Interactive Distributed Deep Learning with Jupyter Notebooks

Steven Andrew Farrell, Aaron Vose, Oliver Evans, Matthew L. Henderson, Shreyas Cholia, Fernando Pérez, Wahid Bhimji, Shane Canon, Rollin C. Thomas, Prabhat

Abstract: Deep learning researchers are increasingly using Jupyter notebooks to implement interactive, reproducible workflows with embedded visualization, steering and documentation. Such solutions are typically deployed on small-scale (e.g. single server) computing systems. However, as the sizes and complexities of datasets and associated neural network models increase, high-performance distributed systems become important for training and evaluating models in a feasible amount of time. In this paper we describe our vision for Jupyter notebook solutions to deploy deep learning workloads onto high-performance computing systems. We demonstrate the effectiveness of notebooks for distributed training and hyper-parameter optimization of deep neural networks with efficient, scalable backends.