Transfer learning with active queries for relational data modeling across multiple information networks

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship prediction problem in multi-network scenarios, aiming to overcome the network sparsity challenge where the labeled data (connected node pairs) are much less than the unlabeled data (unconnected node pairs). The TAQIL framework is proposed by using transfer learning to get knowledge from the related source networks and then use active learning to query the labels of the most informative instances from the oracle in the target network. A new query function is also proposed in order to better use the parameters output by the transfer learning method. The alternate use of transfer learning and active learning allows adaptive transfer of knowledge across multiple networks to mitigate cold start and meantime improve the prediction accuracy with active queries in the target network. The experimental results on both non-network datasets and network datasets demonstrate the significant improvement in prediction accuracy compared with several benchmark methods and related state-of-art methods.