In this paper, a Neural Networks optimizer based on Self-adaptive Differential Evolution is presented. This optimizer applies mutation and crossover operators in a new way, taking into account the structure of the network according to a per layer strategy. Moreover, a new crossover called interm is proposed, and a new self-adaptive version of DE called MAB-ShaDE is suggested to reduce the number of parameters. The framework has been tested on some well-known classification problems and a comparative study on the various combinations of self-adaptive methods, mutation, and crossover operators available in literature is performed. Experimental results show that DENN reaches good performances in terms of accuracy, better than or at least comparable with those obtained by backpropagation.

In this report we describe the hate speech detection system for the Italian language developed by a joint team of researchers from the two universities of Perugia (University for Foreigners of Perugia and University of Perugia). The experimental results obtained in the HaSpeeDe task of the Evalita 2018 evaluation campaign are analyzed. Finally, a suggestion for future research directions is provided in the conclusion.