6.3.5 Transfer Learning

Section Overview

Transfer learning is the default starting point for many vision projects: reuse a backbone that already knows general visual patterns, replace the task-specific head, and only fine-tune more layers when validation results justify it.

Learning Objectives

• Explain why training a CNN from scratch is often wasteful.
• Distinguish a pretrained backbone from a classification head.
• Freeze a backbone and train only the new head.
• Unfreeze the last convolution block with a smaller learning rate.
• Avoid common transfer-learning mistakes such as data leakage and destructive fine-tuning.

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Look at the Decision Flow First

Read the flow like this:

pretrained backbone -> replace head -> train head -> validate -> unfreeze later layers if needed

Two questions drive the decision:

Question	If the answer is small/similar	If the answer is large/different
How much labeled data do you have?	freeze most layers first	fine-tune more layers carefully
How similar is the new task?	pretrained features may transfer well	later layers may need adaptation

This section uses pure PyTorch and synthetic images so the code runs without downloading torchvision weights. In real projects, the backbone is usually a pretrained torchvision or timm model.

Core Terms

Term	Meaning
backbone	feature extractor, usually all layers before the final classifier
head	task-specific classifier or regressor attached to the backbone
freeze	set requires_grad=False so parameters do not update
fine-tune	unfreeze some pretrained layers and continue training
logits	raw class scores before softmax

The practical rule is:

small data -> train the head first
not good enough -> unfreeze later backbone layers with a smaller learning rate

Full Lab: Simulate Transfer Learning Offline

This lab has three stages:

1. Pretrain a tiny backbone on simple line patterns.
2. Reuse that backbone on a new target task and train only the head.
3. Unfreeze the last convolution layer and fine-tune with a smaller learning rate.

Run the full script:

import copy
import numpy as np
import torch
from torch import nn

SEED = 7
np.random.seed(SEED)
torch.manual_seed(SEED)


def make_image(label, task, size=16, noise=0.05):
    img = np.zeros((size, size), dtype=np.float32)
    c = size // 2

    if task == "source":
        if label == 0:
            img[:, c] = 1.0
        elif label == 1:
            img[c, :] = 1.0
        else:
            for i in range(size):
                img[i, i] = 1.0
    elif task == "target":
        if label == 0:
            img[:, c] = 1.0
            img[c, :] = 1.0
        elif label == 1:
            for i in range(size):
                img[i, size - 1 - i] = 1.0
        else:
            img[3:-3, 3] = 1.0
            img[3:-3, -4] = 1.0
            img[3, 3:-3] = 1.0
            img[-4, 3:-3] = 1.0

    img += np.random.randn(size, size).astype(np.float32) * noise
    return np.clip(img, 0.0, 1.0)


def make_dataset(task, per_class, size=16):
    X, y = [], []
    for label in range(3):
        for _ in range(per_class):
            X.append(make_image(label, task, size=size))
            y.append(label)
    X = torch.tensor(np.array(X)).unsqueeze(1)
    y = torch.tensor(np.array(y), dtype=torch.long)
    return X, y


class TinyBackbone(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.features = nn.Sequential(
            nn.Conv2d(1, 8, kernel_size=3, padding=1),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.MaxPool2d(2),
            nn.Conv2d(8, 16, kernel_size=3, padding=1),
            nn.ReLU(),
            nn.AdaptiveAvgPool2d((1, 1)),
        )

    def forward(self, x):
        return self.features(x).flatten(1)


class ImageClassifier(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, backbone=None, num_classes=3):
        super().__init__()
        self.backbone = backbone if backbone is not None else TinyBackbone()
        self.head = nn.Linear(16, num_classes)

    def forward(self, x):
        return self.head(self.backbone(x))


def accuracy(model, X, y):
    with torch.no_grad():
        return (model(X).argmax(dim=1) == y).float().mean().item()


def train(model, X, y, optimizer, epochs, label, print_every):
    loss_fn = nn.CrossEntropyLoss()
    for epoch in range(1, epochs + 1):
        logits = model(X)
        loss = loss_fn(logits, y)

        optimizer.zero_grad()
        loss.backward()
        optimizer.step()

        if epoch == 1 or epoch % print_every == 0:
            acc = accuracy(model, X, y)
            print(f"{label} epoch={epoch:02d} loss={loss.item():.4f} acc={acc:.3f}")


source_X, source_y = make_dataset("source", per_class=80)
target_train_X, target_train_y = make_dataset("target", per_class=12)
target_val_X, target_val_y = make_dataset("target", per_class=40)

# Stage 1: pretrain a source model.
source_model = ImageClassifier(num_classes=3)
train(
    source_model,
    source_X,
    source_y,
    torch.optim.Adam(source_model.parameters(), lr=0.03),
    epochs=60,
    label="pretrain",
    print_every=20,
)

# Stage 2: transfer the backbone and train only a new head.
frozen_backbone = copy.deepcopy(source_model.backbone)
transfer_model = ImageClassifier(backbone=frozen_backbone, num_classes=3)
for p in transfer_model.backbone.parameters():
    p.requires_grad = False

print("trainable_after_freeze")
for name, p in transfer_model.named_parameters():
    print(f"{name:<28} {p.requires_grad}")

train(
    transfer_model,
    target_train_X,
    target_train_y,
    torch.optim.Adam(transfer_model.head.parameters(), lr=0.05),
    epochs=20,
    label="head",
    print_every=10,
)
print("head_only_val_acc", round(accuracy(transfer_model, target_val_X, target_val_y), 3))

# Stage 3: unfreeze the last conv layer and fine-tune gently.
for p in transfer_model.backbone.features[3].parameters():
    p.requires_grad = True

optimizer = torch.optim.Adam(
    [
        {"params": transfer_model.backbone.features[3].parameters(), "lr": 0.0005},
        {"params": transfer_model.head.parameters(), "lr": 0.005},
    ]
)
train(
    transfer_model,
    target_train_X,
    target_train_y,
    optimizer,
    epochs=20,
    label="finetune",
    print_every=10,
)
print("finetune_val_acc", round(accuracy(transfer_model, target_val_X, target_val_y), 3))

Expected output:

pretrain epoch=01 loss=1.0995 acc=0.667
pretrain epoch=20 loss=0.0000 acc=1.000
pretrain epoch=40 loss=0.0000 acc=1.000
pretrain epoch=60 loss=0.0000 acc=1.000
trainable_after_freeze
backbone.features.0.weight   False
backbone.features.0.bias     False
backbone.features.3.weight   False
backbone.features.3.bias     False
head.weight                  True
head.bias                    True
head epoch=01 loss=2.4749 acc=0.361
head epoch=10 loss=0.7364 acc=0.667
head epoch=20 loss=0.4991 acc=0.944
head_only_val_acc 0.875
finetune epoch=01 loss=0.4759 acc=0.667
finetune epoch=10 loss=0.4367 acc=1.000
finetune epoch=20 loss=0.4096 acc=1.000
finetune_val_acc 1.0

What the Lab Teaches

Stage	What happened	Practical meaning
pretrain	backbone learned line-like visual features	this stands in for a real pretrained model
freeze	only the new head was trainable	fast and safer for small target data
train head	target validation accuracy became useful	reused features were already helpful
fine-tune	last conv layer adapted gently	small learning rate reduces damage to old features

Fine-tuning is not automatically better. It can overfit or destroy pretrained features if the target data is tiny or the learning rate is too high. Always judge by validation results, not by the training loss alone.

Real Project Workflow

1. Split data into train/validation/test before touching the model.
2. Load a pretrained backbone.
3. Replace the head so output classes match your task.
4. Freeze the backbone and train the head.
5. Inspect validation errors.
6. If needed, unfreeze later blocks and use a smaller learning rate for the backbone.
7. Stop when validation improves no further.

For real images, also match the preprocessing expected by the pretrained weights: input size, normalization mean/std, and color channel order.

Freeze or Fine-Tune?

Situation	Starting choice
very small dataset, similar task	freeze backbone, train head
medium dataset, similar task	freeze first, then unfreeze last block
larger dataset, different visual domain	fine-tune more blocks carefully
medical/satellite/industrial images	validate carefully; pretrained natural-image features may transfer only partly
deployment-limited device	prefer smaller backbone or freeze-and-head baseline first

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Why it hurts	Fix
fine-tuning all layers immediately	unstable on small data	train head first
using one learning rate for everything	backbone updates too aggressively	use smaller LR for pretrained layers
forgetting requires_grad checks	wrong layers train silently	print trainable parameters
evaluating on training data only	hides overfitting	keep a validation set
preprocessing mismatch	pretrained features receive unfamiliar input scale	use the weights’ expected transform
leakage across splits	validation becomes meaningless	split by image source/user/object when needed

Exercises

1. Add a fourth target class and design a new synthetic pattern.
2. Increase target training data from 12 to 40 per class. Does head-only training improve?
3. Change the backbone fine-tuning learning rate from 0.0005 to 0.05. What happens?
4. Print only trainable parameter names after unfreezing the last convolution.
5. Explain when GAP plus a small head is preferable to a large Flatten head.

Key Takeaways

• Transfer learning reuses visual features instead of relearning everything from scratch.
• The safest first baseline is usually: replace head, freeze backbone, train head.
• Fine-tune later layers only when validation results justify it.
• Use smaller learning rates for pretrained layers.
• Good transfer learning is an engineering workflow, not just copying a large model.