pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Context-Aware Generative Models for Prediction of Aircraft Ground Tracks
Authors: Nick Pepper, George De Ath, Marc Thomas, Richard Everson, Tim Dodwell
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Trajectory Prediction

Trajectory prediction (TP) plays an important role in supporting the decision-making of Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs). Traditional TP methods are deterministic and physics-based, with parameters that are calibrated using aircraft surveillance data harvested across the world. These models are, therefore, agnostic to the intentions of the pilots and ATCOs, which can have a significant effect on the observed trajectory, particularly in the lateral plane. This work proposes a generative method for lateral TP, using probabilistic machine learning to model the effect of the epistemic uncertainty arising from the unknown effect of pilot behaviour and ATCO intentions. The models are trained to be specific to a particular sector, allowing local procedures such as coordinated entry and exit points to be modelled. A dataset comprising a week's worth of aircraft surveillance data, passing through a busy sector of the United Kingdom's upper airspace, was used to train and test the models. Specifically, a piecewise linear model was used as a functional, low-dimensional representation of the ground tracks, with its control points determined by a generative model conditioned on partial context. It was found that, of the investigated models, a Bayesian Neural Network using the Laplace approximation was able to generate the most plausible trajectories in order to emulate the flow of traffic through the sector.
Learning Generative Models for Climbing Aircraft from Radar Data
Authors: Nick Pepper, Marc Thomas
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Trajectory Prediction

Accurate trajectory prediction (TP) for climbing aircraft is hampered by the presence of epistemic uncertainties concerning aircraft operation, which can lead to significant misspecification between predicted and observed trajectories. This paper proposes a generative model for climbing aircraft in which the standard Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) model is enriched by a functional correction to the thrust that is learned from data. The method offers three features: predictions of the arrival time with 66.3% less error when compared to BADA; generated trajectories that are realistic when compared to test data; and a means of computing confidence bounds for minimal computational cost.
Parallel Multi-Objective Hyperparameter Optimization with Uniform Normalization and Bounded Objectives
Authors: Romain Egele, Tyler Chang, Yixuan Sun, Venkatram Vishwanath, Prasanna Balaprakash
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Bayesian Optimization, Fairness, Hyperparameter Optimization

Machine learning (ML) methods offer a wide range of configurable hyperparameters that have a significant influence on their performance. While accuracy is a commonly used performance objective, in many settings, it is not sufficient. Optimizing the ML models with respect to multiple objectives such as accuracy, confidence, fairness, calibration, privacy, latency, and memory consumption is becoming crucial. To that end, hyperparameter optimization, the approach to systematically optimize the hyperparameters, which is already challenging for a single objective, is even more challenging for multiple objectives. In addition, the differences in objective scales, the failures, and the presence of outlier values in objectives make the problem even harder. We propose a multi-objective Bayesian optimization (MoBO) algorithm that addresses these problems through uniform objective normalization and randomized weights in scalarization. We increase the efficiency of our approach by imposing constraints on the objective to avoid exploring unnecessary configurations (e.g., insufficient accuracy). Finally, we leverage an approach to parallelize the MoBO which results in a 5x speed-up when using 16x more workers.
Verifiable Learned Behaviors via Motion Primitive Composition: Applications to Scooping of Granular Media
Authors: Andrew Benton, Eugen Solowjow, Prithvi Akella
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Industrial Robots

A robotic behavior model that can reliably generate behaviors from natural language inputs in real time would substantially expedite the adoption of industrial robots due to enhanced system flexibility. To facilitate these efforts, we construct a framework in which learned behaviors, created by a natural language abstractor, are verifiable by construction. Leveraging recent advancements in motion primitives and probabilistic verification, we construct a natural-language behavior abstractor that generates behaviors by synthesizing a directed graph over the provided motion primitives. If these component motion primitives are constructed according to the criteria we specify, the resulting behaviors are probabilistically verifiable. We demonstrate this verifiable behavior generation capacity in both simulation on an exploration task and on hardware with a robot scooping granular media.
Credit Card Fraud Detection with Subspace Learning-based One-Class Classification
Authors: Zaffar Zaffar, Fahad Sohrab, Juho Kanniainen, Moncef Gabbouj
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Fraud Detection, One-Class Classification

In an increasingly digitalized commerce landscape, the proliferation of credit card fraud and the evolution of sophisticated fraudulent techniques have led to substantial financial losses. Automating credit card fraud detection is a viable way to accelerate detection, reducing response times and minimizing potential financial losses. However, addressing this challenge is complicated by the highly imbalanced nature of the datasets, where genuine transactions vastly outnumber fraudulent ones. Furthermore, the high number of dimensions within the feature set gives rise to the ``curse of dimensionality". In this paper, we investigate subspace learning-based approaches centered on One-Class Classification (OCC) algorithms, which excel in handling imbalanced data distributions and possess the capability to anticipate and counter the transactions carried out by yet-to-be-invented fraud techniques. The study highlights the potential of subspace learning-based OCC algorithms by investigating the limitations of current fraud detection strategies and the specific challenges of credit card fraud detection. These algorithms integrate subspace learning into the data description; hence, the models transform the data into a lower-dimensional subspace optimized for OCC. Through rigorous experimentation and analysis, the study validated that the proposed approach helps tackle the curse of dimensionality and the imbalanced nature of credit card data for automatic fraud detection to mitigate financial losses caused by fraudulent activities.
Cluster Exploration using Informative Manifold Projections
Authors: Stavros Gerolymatos, Xenophon Evangelopoulos, Vladimir Gusev, John Y. Goulermas
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Dimensionality Reduction

Dimensionality reduction (DR) is one of the key tools for the visual exploration of high-dimensional data and uncovering its cluster structure in two- or three-dimensional spaces. The vast majority of DR methods in the literature do not take into account any prior knowledge a practitioner may have regarding the dataset under consideration. We propose a novel method to generate informative embeddings which not only factor out the structure associated with different kinds of prior knowledge but also aim to reveal any remaining underlying structure. To achieve this, we employ a linear combination of two objectives: firstly, contrastive PCA that discounts the structure associated with the prior information, and secondly, kurtosis projection pursuit which ensures meaningful data separation in the obtained embeddings. We formulate this task as a manifold optimization problem and validate it empirically across a variety of datasets considering three distinct types of prior knowledge. Lastly, we provide an automated framework to perform iterative visual exploration of high-dimensional data.
Realtime Motion Generation with Active Perception Using Attention Mechanism for Cooking Robot
Authors: Namiko Saito, Mayu Hiramoto, Ayuna Kubo, Kanata Suzuki, Hiroshi Ito, Shigeki SUGANO, Tetsuya OGATA
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Motion Generation

To support humans in their daily lives, robots are required to autonomously learn, adapt to objects and environments, and perform the appropriate actions. We tackled on the task of cooking scrambled eggs using real ingredients, in which the robot needs to perceive the states of the egg and adjust stirring movement in real time, while the egg is heated and the state changes continuously. In previous works, handling changing objects was found to be challenging because sensory information includes dynamical, both important or noisy information, and the modality which should be focused on changes every time, making it difficult to realize both perception and motion generation in real time. We propose a predictive recurrent neural network with an attention mechanism that can weigh the sensor input, distinguishing how important and reliable each modality is, that realize quick and efficient perception and motion generation. The model is trained with learning from the demonstration, and allows the robot to acquire human-like skills. We validated the proposed technique using the robot, Dry-AIREC, and with our learning model, it could perform cooking eggs with unknown ingredients. The robot could change the method of stirring and direction depending on the status of the egg, as in the beginning it stirs in the whole pot, then subsequently, after the egg started being heated, it starts flipping and splitting motion targeting specific areas, although we did not explicitly indicate them.
OS-net: Orbitally Stable Neural Networks
Authors: Marieme Ngom, Carlo Graziani
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00

We introduce OS-net (Orbitally Stable neural NETworks), a new family of neural network architectures specifically designed for periodic dynamical data. OS-net is a special case of Neural Ordinary Differential Equations (NODEs) and takes full advantage of the adjoint method based backpropagation method. Utilizing ODE theory, we derive conditions on the network weights to ensure stability of the resulting dynamics. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach by applying OS-net to discover the dynamics underlying the R\"{o}ssler and Sprott's systems, two dynamical systems known for their period doubling attractors and chaotic behavior.
Markov Chain Mirror Descent On Data Federation
Authors: Yawei Zhao
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Federated Learning, Stochastic Optimization

Stochastic optimization methods such as mirror descent have wide applications due to low computational cost. Those methods have been well studied under assumption of the independent and identical distribution, and usually achieve sublinear rate of convergence. However, this assumption may be too strong and unpractical in real application scenarios. Recent researches investigate stochastic gradient descent when instances are sampled from a Markov chain. Unfortunately, few results are known for stochastic mirror descent. In the paper, we propose a new version of stochastic mirror descent termed by MarchOn in the scenario of the federated learning. Given a distributed network, the model iteratively travels from a node to one of its neighbours randomly. Furthermore, we propose a new framework to analyze MarchOn, which yields best rates of convergence for convex, strongly convex, and non-convex loss. Finally, we conduct empirical studies to evaluate the convergence of MarchOn, and validate theoretical results.
QA-LoRA: Quantization-Aware Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Models
Authors: Yuhui Xu, Lingxi Xie, Xiaotao Gu, Xin Chen, Heng Chang, Hengheng Zhang, Zhengsu Chen, Xiaopeng Zhang, Qi Tian
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Quantization

Recently years have witnessed a rapid development of large language models (LLMs). Despite the strong ability in many language-understanding tasks, the heavy computational burden largely restricts the application of LLMs especially when one needs to deploy them onto edge devices. In this paper, we propose a quantization-aware low-rank adaptation (QA-LoRA) algorithm. The motivation lies in the imbalanced degrees of freedom of quantization and adaptation, and the solution is to use group-wise operators which increase the degree of freedom of quantization meanwhile decreasing that of adaptation. QA-LoRA is easily implemented with a few lines of code, and it equips the original LoRA with two-fold abilities: (i) during fine-tuning, the LLM's weights are quantized (e.g., into INT4) to reduce time and memory usage; (ii) after fine-tuning, the LLM and auxiliary weights are naturally integrated into a quantized model without loss of accuracy. We apply QA-LoRA to the LLaMA and LLaMA2 model families and validate its effectiveness in different fine-tuning datasets and downstream scenarios. Code will be made available at https://github.com/yuhuixu1993/qa-lora.
On the Computational Complexity and Formal Hierarchy of Second Order Recurrent Neural Networks
Authors: Ankur Mali, Alexander Ororbia, Daniel Kifer, Lee Giles
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00

Artificial neural networks (ANNs) with recurrence and self-attention have been shown to be Turing-complete (TC). However, existing work has shown that these ANNs require multiple turns or unbounded computation time, even with unbounded precision in weights, in order to recognize TC grammars. However, under constraints such as fixed or bounded precision neurons and time, ANNs without memory are shown to struggle to recognize even context-free languages. In this work, we extend the theoretical foundation for the $2^{nd}$-order recurrent network ($2^{nd}$ RNN) and prove there exists a class of a $2^{nd}$ RNN that is Turing-complete with bounded time. This model is capable of directly encoding a transition table into its recurrent weights, enabling bounded time computation and is interpretable by design. We also demonstrate that $2$nd order RNNs, without memory, under bounded weights and time constraints, outperform modern-day models such as vanilla RNNs and gated recurrent units in recognizing regular grammars. We provide an upper bound and a stability analysis on the maximum number of neurons required by $2$nd order RNNs to recognize any class of regular grammar. Extensive experiments on the Tomita grammars support our findings, demonstrating the importance of tensor connections in crafting computationally efficient RNNs. Finally, we show $2^{nd}$ order RNNs are also interpretable by extraction and can extract state machines with higher success rates as compared to first-order RNNs. Our results extend the theoretical foundations of RNNs and offer promising avenues for future explainable AI research.
FedCompass: Efficient Cross-Silo Federated Learning on Heterogeneous Client Devices using a Computing Power Aware Scheduler
Authors: Zilinghan Li, Pranshu Chaturvedi, Shilan He, Han Chen, Gagandeep Singh, Volodymyr Kindratenko, E. A. Huerta, Kibaek Kim, Ravi Madduri
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Federated Learning

Cross-silo federated learning offers a promising solution to collaboratively train robust and generalized AI models without compromising the privacy of local datasets, e.g., healthcare, financial, as well as scientific projects that lack a centralized data facility. Nonetheless, because of the disparity of computing resources among different clients (i.e., device heterogeneity), synchronous federated learning algorithms suffer from degraded efficiency when waiting for straggler clients. Similarly, asynchronous federated learning algorithms experience degradation in the convergence rate and final model accuracy on non-identically and independently distributed (non-IID) heterogeneous datasets due to stale local models and client drift. To address these limitations in cross-silo federated learning with heterogeneous clients and data, we propose FedCompass, an innovative semi-asynchronous federated learning algorithm with a computing power-aware scheduler on the server side, which adaptively assigns varying amounts of training tasks to different clients using the knowledge of the computing power of individual clients. FedCompass ensures that multiple locally trained models from clients are received almost simultaneously as a group for aggregation, effectively reducing the staleness of local models. At the same time, the overall training process remains asynchronous, eliminating prolonged waiting periods from straggler clients. Using diverse non-IID heterogeneous distributed datasets, we demonstrate that FedCompass achieves faster convergence and higher accuracy than other asynchronous algorithms while remaining more efficient than synchronous algorithms when performing federated learning on heterogeneous clients. The source code for FedCompass is available at https://github.com/APPFL/FedCompass.
Transformer-based classification of user queries for medical consultancy with respect to expert specialization
Authors: Dmitry Lyutkin, Andrey Soloviev, Dmitry Zhukov, Denis Pozdnyakov, Muhammad Shahid Iqbal Malik, Dmitry I. Ignatov
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00

The need for skilled medical support is growing in the era of digital healthcare. This research presents an innovative strategy, utilizing the RuBERT model, for categorizing user inquiries in the field of medical consultation with a focus on expert specialization. By harnessing the capabilities of transformers, we fine-tuned the pre-trained RuBERT model on a varied dataset, which facilitates precise correspondence between queries and particular medical specialisms. Using a comprehensive dataset, we have demonstrated our approach's superior performance with an F1-score of over 92%, calculated through both cross-validation and the traditional split of test and train datasets. Our approach has shown excellent generalization across medical domains such as cardiology, neurology and dermatology. This methodology provides practical benefits by directing users to appropriate specialists for prompt and targeted medical advice. It also enhances healthcare system efficiency, reduces practitioner burden, and improves patient care quality. In summary, our suggested strategy facilitates the attainment of specific medical knowledge, offering prompt and precise advice within the digital healthcare field.
Learning the Uncertainty Sets for Control Dynamics via Set Membership: A Non-Asymptotic Analysis
Authors: YingYing Li, Jing Yu, Lauren Conger, Taylan Kargin, Adam Wierman
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control

This paper studies uncertainty set estimation for unknown linear systems. Uncertainty sets are crucial for the quality of robust control since they directly influence the conservativeness of the control design. Departing from the confidence region analysis of least squares estimation, this paper focuses on set membership estimation (SME). Though good numerical performances have attracted applications of SME in the control literature, the non-asymptotic convergence rate of SME for linear systems remains an open question. This paper provides the first convergence rate bounds for SME and discusses variations of SME under relaxed assumptions. We also provide numerical results demonstrating SME's practical promise.
Gray-box Adversarial Attack of Deep Reinforcement Learning-based Trading Agents
Authors: Foozhan Ataiefard, Hadi Hemmati
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Adversarial Attack, Deep Reinforcement Learning, reinforcement-learning, Self-Driving Cars

In recent years, deep reinforcement learning (Deep RL) has been successfully implemented as a smart agent in many systems such as complex games, self-driving cars, and chat-bots. One of the interesting use cases of Deep RL is its application as an automated stock trading agent. In general, any automated trading agent is prone to manipulations by adversaries in the trading environment. Thus studying their robustness is vital for their success in practice. However, typical mechanism to study RL robustness, which is based on white-box gradient-based adversarial sample generation techniques (like FGSM), is obsolete for this use case, since the models are protected behind secure international exchange APIs, such as NASDAQ. In this research, we demonstrate that a "gray-box" approach for attacking a Deep RL-based trading agent is possible by trading in the same stock market, with no extra access to the trading agent. In our proposed approach, an adversary agent uses a hybrid Deep Neural Network as its policy consisting of Convolutional layers and fully-connected layers. On average, over three simulated trading market configurations, the adversary policy proposed in this research is able to reduce the reward values by 214.17%, which results in reducing the potential profits of the baseline by 139.4%, ensemble method by 93.7%, and an automated trading software developed by our industrial partner by 85.5%, while consuming significantly less budget than the victims (427.77%, 187.16%, and 66.97%, respectively).
Reparameterized Variational Rejection Sampling
Authors: Martin Jankowiak, Du Phan
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Variational Inference

Traditional approaches to variational inference rely on parametric families of variational distributions, with the choice of family playing a critical role in determining the accuracy of the resulting posterior approximation. Simple mean-field families often lead to poor approximations, while rich families of distributions like normalizing flows can be difficult to optimize and usually do not incorporate the known structure of the target distribution due to their black-box nature. To expand the space of flexible variational families, we revisit Variational Rejection Sampling (VRS) [Grover et al., 2018], which combines a parametric proposal distribution with rejection sampling to define a rich non-parametric family of distributions that explicitly utilizes the known target distribution. By introducing a low-variance reparameterized gradient estimator for the parameters of the proposal distribution, we make VRS an attractive inference strategy for models with continuous latent variables. We argue theoretically and demonstrate empirically that the resulting method--Reparameterized Variational Rejection Sampling (RVRS)--offers an attractive trade-off between computational cost and inference fidelity. In experiments we show that our method performs well in practice and that it is well-suited for black-box inference, especially for models with local latent variables.
Neuro-Visualizer: An Auto-encoder-based Loss Landscape Visualization Method
Authors: Mohannad Elhamod, Anuj Karpatne
Date: 2023-09-26 00:00:00

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in visualizing the loss landscape of neural networks. Linear landscape visualization methods, such as principal component analysis, have become widely used as they intuitively help researchers study neural networks and their training process. However, these linear methods suffer from limitations and drawbacks due to their lack of flexibility and low fidelity at representing the high dimensional landscape. In this paper, we present a novel auto-encoder-based non-linear landscape visualization method called Neuro-Visualizer that addresses these shortcoming and provides useful insights about neural network loss landscapes. To demonstrate its potential, we run experiments on a variety of problems in two separate applications of knowledge-guided machine learning (KGML). Our findings show that Neuro-Visualizer outperforms other linear and non-linear baselines and helps corroborate, and sometime challenge, claims proposed by machine learning community. All code and data used in the experiments of this paper are available at an anonymous link https://anonymous.4open.science/r/NeuroVisualizer-FDD6