CNN

This series explores DenseNet’s revolutionary approach to neural connectivity that solved vanishing gradients and improved feature reuse, examines its mathematical foundations and practical implementation, and discusses how its limitations eventually paved the way for Vision Transformers. We trace the evolution from convolutional networks to hybrid architectures, showing how each innovation built upon previous breakthroughs while addressing their shortcomings in the endless pursuit of more efficient and powerful deep learning models.

ResNet model and the seminal paper, Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition by Kaiming He, Xiangyu Zhang, Shaoqing Ren, and Jian Sun, which won the Best Paper award at CVPR 2016. It is one of the most influential and fundamental papers in the history of deep learning for computer vision.

VGGNet is a famous deep learning model used in computer vision—essentially, teaching computers to understand images. It was created by researchers at the Visual Geometry Group (VGG) at the University of Oxford. Since its debut in 2014, VGGNet has become one of the key models that helped advance how machines see and recognize objects in photos. At its core, VGGNet is designed to look at images and decide what is in them.

LeNet-5 is an early and very influential type of convolutional neural network (CNN) developed by Yann LeCun and his colleagues in 1998, designed mainly to recognize handwritten digits like those in the MNIST dataset. What makes LeNet-5 special is how it combines several clever ideas that allow it to efficiently and accurately understand images despite their complexity—ideas that were crucial stepping stones for today’s deep learning revolution.

Vision Transformers (ViTs) are redefining image recognition by using Transformer models to capture global context, unlike traditional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) that focus on local features. ViTs excel with large datasets and show impressive scalability and performance.