PyClustrPath: An efficient Python package for generating clustering paths with GPU acceleration

Abstract

Convex clustering is a popular clustering model without requiring the number of clusters as prior knowledge. It can generate a clustering path by continuously solving the model with a sequence of regularization parameter values. This paper introduces {\it PyClustrPath}, a highly efficient Python package for solving the convex clustering model with GPU acceleration. {\it PyClustrPath} implements popular first-order and second-order algorithms with a clean modular design. Such a design makes {\it PyClustrPath} more scalable to incorporate new algorithms for solving the convex clustering model in the future. We extensively test the numerical performance of {\it PyClustrPath} on popular clustering datasets, demonstrating its superior performance compared to the existing solvers for generating the clustering path based on the convex clustering model. The implementation of {\it PyClustrPath} can be found at: https://github.com/D3IntOpt/PyClustrPath.