OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
Open Source Evolutionary Computation with Chips-n-Salsa
Venue: arXiv cs.NE 2024
Year: 2024

When it was first introduced, the Chips-n-Salsa Java library provided stochastic local search and related algorithms, with a focus on self-adaptation and parallel execution. For the past four years, we expanded its scope to include evolutionary computation. This paper concerns the evolutionary algorithms that Chips-n-Salsa now provides, which includes multiple evolutionary models, common problem representations, a wide range of mutation and crossover operators, and a variety of benchmark problems. Well-defined Java interfaces enable easily integrating custom representations and evolutionary operators, as well as defining optimization problems. Chips-n-Salsa's evolutionary algorithms include implementations with adaptive mutation and crossover rates, as well as both sequential and parallel execution. Source code is maintained on GitHub, and immutable artifacts are regularly published to the Maven Central Repository to enable easily importing into projects for reproducible builds. Effective development processes such as test-driven development, as well as a variety of static analysis tools help ensure code quality.
Stably computable relations and predicates
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

A population protocol stably computes a relation R(x,y) if its output always stabilizes and R(x,y) holds if and only if y is a possible output for input x. Alternatively, a population protocol computes a predicate R(<x,y>) on pairs <x,y> if its output stabilizes on the truth value of the predicate when given <x,y> as input. We consider how stably computing R(x,y) and R(<x,y>) relate to each other. We show that for population protocols running on a complete interaction graph with n>=2, if R(<x,y>) is a stably computable predicate such that R(x,y) holds for at least one y for each x, then R(x,y) is a stably computable relation. In contrast, the converse is not necessarily true unless R(x,y) holds for exactly one y for each x.
Learning Ensembles of Vision-based Safety Control Filters
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Safety filters in control systems correct nominal controls that violate safety constraints. Designing such filters as functions of visual observations in uncertain and complex environments is challenging. Several deep learning-based approaches to tackle this challenge have been proposed recently. However, formally verifying that the learned filters satisfy critical properties that enable them to guarantee the safety of the system is currently beyond reach. Instead, in this work, motivated by the success of ensemble methods in reinforcement learning, we empirically investigate the efficacy of ensembles in enhancing the accuracy and the out-of-distribution generalization of such filters, as a step towards more reliable ones. We experiment with diverse pre-trained vision representation models as filter backbones, training approaches, and output aggregation techniques. We compare the performance of ensembles with different configurations against each other, their individual member models, and large single-model baselines in distinguishing between safe and unsafe states and controls in the DeepAccident dataset. Our results show that diverse ensembles have better state and control classification accuracies compared to individual models.
LLMs4Life: Large Language Models for Ontology Learning in Life Sciences
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Ontology learning in complex domains, such as life sciences, poses significant challenges for current Large Language Models (LLMs). Existing LLMs struggle to generate ontologies with multiple hierarchical levels, rich interconnections, and comprehensive class coverage due to constraints on the number of tokens they can generate and inadequate domain adaptation. To address these issues, we extend the NeOn-GPT pipeline for ontology learning using LLMs with advanced prompt engineering techniques and ontology reuse to enhance the generated ontologies' domain-specific reasoning and structural depth. Our work evaluates the capabilities of LLMs in ontology learning in the context of highly specialized and complex domains such as life science domains. To assess the logical consistency, completeness, and scalability of the generated ontologies, we use the AquaDiva ontology developed and used in the collaborative research center AquaDiva as a case study. Our evaluation shows the viability of LLMs for ontology learning in specialized domains, providing solutions to longstanding limitations in model performance and scalability.
Simplifying HPC resource selection: A tool for optimizing execution time and cost on Azure
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

Azure Cloud offers a wide range of resources for running HPC workloads, requiring users to configure their deployment by selecting VM types, number of VMs, and processes per VM. Suboptimal decisions may lead to longer execution times or additional costs for the user. We are developing an open-source tool to assist users in making these decisions by considering application input parameters, as they influence resource consumption. The tool automates the time-consuming process of setting up the cloud environment, executing the benchmarking runs, handling output, and providing users with resource selection recommendations as high level insights on run times and costs across different VM types and number of VMs. In this work, we present initial results and insights on reducing the number of cloud executions needed to provide such guidance, leveraging data analytics and optimization techniques with two well-known HPC applications: OpenFOAM and LAMMPS.
GNN-based Auto-Encoder for Short Linear Block Codes: A DRL Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

This paper presents a novel auto-encoder based end-to-end channel encoding and decoding. It integrates deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and graph neural networks (GNN) in code design by modeling the generation of code parity-check matrices as a Markov Decision Process (MDP), to optimize key coding performance metrics such as error-rates and code algebraic properties. An edge-weighted GNN (EW-GNN) decoder is proposed, which operates on the Tanner graph with an iterative message-passing structure. Once trained on a single linear block code, the EW-GNN decoder can be directly used to decode other linear block codes of different code lengths and code rates. An iterative joint training of the DRL-based code designer and the EW-GNN decoder is performed to optimize the end-end encoding and decoding process. Simulation results show the proposed auto-encoder significantly surpasses several traditional coding schemes at short block lengths, including low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes with the belief propagation (BP) decoding and the maximum-likelihood decoding (MLD), and BCH with BP decoding, offering superior error-correction capabilities while maintaining low decoding complexity.
Performance Comparison of Deep Learning Techniques in Naira Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The Naira is Nigeria's official currency in daily transactions. This study presents the deployment and evaluation of Deep Learning (DL) models to classify Currency Notes (Naira) by denomination. Using a diverse dataset of 1,808 images of Naira notes captured under different conditions, trained the models employing different architectures and got the highest accuracy with MobileNetV2, the model achieved a high accuracy rate of in training of 90.75% and validation accuracy of 87.04% in classification tasks and demonstrated substantial performance across various scenarios. This model holds significant potential for practical applications, including automated cash handling systems, sorting systems, and assistive technology for the visually impaired. The results demonstrate how the model could boost the Nigerian economy's security and efficiency of financial transactions.
Let's Think Var-by-Var: Large Language Models Enable Ad Hoc Probabilistic Reasoning
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

A hallmark of intelligence is the ability to flesh out underspecified situations using "common sense." We propose to extract that common sense from large language models (LLMs), in a form that can feed into probabilistic inference. We focus our investigation on $\textit{guesstimation}$ questions such as "How much are Airbnb listings in Newark, NJ?" Formulating a sensible answer without access to data requires drawing on, and integrating, bits of common knowledge about how $\texttt{Price}$ and $\texttt{Location}$ may relate to other variables, such as $\texttt{Property Type}$. Our framework answers such a question by synthesizing an $\textit{ad hoc}$ probabilistic model. First we prompt an LLM to propose a set of random variables relevant to the question, followed by moment constraints on their joint distribution. We then optimize the joint distribution $p$ within a log-linear family to maximize the overall constraint satisfaction. Our experiments show that LLMs can successfully be prompted to propose reasonable variables, and while the proposed numerical constraints can be noisy, jointly optimizing for their satisfaction reconciles them. When evaluated on probabilistic questions derived from three real-world tabular datasets, we find that our framework performs comparably to a direct prompting baseline in terms of total variation distance from the dataset distribution, and is similarly robust to noise.
Explainable and Interpretable Multimodal Large Language Models: A Comprehensive Survey
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

The rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has revolutionized numerous fields, with large language models (LLMs) and computer vision (CV) systems driving advancements in natural language understanding and visual processing, respectively. The convergence of these technologies has catalyzed the rise of multimodal AI, enabling richer, cross-modal understanding that spans text, vision, audio, and video modalities. Multimodal large language models (MLLMs), in particular, have emerged as a powerful framework, demonstrating impressive capabilities in tasks like image-text generation, visual question answering, and cross-modal retrieval. Despite these advancements, the complexity and scale of MLLMs introduce significant challenges in interpretability and explainability, essential for establishing transparency, trustworthiness, and reliability in high-stakes applications. This paper provides a comprehensive survey on the interpretability and explainability of MLLMs, proposing a novel framework that categorizes existing research across three perspectives: (I) Data, (II) Model, (III) Training \& Inference. We systematically analyze interpretability from token-level to embedding-level representations, assess approaches related to both architecture analysis and design, and explore training and inference strategies that enhance transparency. By comparing various methodologies, we identify their strengths and limitations and propose future research directions to address unresolved challenges in multimodal explainability. This survey offers a foundational resource for advancing interpretability and transparency in MLLMs, guiding researchers and practitioners toward developing more accountable and robust multimodal AI systems.
Direct Coloring for Self-Supervised Enhanced Feature Decoupling
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The success of self-supervised learning (SSL) has been the focus of multiple recent theoretical and empirical studies, including the role of data augmentation (in feature decoupling) as well as complete and dimensional representation collapse. While complete collapse is well-studied and addressed, dimensional collapse has only gain attention and addressed in recent years mostly using variants of redundancy reduction (aka whitening) techniques. In this paper, we further explore a complementary approach to whitening via feature decoupling for improved representation learning while avoiding representation collapse. In particular, we perform feature decoupling by early promotion of useful features via careful feature coloring. The coloring technique is developed based on a Bayesian prior of the augmented data, which is inherently encoded for feature decoupling. We show that our proposed framework is complementary to the state-of-the-art techniques, while outperforming both contrastive and recent non-contrastive methods. We also study the different effects of coloring approach to formulate it as a general complementary technique along with other baselines.
Streamlining Video Analysis for Efficient Violence Detection
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

This paper addresses the challenge of automated violence detection in video frames captured by surveillance cameras, specifically focusing on classifying scenes as "fight" or "non-fight." This task is critical for enhancing unmanned security systems, online content filtering, and related applications. We propose an approach using a 3D Convolutional Neural Network (3D CNN)-based model named X3D to tackle this problem. Our approach incorporates pre-processing steps such as tube extraction, volume cropping, and frame aggregation, combined with clustering techniques, to accurately localize and classify fight scenes. Extensive experimentation demonstrates the effectiveness of our method in distinguishing violent from non-violent events, providing valuable insights for advancing practical violence detection systems.
Graph Learning for Planning: The Story Thus Far and Open Challenges
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

Graph learning is naturally well suited for use in planning due to its ability to exploit relational structures exhibited in planning domains and to take as input planning instances with arbitrary number of objects. In this paper, we study the usage of graph learning for planning thus far by studying the theoretical and empirical effects on learning and planning performance of (1) graph representations of planning tasks, (2) graph learning architectures, and (3) optimisation formulations for learning. Our studies accumulate in the GOOSE framework which learns domain knowledge from small planning tasks in order to scale up to much larger planning tasks. In this paper, we also highlight and propose the 5 open challenges in the general Learning for Planning field that we believe need to be addressed for advancing the state-of-the-art.
Personalized Multimodal Large Language Models: A Survey
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have become increasingly important due to their state-of-the-art performance and ability to integrate multiple data modalities, such as text, images, and audio, to perform complex tasks with high accuracy. This paper presents a comprehensive survey on personalized multimodal large language models, focusing on their architecture, training methods, and applications. We propose an intuitive taxonomy for categorizing the techniques used to personalize MLLMs to individual users, and discuss the techniques accordingly. Furthermore, we discuss how such techniques can be combined or adapted when appropriate, highlighting their advantages and underlying rationale. We also provide a succinct summary of personalization tasks investigated in existing research, along with the evaluation metrics commonly used. Additionally, we summarize the datasets that are useful for benchmarking personalized MLLMs. Finally, we outline critical open challenges. This survey aims to serve as a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners seeking to understand and advance the development of personalized multimodal large language models.
Distributed Task Allocation for Multi-Agent Systems: A Submodular Optimization Approach
Venue: arXiv cs.MA 2024
Year: 2024

This paper investigates dynamic task allocation for multi-agent systems (MASs) under resource constraints, with a focus on maximizing the global utility of agents while ensuring a conflict-free allocation of targets. We present a more adaptable submodular maximization framework for the MAS task allocation under resource constraints. Our proposed distributed greedy bundles algorithm (DGBA) is specifically designed to address communication limitations in MASs and provides rigorous approximation guarantees for submodular maximization under $q$-independent systems, with low computational complexity. Specifically, DGBA can generate a feasible task allocation policy within polynomial time complexity, significantly reducing space complexity compared to existing methods. To demonstrate practical viability of our approach, we apply DGBA to the scenario of active observation information acquisition within a micro-satellite constellation, transforming the NP-hard task allocation problem into a tractable submodular maximization problem under a $q$-independent system constraint. Our method not only provides a specific performance bound but also surpasses benchmark algorithms in metrics such as utility, cost, communication time, and running time.
Analyzing the Impact of AI Tools on Student Study Habits and Academic Performance
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

This study explores the effectiveness of AI tools in enhancing student learning, specifically in improving study habits, time management, and feedback mechanisms. The research focuses on how AI tools can support personalized learning, adaptive test adjustments, and provide real-time classroom analysis. Student feedback revealed strong support for these features, and the study found a significant reduction in study hours alongside an increase in GPA, suggesting positive academic outcomes. Despite these benefits, challenges such as over-reliance on AI and difficulties in integrating AI with traditional teaching methods were also identified, emphasizing the need for AI tools to complement conventional educational strategies rather than replace them. Data were collected through a survey with a Likert scale and follow-up interviews, providing both quantitative and qualitative insights. The analysis involved descriptive statistics to summarize demographic data, AI usage patterns, and perceived effectiveness, as well as inferential statistics (T-tests, ANOVA) to examine the impact of demographic factors on AI adoption. Regression analysis identified predictors of AI adoption, and qualitative responses were thematically analyzed to understand students' perspectives on the future of AI in education. This mixed-methods approach provided a comprehensive view of AI's role in education and highlighted the importance of privacy, transparency, and continuous refinement of AI features to maximize their educational benefits.
VideoICL: Confidence-based Iterative In-context Learning for Out-of-Distribution Video Understanding
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Recent advancements in video large multimodal models (LMMs) have significantly improved their video understanding and reasoning capabilities. However, their performance drops on out-of-distribution (OOD) tasks that are underrepresented in training data. Traditional methods like fine-tuning on OOD datasets are impractical due to high computational costs. While In-context learning (ICL) with demonstration examples has shown promising generalization performance in language tasks and image-language tasks without fine-tuning, applying ICL to video-language tasks faces challenges due to the limited context length in Video LMMs, as videos require longer token lengths. To address these issues, we propose VideoICL, a novel video in-context learning framework for OOD tasks that introduces a similarity-based relevant example selection strategy and a confidence-based iterative inference approach. This allows to select the most relevant examples and rank them based on similarity, to be used for inference. If the generated response has low confidence, our framework selects new examples and performs inference again, iteratively refining the results until a high-confidence response is obtained. This approach improves OOD video understanding performance by extending effective context length without incurring high costs. The experimental results on multiple benchmarks demonstrate significant performance gains, especially in domain-specific scenarios, laying the groundwork for broader video comprehension applications. Code will be released at https://github.com/KangsanKim07/VideoICL
Comparative Performance of Machine Learning Algorithms for Early Genetic Disorder and Subclass Classification
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

A great deal of effort has been devoted to discovering a particular genetic disorder, but its classification across a broad spectrum of disorder classes and types remains elusive. Early diagnosis of genetic disorders enables timely interventions and improves outcomes. This study implements machine learning models using basic clinical indicators measurable at birth or infancy to enable diagnosis in preliminary life stages. Supervised learning algorithms were implemented on a dataset of 22083 instances with 42 features like family history, newborn metrics, and basic lab tests. Extensive hyperparameter tuning, feature engineering, and selection were undertaken. Two multi-class classifiers were developed: one for predicting disorder classes (mitochondrial, multifactorial, and single-gene) and one for subtypes (9 disorders). Performance was evaluated using accuracy, precision, recall, and the F1-score. The CatBoost classifier achieved the highest accuracy of 77% for predicting genetic disorder classes. For subtypes, SVM attained a maximum accuracy of 80%. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using basic clinical data in machine learning models for early categorization and diagnosis across various genetic disorders. Applying ML with basic clinical indicators can enable timely interventions once validated on larger datasets. It is necessary to conduct further studies to improve model performance on this dataset.
High-Quality Iterative Logic Compiler for In-Memory SIMD Computation with Tight Coupling of Synthesis and Scheduling
Venue: arXiv cs.ET 2024
Year: 2024

In-memory computing (IMC) with single instruction multiple data (SIMD) setup enables memory to perform operations on the stored data in parallel to achieve high throughput and energy saving. To instruct a SIMD IMC hardware to compute a function, a logic compiler is needed that involves two steps: logic synthesis and scheduling. Logic synthesis transforms the function into a netlist of supported operations. Scheduling determines the execution sequence and memory location of the operations and outputs the instruction sequence given to the hardware. In this work, we propose an iterative logic compiler with tight coupling of synthesis and scheduling to find high-quality instruction sequences. It is based on improving the critical sub-netlist identified by our algorithm and performing problem-specific resubstitution. The experimental results show that our compiler can obtain better instruction sequences with energy-delay products reduced by 18.0% on average compared to the best state-of-the-art method.