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MPEG-G Microbiome Classification Challenge

$5 000 USD
Completed (6 months ago)
Classification
Federated Learning
Python
Deep Learning
794 joined
83 active
Starti
Jun 20, 25
Closei
Sep 15, 25
Reveali
Sep 15, 25
Federated Learning with Decision Trees
18 Aug 2025, 23:44 · 1

Hello everyone, I've noticed that many participants are using decision tree-based models. I'm wondering how federated learning could be implemented with them, since—unlike neural networks—decision trees don't rely on weights that can be averaged across clients. It seems to present a lot of challenges, especially when it comes to synchronizing tree structures or securely evaluating splits. Could someone clarify this for me? Am I missing something?

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Freelance

Hi,

You're right with the challenges of using tree models for federation learning. In my chat with Copilot, although it noted the concern you raised, it suggested using a form of aggregation to aggregate client's predictions. It could be using the average of their probabilities or using a hard voting method by assigning class to the most frequent, if an odd number of clients is used.

20 Aug 2025, 02:56
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