# InfGraND: An Influence-Guided GNN-to-MLP Knowledge Distillation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.08033 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.08033/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Graph neural network distillation, one of 12 directions in Knowledge distillation.
- Builds on 43 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jan 2026.

## Placed in

- Knowledge distillation / [Graph neural network distillation](https://mlsanity.com/distill/graph-neural-network-distillation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 43)

- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.02531/) (2015)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [A Comprehensive Survey on Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.00596/) (2019)
- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [Open Graph Benchmark: Datasets for Machine Learning on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.00687/) (2020)
- [Convolutional Neural Networks on Graphs with Fast Localized Spectral Filtering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.09375/) (2016)
- [Knowledge Distillation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.05525/) (2020)
- [Graph Neural Networks: A Review of Methods and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.08434/) (2018)
- [DeepWalk: Online Learning of Social Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1403.6652/) (2014)
- [Simplifying Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.07153/) (2019)
- [Graph Convolutional Neural Networks for Web-Scale Recommender Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01973/) (2018)
- [Spectral Networks and Locally Connected Networks on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.6203/) (2013)
- [Pitfalls of Graph Neural Network Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.05868/) (2018)
- [Representation Learning on Graphs with Jumping Knowledge Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.03536/) (2018)
- [Simple and Deep Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.02133/) (2020)
- [FastGCN: Fast Learning with Graph Convolutional Networks via Importance Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.10247/) (2018)
- [DeepGCNs: Can GCNs Go as Deep as CNNs?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.03751/) (2019)
- [Graph Neural Networks in Recommender Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02260/) (2020)
- [Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.08921/) (2024)
- [Towards Deeper Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09296/) (2020)
- [Deep Convolutional Networks on Graph-Structured Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.05163/) (2015)
- [Adaptive Sampling Towards Fast Graph Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.05343/) (2018)
- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation with Graphs (GraphRAG)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00309/) (2024)
- [Graph-less Neural Networks: Teaching Old MLPs New Tricks via Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.08727/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Graph Neural Networks for Recommender Systems: Challenges, Methods, and Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12843/) (2021)
- [Distilling Knowledge from Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10477/) (2020)
- [Extract the Knowledge of Graph Neural Networks and Go Beyond it: An Effective Knowledge Distillation Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.02885/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [PreGS: A Parameter-Transfer-Based Multi-Expert Graph Neural Network for Node Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.26310/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) are the go-to model for graph data analysis. However, GNNs rely on two key operations - aggregation and update, which can pose challenges for low-latency inference tasks or resource-constrained scenarios. Simple Multi-Layer Perceptrons (MLPs) offer a computationally efficient alternative. Yet, training an MLP in a supervised setting often leads to suboptimal performance. Knowledge Distillation (KD) from a GNN teacher to an MLP student has emerged to bridge this gap. However, most KD methods either transfer knowledge uniformly across all nodes or rely on graph-agnostic indicators such as prediction uncertainty. We argue this overlooks a more fundamental, graph-centric inquiry: "How important is a node to the structure of the graph?" We introduce a framework, InfGraND, an Influence-guided Graph KNowledge Distillation from GNN to MLP that addresses this by identifying and prioritizing structurally influential nodes to guide the distillation process, ensuring that the MLP learns from the most critical parts of the graph. Additionally, InfGraND embeds structural awareness in MLPs through one-time multi-hop neighborhood feature pre-computation, which enriches the student MLP's input and thus avoids inference-time overhead. Our rigorous evaluation in transductive and inductive settings across seven homophilic graph benchmark datasets shows InfGraND consistently outperforms prior GNN to MLP KD methods, demonstrating its practicality for numerous latency-critical applications in real-world settings.