Self Organizing Map (SOM) is a form of Artificial Neural Network (ANN) belonging to a class of Machine Learning. AI Junkie has a GREAT tutorial about it. What I like about SOMs is that they belong to a class of unsupervised learning models and they hold true to the first law of geography.
"Everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things." - Tobler
I encountered them and used them over 20 years ago, and since AI/ML is the hottest topic these days, I'm reacquainting myself with them. There are plenty of SOM libraries, but I learn (or in this case re-learn) by doing. This project is my learning journey in implementing SOMs and "Sparkyfing" them.
The following is a sample output of the obligatory RGB classifier, where a million random RGB triples are organized by a Spark based SOM into a 10x10 square lattice:
And the following is a sample solution to a TSP using SOM:
Like usual, all the source code can be found here.
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