcpp (GPLv2 licensing)
>> >  * optional for image preparation and preprocessing: opencv
>> >  * optional dependencies for additional features: torch7, numba, cytho=
n
>> > (in NNVM branch)
>> >
>> > Rcpt and lib-zeromq are expected to be licensing discussions.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Cryptography =3D=3D
>> >
>> > Not Applicable
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Required Resources =3D=3D
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Mailing Lists =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > There is currently no mailing list.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Issue Tracking =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Currently uses GitHub to track issues. Would like to continue to do so=
.
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Committers and Affiliations =3D=3D
>> >
>> >  * Tianqi Chen (UW)
>> >  * Mu Li (AWS)
>> >  * Junyuan Xie (AWS)
>> >  * Bing Xu (Apple)
>> >  * Chiyuan Zhang (MIT)
>> >  * Minjie Wang (UYU)
>> >  * Naiyan Wang (Tusimple)
>> >  * Yizhi Liu (Mediav)
>> >  * Tong He (Simon Fraser University)
>> >  * Qiang Kou (Indiana U)
>> >  * Xingjian Shi (HKUST)
>> >
>> > =3D=3D Sponsors =3D=3D
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Champion =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Henri Yandell (bayard at apache.org)
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Nominated Mentors =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > Sebastian Schelter (ssc@apache.org)
>> >
>> >
>> > =3D=3D=3D Sponsoring Entity =3D=3D=3D
>> >
>> > We are requesting the Incubator to sponsor this project.
>> >
>> >
>>


--=20
Yizhi Liu
DMLC member
Technical Manager
Qihoo 360 Inc, Shanghai, China

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