TINED: GNNs-to-MLPs by Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation

Ziang Zhou, Zhihao Ding, Jieming Shi, Li Qing, Shiqi Shen
Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, PMLR 267:78616-78632, 2025.

Abstract

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are pivotal in graph-based learning, particularly excelling in node classification. However, their scalability is hindered by the need for multi-hop data during inference, limiting their application in latency-sensitive scenarios. Recent efforts to distill GNNs into multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) for faster inference often underutilize the layer-level insights of GNNs. In this paper, we present TINED, a novel approach that distills GNNs to MLPs on a layer-by-layer basis using Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation techniques. We focus on two key operations in GNN layers: feature transformation (FT) and graph propagation (GP). We recognize that FT is computationally equivalent to a fully-connected (FC) layer in MLPs. Thus, we propose directly transferring teacher parameters from an FT in a GNN to an FC layer in the student MLP, enhanced by fine-tuning. In TINED, the FC layers in an MLP replicate the sequence of FTs and GPs in the GNN. We also establish a theoretical bound for GP approximation. Furthermore, we note that FT and GP operations in GNN layers often exhibit opposing smoothing effects: GP is aggressive, while FT is conservative. Using Dirichlet energy, we develop a DE ratio to measure these effects and propose Dirichlet Energy Distillation to convey these characteristics from GNN layers to MLP layers. Extensive experiments show that TINED outperforms GNNs and leading distillation methods across various settings and seven datasets. Source code are available at https://github.com/scottjiao/TINED_ICML25/.

Cite this Paper

BibTeX
@InProceedings{pmlr-v267-zhou25a, title = {{TINED}: {GNN}s-to-{MLP}s by Teacher Injection and {D}irichlet Energy Distillation}, author = {Zhou, Ziang and Ding, Zhihao and Shi, Jieming and Qing, Li and Shen, Shiqi}, booktitle = {Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning}, pages = {78616--78632}, year = {2025}, editor = {Singh, Aarti and Fazel, Maryam and Hsu, Daniel and Lacoste-Julien, Simon and Berkenkamp, Felix and Maharaj, Tegan and Wagstaff, Kiri and Zhu, Jerry}, volume = {267}, series = {Proceedings of Machine Learning Research}, month = {13--19 Jul}, publisher = {PMLR}, pdf = {https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mlresearch/v267/main/assets/zhou25a/zhou25a.pdf}, url = {https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhou25a.html}, abstract = {Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are pivotal in graph-based learning, particularly excelling in node classification. However, their scalability is hindered by the need for multi-hop data during inference, limiting their application in latency-sensitive scenarios. Recent efforts to distill GNNs into multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) for faster inference often underutilize the layer-level insights of GNNs. In this paper, we present TINED, a novel approach that distills GNNs to MLPs on a layer-by-layer basis using Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation techniques. We focus on two key operations in GNN layers: feature transformation (FT) and graph propagation (GP). We recognize that FT is computationally equivalent to a fully-connected (FC) layer in MLPs. Thus, we propose directly transferring teacher parameters from an FT in a GNN to an FC layer in the student MLP, enhanced by fine-tuning. In TINED, the FC layers in an MLP replicate the sequence of FTs and GPs in the GNN. We also establish a theoretical bound for GP approximation. Furthermore, we note that FT and GP operations in GNN layers often exhibit opposing smoothing effects: GP is aggressive, while FT is conservative. Using Dirichlet energy, we develop a DE ratio to measure these effects and propose Dirichlet Energy Distillation to convey these characteristics from GNN layers to MLP layers. Extensive experiments show that TINED outperforms GNNs and leading distillation methods across various settings and seven datasets. Source code are available at https://github.com/scottjiao/TINED_ICML25/.} }
Endnote
%0 Conference Paper %T TINED: GNNs-to-MLPs by Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation %A Ziang Zhou %A Zhihao Ding %A Jieming Shi %A Li Qing %A Shiqi Shen %B Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning %C Proceedings of Machine Learning Research %D 2025 %E Aarti Singh %E Maryam Fazel %E Daniel Hsu %E Simon Lacoste-Julien %E Felix Berkenkamp %E Tegan Maharaj %E Kiri Wagstaff %E Jerry Zhu %F pmlr-v267-zhou25a %I PMLR %P 78616--78632 %U https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhou25a.html %V 267 %X Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are pivotal in graph-based learning, particularly excelling in node classification. However, their scalability is hindered by the need for multi-hop data during inference, limiting their application in latency-sensitive scenarios. Recent efforts to distill GNNs into multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) for faster inference often underutilize the layer-level insights of GNNs. In this paper, we present TINED, a novel approach that distills GNNs to MLPs on a layer-by-layer basis using Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation techniques. We focus on two key operations in GNN layers: feature transformation (FT) and graph propagation (GP). We recognize that FT is computationally equivalent to a fully-connected (FC) layer in MLPs. Thus, we propose directly transferring teacher parameters from an FT in a GNN to an FC layer in the student MLP, enhanced by fine-tuning. In TINED, the FC layers in an MLP replicate the sequence of FTs and GPs in the GNN. We also establish a theoretical bound for GP approximation. Furthermore, we note that FT and GP operations in GNN layers often exhibit opposing smoothing effects: GP is aggressive, while FT is conservative. Using Dirichlet energy, we develop a DE ratio to measure these effects and propose Dirichlet Energy Distillation to convey these characteristics from GNN layers to MLP layers. Extensive experiments show that TINED outperforms GNNs and leading distillation methods across various settings and seven datasets. Source code are available at https://github.com/scottjiao/TINED_ICML25/.
APA
Zhou, Z., Ding, Z., Shi, J., Qing, L. & Shen, S.. (2025). TINED: GNNs-to-MLPs by Teacher Injection and Dirichlet Energy Distillation. Proceedings of the 42nd International Conference on Machine Learning, in Proceedings of Machine Learning Research 267:78616-78632 Available from https://proceedings.mlr.press/v267/zhou25a.html.

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