.

WALLAGA UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF NATURAL AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE

DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATHICS
Graph Theory and algorithms(PhD)
Seminar II On :- Graph theory with machine learning
By: Dugassa Bekele Binagde

Advisor: Prof. Repalle.V.N. Srinivasa Rao

And
[Link] Abebe (Associate Professor)
June 28,2025
Nekemte,Oromia,Ethiopia
 Outlines Of Presentation

1. Introduction
 Background of the study
 Objective of the study
 Significance of the study
 Statement of the study
2. Literature review
 What is Machine Learning?
 Types of Machine Learning
 What is Graph Learning?
 Purpose of graph learning
 Cont…
3. Methodology
Application Of graph Learning
Result and discussion
Conclusion
Reference.
 Introduction
Graph theory was first defined and introduced by
Leonhard Euler in 1736.
In the old city of Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia), the
Pregel River ran through the city, creating two large
islands connected to each other and the mainland by
seven bridges.
The challenge was: Can a person walk through the city
crossing each bridge exactly once, without retracing their
steps?
He used a graph to represent landmasses and bridges in
the city of Königsberg that it was impossible to walk
through the city crossing each bridge exactly once and in
doing so, laid the foundation for graph theory.
 Cont…
Graph theory is the branch of mathematics that
studies graphs,
Graph Theory structures are made up of:
 Vertices (nodes) : Represent entities or objects
 Edges (links) : represent relationships or connections
between vertices.
Graph Theory is applicable in :
 Computer networks
 Social networks
 Transportation systems
 Biology (e.g., neural networks)
 Algorithms (e.g., shortest path, graph traversal),etc.
 Cont…
 Machine Learning is a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables

computers to learn from data and improve their performance over time

without being explicitly programmed.

 Graph Learning(graph machine learning) is a type of machine learning that

focuses on data represented as graphs, structures made of nodes (entities)

and edges (relationships).

 Graph Learning aims to learn patterns, representations, or predictions from

this graph-structured data.

 Objective of the Study
 General Objective:

 To explore and advance the field of graph learning by developing models and

algorithms that effectively learn from graph-structured data, enabling accurate

predictions, classifications, and representations in various real-world applications.

 Specific Objectives:

 To review and analyze existing graph learning techniques

 To design and implement improved graph learning algorithms

 To evaluate the performance of proposed graph learning models on benchmark

datasets across domains.

 To investigate the impact of graph structure and features on learning outcomes.

 To Develop a framework that incorporates graph-based features into machine

learning models.
 Cont…

Significance of the Study

 The graph learning significance lies in its ability to model complex

relationships and structures in real-world data.

Statement of the problem

 Traditional machine learning models struggle to effectively capture the

complex dependencies and topological structures inherent in graph-

structure data.

 Graph learning has emerged as a powerful paradigm to address this

challenge by learning representations that exploit node features and graph

topology.
 Literature Review

Machine learning vs Artificial intelligence (AI) and Deep learning

 Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the development of programs that
behave intelligently and mimic human intelligence through a set of
algorithm.
 Machine learning is a subset of AI, which uses algorithms that learn
from data to make predictions.
 Deep learning is a sub-fied of machine learning dealing with
algorithms based essentially on multi-layered artificial neural networks
(ANN) that are inspired by the structure of the human brain.
Cont…
 Types of Machine Learning

 Machine learning can be broadly classified into

three types based on the nature of the learning
system and the data available.
 Supervised learning:The model is trained on a
labelled dataset.
 Unsupervised learning: Involves training the model
on an unlabelled dataset. The model is left to find
patterns and relationships in the data on its own.

 Reinforcement learning: An agent learns to make

decisions by interacting with its environment
 How Does Machine Learning Work?

 Machine learning works involves delving into a step-by-

step process that transforms raw data into valuable
insights. The steps are:
Data collection

Data preprocessing

Choosing the right model

Training the model

Evaluating the model

Hyperparameter tuning and optimization

 What is Graph Learning?

 Graph learning refers to applying machine learning

methods to data represented as graphs.

 Many real-world data are naturally represented as

graphs, and traditional machine learning methods

struggle to model such irregular, non-Euclidean data.

 A neural network is a type of machine learning model

inspired by the human brain.

 Cont…
 Neural network designed to recognize patterns and relationships in

data by passing information through layers of interconnected

“neurons.”

 The Basic Components of neural network:

 Input Layer: Takes in the raw data

Hidden Layers: Perform computations. Each neuron applies

a weight, bias, and activation function to the incoming data.

Output Layer: Produces the final result

 Cont…
 Deep learning model is a type of machine learning model that uses

multiple layers of artificial neural networks to learn patterns from data.

These models are particularly powerful for complex tasks like image

recognition, natural language processing, speech recognition, and more.

 A Graph Neural Network (GNN) is a deep learning model that learns to

make predictions or extract features by aggregating and transforming

information from a node’s local graph neighborhood. This is done

through iterative message passing, where nodes update their

representations by combining their own features with those of their

neighbors.
 Cont…
 The key applications of graph learning in Graph Neuran
Network(GNN) includes:
 Node classification(node-level) :Predicting the label of a
node
 Link prediction(Link-level): Predicting the existence of an
edge
 Graph classification(Graph-level):Classifying an entire graph
([Link] molecules as toxic or non-toxic,social
network).
Cont…
 Purpose of Graph Learning

 The purpose of a graph is to present data that are

too numerous or complicated to be described
adequately in the text and in less space.
 How does graph machine learning work?

 Graph machine learning works by leveraging the

unique structure and relationships inherent in
graph data to perform various predictive and
analytical tasks. The processes:
The process:
Graph Representation
Feature Extraction
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs)
Propagation and Aggregation
Learning and Optimization
Prediction and Inference
 METHODOLOGY
The methodology of graph learning typically involves the following steps:
 Problem Definition: Clearly define the graph-based task. Common
types include:
 Node classification (e.g., predicting the type of a node in a social network)
 Link prediction (e.g., predicting friendships in a social network)
 Graph classification (e.g., predicting the category of a molecule)
 Graph generation (e.g., generating new molecules or structures)
 Graph Construction
 Construct the graph from raw data
 Nodes (V): Represent entities
 Edges (E): Represent relationships
 Node features: Additional attributes like text, numbers, or vectors.
 Edge features: Weights, distances, or types of relationships.
 Graph Preprocessing
 Normalization (e.g., adjacency matrix normalization)
 Edge pruning or augmentation
 Feature scaling or embedding
 Handling missing data
 Cont…
 Model Selection:Choose or design an appropriate model
depending on the task. Categories include:
 Graph Embedding Methods: Learn low-dimensional representations:
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs): Use message passing to aggregate features
from neighbors:
 Training: Define loss function and use optimization , Apply
regularization, Consider mini-batching for large graphs.
 Evaluation: Use appropriate metrics depending on the
 Interpretation & Visualization:Use visualization tools , Explore
attention weights , Use saliency maps or gradient-based
attribution methods for interpretability.
 Deployment & Iteration:Optimize model for inference, Update
graph dynamically if needed, Monitor model drift and retrain
periodically.
 Applications of Graph Learning

Applications of graph learning span many fields, as graphs naturally model

real-world systems.
 Major Applications of Graph Learning

 Social Network Analysis: Graph learning is fundamental in social

network analysis, where nodes represent individuals, and edges

represent their relationships or interactions.
 Recommendation Systems: By modeling users and items as nodes and

interactions between them as edges, graph learning can help recommend

new items (e.g., movies, products) to users by finding patterns in their
graph-based interactions.
 Cont…
 Biological Networks: Graph learning can be used in bioinformatics

for modeling interactions between proteins or genes, helping predict

interactions, disease pathways, or drug interactions.

 Knowledge Graphs: Graphs that represent relationships between

entities (e.g., people, places, concepts) are widely used in natural

language processing (NLP) tasks like question answering, search,

and information retrieval.

 Cont...
 Transportation and Logistics Networks: Modelling cities and roads as

graphs can help optimize routes, predict traffic congestion, or improve

logistics for delivery services.

 Community detection: In this task, the goal is to identify densely

connected sub-graphs or communities within a graph.

 Fraud detection: Graph machine learning can be used to detect fraudulent

activities in financial transactions, insurance claims, and other areas by

identifying suspicious patterns in graph data.

 In generally, graph learning is a general method for describing and

modeling complex systems.

Examples of application of Graph Learning

Social Networks

Nodes: Person/Account
Edges: Friendship/Follow
Input: Social Network
Task: Identify fake user with influence powers
 Cont…

Health Records
Nodes: Patient, Medical Service
Edges: Treatment by Doctor
Input: Health Records Graph
Task: Predict if a patient need to see a doctor for medical treatmen
 Cont…
Users interacts with items
 Watch movies, buy merchandise, listen to music
Nodes: Users and items
Edges: User-item interactions
Goal: Recommend items users might like
 Conclusion

 Graph learning is an exciting and growing field with vast

applications across many domains. It is an evolving area of

machine learning that focuses on leveraging the structure and
relationships within graph-structured data and allows us to model
complex relationships and dependencies that are otherwise
difficult to capture with traditional machine learning techniques.
 Graph learning has proven highly effective in domains where data

is inherently interconnected, such as social networks, biological

systems, recommendation engines, and knowledge graphs.
 Result and Discussion
 In Result and Discussion section for a study on graph learning, it's
important to:
Present the quantitative results of your model(s).
.Compare performance with baselines or other models.
Discuss qualitative insights, like learned embeddings, node
classifications, community detection, etc.
Explain anomalies or failures if present.
Highlight implications and potential applications.
 Discussion:
 Performance Analysis: The GCN model generalizes well across
 Cont...
 Discussion:
Performance Analysis: The GCN model generalizes well across
datasets, although attention-based models (e.g., GAT) show a slight
edge, particularly in more complex graphs like Citeseer.
Model Efficiency: GCN trains faster due to its simpler architecture,
making it suitable for large-scale graphs where computational
efficiency is crucial.
Node Embeddings: Visualizing node embeddings via t-SNE reveals
distinct clustering of node classes in Cora, indicating effective
representation learning.
Scalability: While GCN and GAT are effective on citation networks,
models like GraphSAGE demonstrate better scalability for inductive
settings.
Limitations: Performance degrades on sparse graphs with low
homophily, suggesting that the model relies heavily on local
neighborhood similarity.
 Cont…

The key conclusions about graph learning includes:

 Rich Representation: Graph learning models, particularly

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs), provide powerful means to

learn from complex relationships and dependencies that

traditional models may miss.

 Scalability and Efficiency: While early methods struggled

with scalability, recent advancements and sampling techniques

have improved performance on large-scale graphs.

 Cont…
 Versatility: Graph learning can be applied to node-level tasks (e.g., classification,

regression), edge-level tasks (e.g. link prediction), and graph-level tasks (e.g.

molecular property prediction), making it broadly useful across disciplines.

 Challenges Remain: Despite its strengths, graph learning still faces several

challenges, such as handling dynamic graphs, ensuring interpretability, dealing

with noisy or incomplete data, and improving generalization across graphs.

 Future Outlook: As research progresses, we can expect more robust,

interpretable, and generalizable graph learning models. Integration with other AI

methods is also a promising direction for advancing multi-modal learning.

 Reference
1) Hamilton, W. L. (2020). Graph Representation Learning.
Published in Synthesis Lectures on Artificial Intelligence
and Machine Learning, Vol. 14, No. 3, pages 1–159
2) Kumar, A., Singh, H., & Rao, K. (2020). Fraud detection
in social networks using machine learning techniques.
*Journal of Cybersecurity and Privacy*, 1(2), 193-210.
3) Yin, J., Zhao, J., & Zhang, L. (2021). A hybrid
recommendation system based on graph theory and
collaborative filtering. *Information Sciences*, 538, 254-
 Cont...
4) Wu, Z., Sousa, A. J., & Figueiredo, C. (2019). A survey on
learning from graphs. *IEEE Transactions on Neural
Networks and Learning Systems*, 30(6), 1663-1679.
5) Zhou et al., 2020, "Graph Neural Networks: A Review of
Methods and Applications" – a comprehensive survey of
GNNs.
6) Khoshraftar & An (2022)’’Provides a clean division
between non-GNN’’ (random-walk, skip-gram, matrix
factorization) and GNN-based methods, for both static and
dynamic graphs.
7) Bronstein et al., 2021, "Geometric Deep Learning: Grids,
Groups, Graphs, Geodesics, and Gauges" – broader
perspective on geometric ML.
 Cont...
8) Barabási, A.-L., & Albert, R. (1999). Emergence of scaling in random networks.
*Science*, 286(5439), 509-512.

9) Newman, M. E. J. (2010). Networks: An Introduction. Oxford University Press.

10) Ju et al. (2023) Recent deep dive into taxonomies of GNN architectures, training
paradigms, transformers, and applications.

11) Stillman, N., & Broadwater, K. (2025). Graph Neural Networks in Action.
Manning Publications; hands-on guide covering PyTorch Geometric, DGL, large-
scale training .

12) arXiv:2109.12843 (Sep 2021) & Shiwen Wu et al., arXiv:2011.02260.“A Survey

of Graph Neural Networks for Recommender Systems”Cover GNN applications in
recommender systems: taxonomy, spectral/spatial models, challenges, open problems
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTIONS!

GALATOOMAA!