Graph-Regularized Tensor Regression: A Domain-Aware Framework for Interpretable Modeling of Multiway Data on Graphs

Modern data analytics applications are increasingly characterized by exceedingly large and multidimensional data sources. This represents a challenge for traditional machine learning models, as the number of model parameters needed to process such data grows exponentially with the data dimensions, an effect known as the curse of dimensionality. Recently, tensor decomposition (TD) techniques have shown promising results in reducing the computational costs associated with large-dimensional models while achieving comparable performance. However, such tensor models are often unable to incorporate the underlying domain knowledge when compressing high-dimensional models. To this end, we introduce a novel graph-regularized tensor regression (GRTR) framework, whereby domain knowledge about intramodal relations is incorporated into the model in the form of a graph Laplacian matrix. This is then used as a regularization tool to promote a physically meaningful structure within the model parameters. By virtue of tensor algebra, the proposed framework is shown to be fully interpretable, both coefficient-wise and dimension-wise. The GRTR model is validated in a multiway regression setting and compared against competing models and is shown to achieve improved performance at reduced computational costs. Detailed visualizations are provided to help readers gain an intuitive understanding of the employed tensor operations.