OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface Assisted Edge Machine Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

The ever-growing popularity and rapid improving of artificial intelligence (AI) have raised rethinking on the evolution of wireless networks. Mobile edge computing (MEC) provides a natural platform for AI applications since it provides rich computation resources to train AI models, as well as low-latency access to the data generated by mobile and Internet of Things devices. In this paper, we present an infrastructure to perform machine learning tasks at an MEC server with the assistance of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). In contrast to conventional communication systems where the principal criteria are to maximize the throughput, we aim at optimizing the learning performance. Specifically, we minimize the maximum learning error of all users by jointly optimizing the beamforming vectors of the base station and the phase-shift matrix of the RIS. An alternating optimization-based framework is proposed to optimize the two terms iteratively, where closed-form expressions of the beamforming vectors are derived, and an alternating direction method of multipliers (ADMM)-based algorithm is designed together with an error level searching framework to effectively solve the nonconvex optimization problem of the phase-shift matrix. Simulation results demonstrate significant gains of deploying an RIS and validate the advantages of our proposed algorithms over various benchmarks.
A simpler spectral approach for clustering in directed networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

We study the task of clustering in directed networks. We show that using the eigenvalue/eigenvector decomposition of the adjacency matrix is simpler than all common methods which are based on a combination of data regularization and SVD truncation, and works well down to the very sparse regime where the edge density has constant order. Our analysis is based on a Master Theorem describing sharp asymptotics for isolated eigenvalues/eigenvectors of sparse, non-symmetric matrices with independent entries. We also describe the limiting distribution of the entries of these eigenvectors; in the task of digraph clustering with spectral embeddings, we provide numerical evidence for the superiority of Gaussian Mixture clustering over the widely used k-means algorithm.
Real-time Denoising and Dereverberation with Tiny Recurrent U-Net
Venue: arXiv cs.SD 2021
Year: 2021

Modern deep learning-based models have seen outstanding performance improvement with speech enhancement tasks. The number of parameters of state-of-the-art models, however, is often too large to be deployed on devices for real-world applications. To this end, we propose Tiny Recurrent U-Net (TRU-Net), a lightweight online inference model that matches the performance of current state-of-the-art models. The size of the quantized version of TRU-Net is 362 kilobytes, which is small enough to be deployed on edge devices. In addition, we combine the small-sized model with a new masking method called phase-aware $β$-sigmoid mask, which enables simultaneous denoising and dereverberation. Results of both objective and subjective evaluations have shown that our model can achieve competitive performance with the current state-of-the-art models on benchmark datasets using fewer parameters by orders of magnitude.
The h-index is no longer an effective correlate of scientific reputation
Venue: arXiv cs.DL 2021
Year: 2021

The impact of individual scientists is commonly quantified using citation-based measures. The most common such measure is the h-index. A scientist's h-index affects hiring, promotion, and funding decisions, and thus shapes the progress of science. Here we report a large-scale study of scientometric measures, analyzing millions of articles and hundreds of millions of citations across four scientific fields and two data platforms. We find that the correlation of the h-index with awards that indicate recognition by the scientific community has substantially declined. These trends are associated with changing authorship patterns. We show that these declines can be mitigated by fractional allocation of citations among authors, which has been discussed in the literature but not implemented at scale. We find that a fractional analogue of the h-index outperforms other measures as a correlate and predictor of scientific awards. Our results suggest that the use of the h-index in ranking scientists should be reconsidered, and that fractional allocation measures such as h-frac provide more robust alternatives. An interactive visualization of our work can be found at https://h-frac.org
Categorical data as a stone guest in a data science project for predicting defective water meters
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2021
Year: 2021

After a one-year long effort of research on the field, we developed a machine learning-based classifier, tailored to predict whether a mechanical water meter would fail with passage of time and intensive use as well. A recurrent deep neural network (RNN) was trained with data extrapolated from 15 million readings of water consumption, gathered from 1 million meters. The data we used for training were essentially of two types: continuous vs categorical. Categorical being a type of data that can take on one of a limited and fixed number of possible values, on the basis of some qualitative property; while continuous, in this case, are the values of the measurements. taken at the meters, of the quantity of consumed water (cubic meters). In this paper, we want to discuss the fact that while the prediction accuracy of our RNN has exceeded the 80% on average, based on the use of continuous data, those performances did not improve, significantly, with the introduction of categorical information during the training phase. From a specific viewpoint, this remains an unsolved and critical problem of our research. Yet, if we reason about this controversial case from a data science perspective, we realize that we have had a confirmation that accurate machine learning solutions cannot be built without the participation of domain experts, who can differentiate on the importance of (the relation between) different types of data, each with its own sense, validity, and implications. Past all the original hype, the science of data is thus evolving towards a multifaceted discipline, where the designitations of data scientist/machine learning expert and domain expert are symbiotic
Openslice: An opensource OSS for Delivering Network Slice as a Service
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

As the 5G standards mature and awareness of the capabilities of the technology increases, industry verticals are becoming more eager to test new services and develop them to the level of maturity required for market adoption. Network slicing, i.e. multiple virtual networks running on a common infrastructure, is considered a key mechanism to serve the multitude of tenants (e.g. vertical industries) targeted by forthcoming fifth generation (5G) systems, in a flexible and cost-efficient manner. It is predicted that one of the most popular models for customers will be the Network Slice as a Service (NSaaS) model. This model allows a Network Service Customer to order and configure a Network Slice and offered it as a service. This work presents Openlice a Service based, opens-ource OSS for delivering NSaaS following emerging standards from SDOs. We strongly believe that such open source solutions make it easier for organizations to enable complex scenarios especially in the are of Non-Public Networks.
Randomized Controlled Trials without Data Retention
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Amidst rising appreciation for privacy and data usage rights, researchers have increasingly acknowledged the principle of data minimization, which holds that the accessibility, collection, and retention of subjects' data should be kept to the bare amount needed to answer focused research questions. Applying this principle to randomized controlled trials (RCTs), this paper presents algorithms for making accurate inferences from RCTs under stringent data retention and anonymization policies. In particular, we show how to use recursive algorithms to construct running estimates of treatment effects in RCTs, which allow individualized records to be deleted or anonymized shortly after collection. Devoting special attention to non-i.i.d. data, we further show how to draw robust inferences from RCTs by combining recursive algorithms with bootstrap and federated strategies.
Complex Networks of Functions
Venue: arXiv cs.DM 2021
Year: 2021

Functions correspond to one of the key concepts in mathematics and science, allowing the representation and modeling of several types of signals and systems. The present work develops an approach for characterizing the coverage and interrelationship between discrete signals that can be fitted by a set of reference functions, allowing the definition of transition networks between the considered discrete signals. While the adjacency between discrete signals is defined in terms of respective Euclidean distances, the property of being adjustable by the reference functions provides an additional constraint leading to a surprisingly diversity of transition networks topologies. First, we motivate the possibility to define transitions between parametric continuous functions, a concept that is subsequently extended to discrete functions and signals. Given that the set of all possible discrete signals in a bound region corresponds to a finite number of cases, it becomes feasible to verify the adherence of each of these signals with respect to a reference set of functions. Then, by taking into account also the Euclidean proximity between those discrete signals found to be adjustable, it becomes possible to obtain a respective transition network that can be not only used to study the properties and interrelationships of the involved discrete signals as underlain by the reference functions, but which also provide an interesting complex network theoretical model on itself, presenting a surprising diversity of topological features, including modular organization coexisting with more uniform portions, tails and handles, as well as hubs. Examples of the proposed concepts and methodologies are provided respectively with respect to three case examples involving power, sinusoidal and polynomial functions.
Smart Auto Insurance: High Resolution, Dynamic, Privacy-Driven, Telematic Insurance
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2021
Year: 2021

Data driven approaches to problem solving are, in many regards, the holy grail of evidence backed decision making. Using first-party empirical data to analyze behavior and establish predictions yields us the ability to base in-depth analyses on particular individuals and reduce our dependence on generalizations. Modern mobile and embedded devices provide a wealth of sensors and means for collecting and tracking individualized data. Applying these assets to the realm of insurance (which is a statistically backed endeavor at heart) is certainly nothing new; yet doing so in a way that is privacy-driven and secure has not been a central focus of implementers. Existing data-driven insurance technologies require a certain level of trust in the data tracking agency (i.e. insurer) to not misuse, mishandle, or over-collect user data. Smart contracts and blockchain technology provide us an opportunity to re-balance these systems such that the blockchain itself is a trusted agent which both insurers and the insured can confide in. We propose a "Smart Auto Insurance" system that minimizes data sharing while simultaneously providing quality-of-life improvements to both sides. Furthermore, we use a simple game theoretical argument to show that the clients using such a system are disincentivized from behaving adversarially.
IC Networks: Remodeling the Basic Unit for Convolutional Neural Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Convolutional neural network (CNN) is a class of artificial neural networks widely used in computer vision tasks. Most CNNs achieve excellent performance by stacking certain types of basic units. In addition to increasing the depth and width of the network, designing more effective basic units has become an important research topic. Inspired by the elastic collision model in physics, we present a general structure which can be integrated into the existing CNNs to improve their performance. We term it the "Inter-layer Collision" (IC) structure. Compared to the traditional convolution structure, the IC structure introduces nonlinearity and feature recalibration in the linear convolution operation, which can capture more fine-grained features. In addition, a new training method, namely weak logit distillation (WLD), is proposed to speed up the training of IC networks by extracting knowledge from pre-trained basic models. In the ImageNet experiment, we integrate the IC structure into ResNet-50 and reduce the top-1 error from 22.38% to 21.75%, which also catches up the top-1 error of ResNet-100 (21.75%) with nearly half of FLOPs.
Template-Free Try-on Image Synthesis via Semantic-guided Optimization
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

The virtual try-on task is so attractive that it has drawn considerable attention in the field of computer vision. However, presenting the three-dimensional (3D) physical characteristic (e.g., pleat and shadow) based on a 2D image is very challenging. Although there have been several previous studies on 2D-based virtual try-on work, most 1) required user-specified target poses that are not user-friendly and may not be the best for the target clothing, and 2) failed to address some problematic cases, including facial details, clothing wrinkles and body occlusions. To address these two challenges, in this paper, we propose an innovative template-free try-on image synthesis (TF-TIS) network. The TF-TIS first synthesizes the target pose according to the user-specified in-shop clothing. Afterward, given an in-shop clothing image, a user image, and a synthesized pose, we propose a novel model for synthesizing a human try-on image with the target clothing in the best fitting pose. The qualitative and quantitative experiments both indicate that the proposed TF-TIS outperforms the state-of-the-art methods, especially for difficult cases.
Haptic-enabled Mixed Reality System for Mixed-initiative Remote Robot Control
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

Robots assist in many areas that are considered unsafe for humans to operate. For instance, in handling pandemic diseases such as the recent Covid-19 outbreak and other outbreaks like Ebola, robots can assist in reaching areas dangerous for humans and do simple tasks such as pick up the correct medicine (among a set of bottles prescribed) and deliver to patients. In such cases, it might not be good to rely on the fully autonomous operation of robots. Since many mobile robots are fully functional with low-level tasks such as grabbing and moving, we consider the mixed-initiative control where the user can guide the robot remotely to finish such tasks. For this mixed-initiative control, the user controlling the robot needs to visualize a 3D scene as seen by the robot and guide it. Mixed reality can virtualize reality and immerse users in the 3D scene that is reconstructed from the real-world environment. This technique provides the user more freedom such as choosing viewpoints at view time. In recent years, benefiting from the high-quality data from Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) and RGBD cameras, mixed reality is widely used to build networked platforms to improve the performance of robot teleoperations and robot-human collaboration, and enhanced feedback for mixed-initiative control. In this paper, we proposed a novel haptic-enabled mixed reality system, that provides haptic interfaces to interact with the virtualized environments and give remote guidance for mobile robots towards high-level tasks. The experimental results show the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed haptic enabled mixed reality system.
Feedback-based Digital Higher-order Terminal Sliding Mode for 6-DOF Industrial Manipulators
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

The precise motion control of a multi-degree of freedom~(DOF) robot manipulator is always challenging due to its nonlinear dynamics, disturbances, and uncertainties. Because most manipulators are controlled by digital signals, a novel higher-order sliding mode controller in the discrete-time form with time delay estimation is proposed in this paper. The dynamic model of the manipulator used in the design allows proper handling of nonlinearities, uncertainties and disturbances involved in the problem. Specifically, parametric uncertainties and disturbances are handled by the time delay estimation and the nonlinearity of the manipulator is addressed by the feedback structure of the controller. The combination of terminal sliding mode surface and higher-order control scheme in the controller guarantees a fast response with a small chattering amplitude. Moreover, the controller is designed with a modified sliding mode surface and variable-gain structure, so that the performance of the controller is further enhanced. We also analyze the condition to guarantee the stability of the closed-loop system in this paper. Finally, the simulation and experimental results prove that the proposed control scheme has a precise performance in a robot manipulator system.
UniFuse: Unidirectional Fusion for 360$^{\circ}$ Panorama Depth Estimation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2021
Year: 2021

Learning depth from spherical panoramas is becoming a popular research topic because a panorama has a full field-of-view of the environment and provides a relatively complete description of a scene. However, applying well-studied CNNs for perspective images to the standard representation of spherical panoramas, i.e., the equirectangular projection, is suboptimal, as it becomes distorted towards the poles. Another representation is the cubemap projection, which is distortion-free but discontinued on edges and limited in the field-of-view. This paper introduces a new framework to fuse features from the two projections, unidirectionally feeding the cubemap features to the equirectangular features only at the decoding stage. Unlike the recent bidirectional fusion approach operating at both the encoding and decoding stages, our fusion scheme is much more efficient. Besides, we also designed a more effective fusion module for our fusion scheme. Experiments verify the effectiveness of our proposed fusion strategy and module, and our model achieves state-of-the-art performance on four popular datasets. Additional experiments show that our model also has the advantages of model complexity and generalization capability.The code is available at https://github.com/alibaba/UniFuse-Unidirectional-Fusion.
Scheduling Plans of Tasks
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2021
Year: 2021

We present a heuristic algorithm for solving the problem of scheduling plans of tasks. The plans are ordered vectors of tasks, and tasks are basic operations carried out by resources. Plans are tied by temporal, precedence and resource constraints that makes the scheduling problem hard to solve in polynomial time. The proposed heuristic, that has a polynomial worst-case time complexity, searches for a feasible schedule that maximize the number of plans scheduled, along a fixed time window, with respect to temporal, precedence and resource constraints.
Standard and Event Cameras Fusion for Dense Mapping
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2021
Year: 2021

Event cameras are a kind of bio-inspired sensors that generate data when the brightness changes, which are of low-latency and high dynamic range (HDR). However, due to the nature of the sparse event stream, event-based mapping can only obtain sparse or semi-dense edge 3D maps. By contrast, standard cameras provide complete frames. To leverage the complementarity of event-based and standard frame-based cameras, we propose a fusion strategy for dense mapping in this paper. We first generate an edge map from events, and then fill the map using frames to obtain the dense depth map. We propose "filling score" to evaluate the quality of filled results and show that our strategy can increase the number of existing semi-dense 3D map.
Spectral Graph Theory Based Resource Allocation for IRS-Assisted Multi-Hop Edge Computing
Venue: arXiv cs.IT 2021
Year: 2021

The performance of mobile edge computing (MEC) depends critically on the quality of the wireless channels. From this viewpoint, the recently advocated intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) technique that can proactively reconfigure wireless channels is anticipated to bring unprecedented performance gain to MEC. In this paper, the problem of network throughput optimization of an IRS-assisted multi-hop MEC network is investigated, in which the phase-shifts of the IRS and the resource allocation of the relays need to be jointly optimized. However, due to the coupling among the transmission links of different hops caused by the utilization of the IRS and the complicated multi-hop network topology, it is difficult to solve the considered problem by directly applying existing optimization techniques. Fortunately, by exploiting the underlying structure of the network topology and spectral graph theory, it is shown that the network throughput can be well approximated by the second smallest eigenvalue of the network Laplacian matrix. This key finding allows us to develop an effective iterative algorithm for solving the considered problem. Numerical simulations are performed to corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme.
A Data Augmented Bayesian Network for Node Failure Prediction in Optical Networks
Venue: arXiv cs.NI 2021
Year: 2021

Failures in optical network backbone can cause significant interruption in internet data traffic. Hence, it is very important to reduce such network outages. Prediction of such failures would be a step forward to avoid such disruption of internet services for users as well as operators. Several research proposals are available in the literature which are applications of data science and machine learning techniques. Most of the techniques rely on significant amount of real time data collection. Network devices are assumed to be equipped to collect data and these are then analysed by different algorithms to predict failures. Every network element which is already deployed in the field may not have these data gathering or analysis techniques designed into them initially. However, such mechanisms become necessary later when they are already deployed in the field. This paper proposes a Bayesian network based failure prediction of network nodes, e.g., routers etc., using very basic information from the log files of the devices and applying power law based data augmentation to complement for scarce real time information. Numerical results show that network node failure prediction can be performed with high accuracy using the proposed mechanism.