pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
Large-scale Group Brainstorming using Conversational Swarm Intelligence (CSI) versus Traditional Chat
Authors: Louis Rosenberg, Hans Schumann, Christopher Dishop, Gregg Willcox, Anita Woolley, Ganesh Mani
Date: 2024-12-16 00:00:00

Conversational Swarm Intelligence (CSI) is an AI-facilitated method for enabling real-time conversational deliberations and prioritizations among networked human groups of potentially unlimited size. Based on the biological principle of Swarm Intelligence and modelled on the decision-making dynamics of fish schools, CSI has been shown in prior studies to amplify group intelligence, increase group participation, and facilitate productive collaboration among hundreds of participants at once. It works by dividing a large population into a set of small subgroups that are woven together by real-time AI agents called Conversational Surrogates. The present study focuses on the use of a CSI platform called Thinkscape to enable real-time brainstorming and prioritization among groups of 75 networked users. The study employed a variant of a common brainstorming intervention called an Alternative Use Task (AUT) and was designed to compare through subjective feedback, the experience of participants brainstorming using a CSI structure vs brainstorming in a single large chat room. This comparison revealed that participants significantly preferred brainstorming with the CSI structure and reported that it felt (i) more collaborative, (ii) more productive, and (iii) was better at surfacing quality answers. In addition, participants using the CSI structure reported (iv) feeling more ownership and more buy-in in the final answers the group converged on and (v) reported feeling more heard as compared to brainstorming in a traditional text chat environment. Overall, the results suggest that CSI is a very promising AI-facilitated method for brainstorming and prioritization among large-scale, networked human groups.
A multimodal dataset for understanding the impact of mobile phones on remote online virtual education
Authors: Roberto Daza, Alvaro Becerra, Ruth Cobos, Julian Fierrez, Aythami Morales
Date: 2024-12-13 00:00:00
Tasks: EEG, Head Pose Estimation, Multiple-choice, Pose Estimation

This work presents the IMPROVE dataset, a multimodal resource designed to evaluate the effects of mobile phone usage on learners during online education. It includes behavioral, biometric, physiological, and academic performance data collected from 120 learners divided into three groups with different levels of phone interaction, enabling the analysis of the impact of mobile phone usage and related phenomena such as nomophobia. A setup involving 16 synchronized sensors -- including EEG, eye tracking, video cameras, smartwatches, and keystroke dynamics -- was used to monitor learner activity during 30-minute sessions involving educational videos, document reading, and multiple-choice tests. Mobile phone usage events, including both controlled interventions and uncontrolled interactions, were labeled by supervisors and refined through a semi-supervised re-labeling process. Technical validation confirmed signal quality, and statistical analyses revealed biometric changes associated with phone usage. The dataset is publicly available for research through GitHub and Science Data Bank, with synchronized recordings from three platforms (edBB, edX, and LOGGE), provided in standard formats (.csv, .mp4, .wav, and .tsv), and accompanied by a detailed guide.
Detecting Cognitive Impairment and Psychological Well-being among Older Adults Using Facial, Acoustic, Linguistic, and Cardiovascular Patterns Derived from Remote Conversations
Authors: Xiaofan Mu, Salman Seyedi, Iris Zheng, Zifan Jiang, Liu Chen, Bolaji Omofojoye, Rachel Hershenberg, Allan I. Levey, Gari D. Clifford, Hiroko H. Dodge, Hyeokhyen Kwon
Date: 2024-12-12 00:00:00
Tasks: Photoplethysmography (PPG)

The aging society urgently requires scalable methods to monitor cognitive decline and identify social and psychological factors indicative of dementia risk in older adults. Our machine learning (ML) models captured facial, acoustic, linguistic, and cardiovascular features from 39 individuals with normal cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment derived from remote video conversations and classified cognitive status, social isolation, neuroticism, and psychological well-being. Our model could distinguish Clinical Dementia Rating Scale (CDR) of 0.5 (vs. 0) with 0.78 area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), social isolation with 0.75 AUC, neuroticism with 0.71 AUC, and negative affect scales with 0.79 AUC. Recent advances in machine learning offer new opportunities to remotely detect cognitive impairment and assess associated factors, such as neuroticism and psychological well-being. Our experiment showed that speech and language patterns were more useful for quantifying cognitive impairment, whereas facial expression and cardiovascular patterns using photoplethysmography (PPG) were more useful for quantifying personality and psychological well-being.
CogSimulator: A Model for Simulating User Cognition & Behavior with Minimal Data for Tailored Cognitive Enhancement
Authors: Weizhen Bian, Yubo Zhou, Yuanhang Luo, Ming Mo, Siyan Liu, Yikai Gong, Renjie Wan, Ziyuan Luo, Aobo Wang
Date: 2024-12-10 00:00:00
Tasks: Game Design

The interplay between cognition and gaming, notably through educational games enhancing cognitive skills, has garnered significant attention in recent years. This research introduces the CogSimulator, a novel algorithm for simulating user cognition in small-group settings with minimal data, as the educational game Wordle exemplifies. The CogSimulator employs Wasserstein-1 distance and coordinates search optimization for hyperparameter tuning, enabling precise few-shot predictions in new game scenarios. Comparative experiments with the Wordle dataset illustrate that our model surpasses most conventional machine learning models in mean Wasserstein-1 distance, mean squared error, and mean accuracy, showcasing its efficacy in cognitive enhancement through tailored game design.
Detecting Dark Patterns in User Interfaces Using Logistic Regression and Bag-of-Words Representation
Authors: Aliyu Umar, Maaruf Lawan, Adamu Lawan, Abdullahi Abdulkadir, Mukhtar Dahiru
Date: 2024-12-09 00:00:00
Tasks: regression

Dark patterns in user interfaces represent deceptive design practices intended to manipulate users' behavior, often leading to unintended consequences such as coerced purchases, involuntary data disclosures, or user frustration. Detecting and mitigating these dark patterns is crucial for promoting transparency, trust, and ethical design practices in digital environments. This paper proposes a novel approach for detecting dark patterns in user interfaces using logistic regression and bag-of-words representation. Our methodology involves collecting a diverse dataset of user interface text samples, preprocessing the data, extracting text features using the bag-of-words representation, training a logistic regression model, and evaluating its performance using various metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and the area under the ROC curve (AUC). Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach in accurately identifying instances of dark patterns, with high predictive performance and robustness to variations in dataset composition and model parameters. The insights gained from this study contribute to the growing body of knowledge on dark patterns detection and classification, offering practical implications for designers, developers, and policymakers in promoting ethical design practices and protecting user rights in digital environments.
Generative AI Literacy: Twelve Defining Competencies
Authors: Ravinithesh Annapureddy, Alessandro Fornaroli, Daniel Gatica-Perez
Date: 2024-11-29 00:00:00
Tasks: Navigate, Prompt Engineering

This paper introduces a competency-based model for generative artificial intelligence (AI) literacy covering essential skills and knowledge areas necessary to interact with generative AI. The competencies range from foundational AI literacy to prompt engineering and programming skills, including ethical and legal considerations. These twelve competencies offer a framework for individuals, policymakers, government officials, and educators looking to navigate and take advantage of the potential of generative AI responsibly. Embedding these competencies into educational programs and professional training initiatives can equip individuals to become responsible and informed users and creators of generative AI. The competencies follow a logical progression and serve as a roadmap for individuals seeking to get familiar with generative AI and for researchers and policymakers to develop assessments, educational programs, guidelines, and regulations.
An Overview on Over-the-air Electromagnetic Signal Processing
Authors: Davide Dardari, Giulia Torcolacci, Gianni Pasolini, Nicolo Decarli
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00

This article provides a tutorial on over-the-air electromagnetic signal processing (ESP) for next-generation wireless networks, addressing the limitations of digital processing to enhance the efficiency and sustainability of future 6th Generation (6G) systems. It explores the integration of electromagnetism and signal processing (SP) highlighting how their convergence can drive innovations for 6G technologies. Key topics include electromagnetic (EM) wave-based processing, the application of metamaterials and advanced antennas to optimize EM field manipulation with a reduced number of radiofrequency chains, and their applications in holographic multiple-input multiple-output systems. By showcasing enabling technologies and use cases, the article demonstrates how wave-based processing can minimize energy consumption, complexity, and latency, offering an effective framework for more sustainable and efficient wireless systems. This article aims to assist researchers and professionals in integrating advanced EM technologies with conventional SP methods.
Empathic Coupling of Homeostatic States for Intrinsic Prosociality
Authors: Naoto Yoshida, Kingson Man
Date: 2024-11-16 00:00:00
Tasks: Multi-agent Reinforcement Learning

When regarding the suffering of others, we often experience personal distress and feel compelled to help. Inspired by living systems, we investigate the emergence of prosocial behavior among autonomous agents that are motivated by homeostatic self-regulation. We perform multi-agent reinforcement learning, treating each agent as a vulnerable homeostat charged with maintaining its own well-being. We introduce an empathy-like mechanism to share homeostatic states between agents: an agent can either \emph{observe} their partner's internal state (cognitive empathy) or the agent's internal state can be \emph{directly coupled} to that of their partner's (affective empathy). In three simple multi-agent environments, we show that prosocial behavior arises only under homeostatic coupling - when the distress of a partner can affect one's own well-being. Our findings specify the type and role of empathy in artificial agents capable of prosocial behavior.
Robustness Evaluation of a Physical Internet-based Intermodal Logistic Network
Authors: Federico Gallo, Alireza Shahedi, Angela Di Febbraro, Mahnam Saeednia, Nicola Sacco
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00

The Physical Internet (PI) paradigm, which has gained attention in research and academia in recent years, leverages advanced logistics and interconnected networks to revolutionize the way goods are transported and delivered, thereby enhancing efficiency, reducing costs and delays, and minimizing environmental impact. Within this system, PI-hubs function similarly to cross-docks enabling the splitting of PI-containers into smaller modules to be delivered through a network of interconnected hubs, allowing dynamic routing optimization and efficient consolidation of PI-containers. Nevertheless, the impact of the system parameters and of the relevant uncertainties on the performance of this innovative logistics framework is still unclear. For this reason, this work proposes a robustness analysis to understand how the PI logistic framework is affected by how PI-containers are handled, consolidated, and processed at the PI-hubs. To this end, the considered PI logistic system is represented via a mathematical programming model that determines the best allocation of PI-containers in an intermodal setting with different transportation modes. In doing so, four Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are separately considered to investigate different aspects of the PI system's performance and the relevant robustness is assessed with respect to the PI-hubs' processing times and the number of modules per PI-container. In particular, a Global Sensitivity Analysis (GSA) is considered to evaluate, by means of a case study, the individual relevance of each input parameter on the resulting performance.
Noise Analysis and Modeling of the PMD Flexx2 Depth Camera for Robotic Applications
Authors: Yuke Cai, Davide Plozza, Steven Marty, Paul Joseph, Michele Magno
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00
Tasks: Navigate, Robot Navigation

Time of Flight ToF cameras renowned for their ability to capture realtime 3D information have become indispensable for agile mobile robotics These cameras utilize light signals to accurately measure distances enabling robots to navigate complex environments with precision Innovative depth cameras characterized by their compact size and lightweight design such as the recently released PMD Flexx2 are particularly suited for mobile robots Capable of achieving high frame rates while capturing depth information this innovative sensor is suitable for tasks such as robot navigation and terrain mapping Operating on the ToF measurement principle the sensor offers multiple benefits over classic stereobased depth cameras However the depth images produced by the camera are subject to noise from multiple sources complicating their simulation This paper proposes an accurate quantification and modeling of the nonsystematic noise of the PMD Flexx2 We propose models for both axial and lateral noise across various camera modes assuming Gaussian distributions Axial noise modeled as a function of distance and incidence angle demonstrated a low average KullbackLeibler KL divergence of 0015 nats reflecting precise noise characterization Lateral noise deviating from a Gaussian distribution was modeled conservatively yielding a satisfactory KL divergence of 0868 nats These results validate our noise models crucial for accurately simulating sensor behavior in virtual environments and reducing the simtoreal gap in learningbased control approaches
Scale This, Not That: Investigating Key Dataset Attributes for Efficient Speech Enhancement Scaling
Authors: Leying Zhang, Wangyou Zhang, Chenda Li, Yanmin Qian
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00
Tasks: Attribute, Speech Enhancement, text-to-speech, Text to Speech

Recent speech enhancement models have shown impressive performance gains by scaling up model complexity and training data. However, the impact of dataset variability (e.g. text, language, speaker, and noise) has been underexplored. Analyzing each attribute individually is often challenging, as multiple attributes are usually entangled in commonly used datasets, posing a significant obstacle in understanding the distinct contributions of each attribute to the model's performance. To address this challenge, we propose a generation-training-evaluation framework that leverages zero-shot text-to-speech systems to investigate the impact of controlled attribute variations on speech enhancement performance. It enables us to synthesize training datasets in a scalable manner while carefully altering each attribute. Based on the proposed framework, we analyze the scaling effects of various dataset attributes on the performance of both discriminative and generative SE models. Extensive experiments on multi-domain corpora imply that acoustic attributes (e.g., speaker and noise) are much more important to current speech enhancement models than semantic attributes (e.g., language and text), offering new insights for future research.
Hydrogen in Aviation: Evaluating the Feasibility and Benefits of a Green Fuel Alternative
Authors: Armaan Sharma, Mansur M. Arief
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00

Growing concerns regarding environmental health have highlighted the aviation industry's impact and potential mitigation strategies. Previous research has indicated hydrogen's significant potential for reducing the industry's environmental impact, yet implementation challenges remain. Through analysis of light aircraft and military applications, we demonstrate that hydrogen-based systems can achieve performance metrics approaching those of traditional fuels while reducing emissions by up to 74.7%. Our findings show that hydrogen's superior energy-to-mass ratio (120 MJ/kg versus 43 MJ/kg for jet fuel) makes it particularly advantageous for aviation applications compared to battery-electric alternatives. Primary implementation challenges involve cryogenic storage systems (-253{\deg}C), tank placement optimization, and fueling infrastructure development. The observed efficiency penalties of only 2.23% in military applications suggest hydrogen's viability as a sustainable aviation fuel alternative.
A Traffic Adapative Physics-informed Learning Control for Energy Savings of Connected and Automated Vehicles
Authors: Yunli Shao
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00
Tasks: Model Predictive Control

Model predictive control has emerged as an effective approach for real-time optimal control of connected and automated vehicles. However, nonlinear dynamics of vehicle and traffic systems make accurate modeling and real-time optimization challenging. Learning-based control offer a promising alternative, as they adapt to environment without requiring an explicit model. For learning control framework, an augmented state space system design is necessary since optimal control depends on both the ego vehicle's state and predicted states of other vehicles. This work develops a traffic adaptive augmented state space system that allows the control strategy to intelligently adapt to varying traffic conditions. This design ensures that while different vehicle trajectories alter initial conditions, the system dynamics remain independent of specific trajectories. Additionally, a physics-informed learning control framework is presented that combines value function from Bellman's equation with derivative of value functions from Pontryagin's Maximum Principle into a unified loss function. This method aims to reduce required training data and time while enhancing robustness and efficiency. The proposed control framework is applied to car-following scenarios in real-world data calibrated simulation environments. The results show that this learning control approach alleviates real-time computational requirements while achieving car-following behaviors comparable to model-based methods, resulting in 9% energy savings in scenarios not previously seen in training dataset.
Novel Conditions for the Finite-Region Stability of 2D-Systems with Application to Iterative Learning Control
Authors: Chao Liang, Carlo Cosentino, Alessio Merola, Maria Romano, Francesco Amato
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00

Some recent papers have extended the concept of finite-time stability (FTS) to the context of 2D linear systems, where it has been referred to as finite-region stability (FRS). FRS methodologies make even more sense than the classical FTS approach developed for 1D-systems, since, typically, at least one of the state variables of 2D-systems is a space coordinate, rather than a time variable. Since space coordinates clearly belong to finite intervals, FRS techniques are much more effective than the classical Lyapunov approach, which looks to the asymptotic behavior of the system over an infinite interval. To this regard, the novel contribution of this paper goes in several directions. First, we provide a novel sufficient condition for the FRS of linear time-varying (LTV) discrete-time 2D-systems, which turns out to be less conservative than those ones provided in the existing literature. Then, an interesting application of FRS to the context of iterative learning control (ILC) is investigated, by exploiting the previously developed theory. In particular, a new procedure is proposed so that the tracking errors of the ILC law converges within the desired bound in a finite number of iterations. Finally, a sufficient condition to solve the finite-region stabilization problem is proposed. All the results provided in the paper lead to optimization problems constrained by linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), that can be solved via widely available software. Numerical examples illustrate and validate the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
Co-optimization of Vehicle Dynamics and Powertrain Management for Connected and Automated Electric Vehicles
Authors: ZongTan Li, Yunli Shao
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00
Tasks: Management

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) represent the future of transportation, utilizing detailed traffic information to enhance control and decision-making. Eco-driving of CAVs has the potential to significantly improve energy efficiency, and the benefits are maximized when both vehicle speed and powertrain operation are optimized. In this paper, we studied the co-optimization of vehicle speed and powertrain management for energy savings in a dual-motor electric vehicle. Control-oriented vehicle dynamics and electric powertrain models were developed to transform the problem into an optimal control problem specifically designed to facilitate real-time computation. Simulation validation was conducted using real-world data calibrated traffic simulation scenarios in Chattanooga, TN. Evaluation results demonstrated a 12.80-24.52% reduction in the vehicle's power consumption under ideal predicted traffic conditions, while maintaining benefits with various prediction uncertainties, such as Gaussian process uncertainties on acceleration and time-shift effects on predicted speed. The energy savings of the proposed eco-driving strategy are achieved through effective speed control and optimized torque allocation. The proposed model can be extended to various CAV and electric vehicle applications, with potential adaptability to diverse traffic scenarios.
Classification of Linear Observed Systems on Multi-Frame Groups via Automorphisms
Authors: Changwu Liu, Yuan Shen
Date: 2024-12-19 00:00:00

Many navigation problems can be formulated as observer design on linear observed systems with a two-frame group structure, on which an invariant filter can be implemented with guaranteed consistency and stability. It's still unclear how this could be generalized to simultaneous estimation of the poses of multiple frames and the general forms of the linear observed systems involving multiple frames remain unknown. In this letter, we propose a multi-frame group structure by semi-direct product using the two-frame group as building blocks, covering all natural extensions. More importantly, we give a systematic direct calculation to classify all possible forms of linear observed systems including process ODEs and algebraic observations on such multi-frame group through its automorphism structure, in comparison to the existing classification on two-frame groups relying on ingenious construction. Depth-camera inertial odometry with online extrinsics calibration is provided as an application.