Defining models with LightningModule

Scalable AI Models with PyTorch Lightning

Sergiy Tkachuk

Director, GenAI Productivity

LightningModule in focus

Encapsulates your model architecture
Organizes training logic into a single, manageable unit
Blueprint that brings order and clarity to deep learning projects

PyTorch LightningModule diagram

Defining the init method

Key tasks:

Model's initialization
super():
- Automated handling of training loops
- Logging
- Checkpointing
Model layers defined after initialization
Modular and easy to maintain

import lightning.pytorch as pl
import torch.nn as nn

class ClassificationModel(pl.LightningModule):
    def __init__(self, input_dim,
                 hidden_dim, num_class):
          # Initialize parent class
        super().__init__()

        # First layer
        self.layer1 = nn.Linear(input_dim,
                                hidden_dim)
        # Activation function
        self.relu = nn.ReLU()
        # Output layer
        self.layer2 = nn.Linear(hidden_dim,
                                num_class)

Implementing the forward method

Key steps:

Define data flow through network
Process input through layers sequentially
- Linear transformation
- Activation
- Last layer and output

import lightning.pytorch as pl
import torch.nn as nn

class ClassificationModel(pl.LightningModule):
    def __init__(self, input_dim,
                 hidden_dim, num_class):
          ...

    def forward(self, x):

        x = self.layer1(x) # Pass input

        x = nn.ReLU(x) # Apply activation

        x = self.layer2(x) # Compute output

        return x # Return result

Example: classifying hand written digits

import lightning.pytorch as pl
from torch.utils.data import DataLoader
from torchvision.datasets import MNIST
from torchvision import transforms

transform = transforms.ToTensor()
train_ds = MNIST(root='.', train=True,  download=True, transform=transform)
test_ds  = MNIST(root='.', train=False, download=True, transform=transform)

train_loader = DataLoader(train_ds, batch_size=64, shuffle=True)
test_loader  = DataLoader(test_ds,  batch_size=64)


model = ClassificationModel(input_dim=28*28, hidden_dim=128, num_class=10)


trainer = pl.Trainer(max_epochs=3, accelerator='auto')
trainer.fit(model, train_loader, test_loader)

Integrating the model with classification tasks

Focus on classification use case
Entire flow within LightningModule
Output raw outputs for softmax activation
Integration with Lightning Trainer

class ClassificationModel(pl.LightningModule):
  def __init__(self, input_dim, 
               hidden_dim, output_dim):
    super().__init__()

    self.hid = nn.Linear(input_dim, hidden_dim)
    self.out = nn.Linear(hidden_dim, output_dim)


  def forward(self, x):

    x = self.hidden(x)
    x = nn.ReLU(x)
    x = self.output(x)

    return x

Let's practice!

Scalable AI Models with PyTorch Lightning