pwc-archive/papers-with-abstracts huggingface dataset:
TheoremExplainAgent: Towards Video-based Multimodal Explanations for LLM Theorem Understanding
Authors: Max Ku, Thomas Chong, Jonathan Leung, Krish Shah, Alvin Yu, Wenhu Chen
Date: 2025-02-26 00:00:00

Understanding domain-specific theorems often requires more than just text-based reasoning; effective communication through structured visual explanations is crucial for deeper comprehension. While large language models (LLMs) demonstrate strong performance in text-based theorem reasoning, their ability to generate coherent and pedagogically meaningful visual explanations remains an open challenge. In this work, we introduce TheoremExplainAgent, an agentic approach for generating long-form theorem explanation videos (over 5 minutes) using Manim animations. To systematically evaluate multimodal theorem explanations, we propose TheoremExplainBench, a benchmark covering 240 theorems across multiple STEM disciplines, along with 5 automated evaluation metrics. Our results reveal that agentic planning is essential for generating detailed long-form videos, and the o3-mini agent achieves a success rate of 93.8% and an overall score of 0.77. However, our quantitative and qualitative studies show that most of the videos produced exhibit minor issues with visual element layout. Furthermore, multimodal explanations expose deeper reasoning flaws that text-based explanations fail to reveal, highlighting the importance of multimodal explanations.
A 106K Multi-Topic Multilingual Conversational User Dataset with Emoticons
Authors: Heng Er Metilda Chee, Jiayin Wang, Zhiqiang Guo, Weizhi Ma, Qinglang Guo, Min Zhang
Date: 2025-02-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Recommendation Systems, Retrieval

Instant messaging has become a predominant form of communication, with texts and emoticons enabling users to express emotions and ideas efficiently. Emoticons, in particular, have gained significant traction as a medium for conveying sentiments and information, leading to the growing importance of emoticon retrieval and recommendation systems. However, one of the key challenges in this area has been the absence of datasets that capture both the temporal dynamics and user-specific interactions with emoticons, limiting the progress of personalized user modeling and recommendation approaches. To address this, we introduce the emoticon dataset, a comprehensive resource that includes time-based data along with anonymous user identifiers across different conversations. As the largest publicly accessible emoticon dataset to date, it comprises 22K unique users, 370K emoticons, and 8.3M messages. The data was collected from a widely-used messaging platform across 67 conversations and 720 hours of crawling. Strict privacy and safety checks were applied to ensure the integrity of both text and image data. Spanning across 10 distinct domains, the emoticon dataset provides rich insights into temporal, multilingual, and cross-domain behaviors, which were previously unavailable in other emoticon-based datasets. Our in-depth experiments, both quantitative and qualitative, demonstrate the dataset's potential in modeling user behavior and personalized recommendation systems, opening up new possibilities for research in personalized retrieval and conversational AI. The dataset is freely accessible.
A Comprehensive Survey on Composed Image Retrieval
Authors: Xuemeng Song, Haoqiang Lin, Haokun Wen, Bohan Hou, Mingzhu Xu, Liqiang Nie
Date: 2025-02-19 00:00:00
Tasks: Attribute, Image Retrieval, Retrieval, Survey

Composed Image Retrieval (CIR) is an emerging yet challenging task that allows users to search for target images using a multimodal query, comprising a reference image and a modification text specifying the user's desired changes to the reference image. Given its significant academic and practical value, CIR has become a rapidly growing area of interest in the computer vision and machine learning communities, particularly with the advances in deep learning. To the best of our knowledge, there is currently no comprehensive review of CIR to provide a timely overview of this field. Therefore, we synthesize insights from over 120 publications in top conferences and journals, including ACM TOIS, SIGIR, and CVPR In particular, we systematically categorize existing supervised CIR and zero-shot CIR models using a fine-grained taxonomy. For a comprehensive review, we also briefly discuss approaches for tasks closely related to CIR, such as attribute-based CIR and dialog-based CIR. Additionally, we summarize benchmark datasets for evaluation and analyze existing supervised and zero-shot CIR methods by comparing experimental results across multiple datasets. Furthermore, we present promising future directions in this field, offering practical insights for researchers interested in further exploration. The curated collection of related works is maintained and continuously updated in https://github.com/haokunwen/Awesome-Composed-Image-Retrieval.
Scalable Signature Kernel Computations for Long Time Series via Local Neumann Series Expansions
Authors: Matthew Tamayo-Rios, Alexander Schell, Rima Alaifari
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: GPU, Time Series

The signature kernel is a recent state-of-the-art tool for analyzing high-dimensional sequential data, valued for its theoretical guarantees and strong empirical performance. In this paper, we present a novel method for efficiently computing the signature kernel of long, high-dimensional time series via dynamically truncated recursive local power series expansions. Building on the characterization of the signature kernel as the solution of a Goursat PDE, our approach employs tilewise Neumann-series expansions to derive rapidly converging power series approximations of the signature kernel that are locally defined on subdomains and propagated iteratively across the entire domain of the Goursat solution by exploiting the geometry of the time series. Algorithmically, this involves solving a system of interdependent local Goursat PDEs by recursively propagating boundary conditions along a directed graph via topological ordering, with dynamic truncation adaptively terminating each local power series expansion when coefficients fall below machine precision, striking an effective balance between computational cost and accuracy. This method achieves substantial performance improvements over state-of-the-art approaches for computing the signature kernel, providing (a) adjustable and superior accuracy, even for time series with very high roughness; (b) drastically reduced memory requirements; and (c) scalability to efficiently handle very long time series (e.g., with up to half a million points or more) on a single GPU. These advantages make our method particularly well-suited for rough-path-assisted machine learning, financial modeling, and signal processing applications that involve very long and highly volatile data.
Impilict Runge-Kutta based sparse identification of governing equations in biologically motivated systems
Authors: Mehrdad Anvari, Hamidreza Marasi, Hossein Kheiri
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00

Identifying governing equations in physical and biological systems from datasets remains a long-standing challenge across various scientific disciplines, providing mechanistic insights into complex system evolution. Common methods like sparse identification of nonlinear dynamics (SINDy) often rely on precise derivative estimations, making them vulnerable to data scarcity and noise. This study presents a novel data-driven framework by integrating high order implicit Runge-Kutta methods (IRKs) with the sparse identification, termed IRK-SINDy. The framework exhibits remarkable robustness to data scarcity and noise by leveraging the lower stepsize constraint of IRKs. Two methods for incorporating IRKs into sparse regression are introduced: one employs iterative schemes for numerically solving nonlinear algebraic system of equations, while the other utilizes deep neural networks to predict stage values of IRKs. The performance of IRK-SINDy is demonstrated through numerical experiments on benchmark problems with varied dynamical behaviors, including linear and nonlinear oscillators, the Lorenz system, and biologically relevant models like predator-prey dynamics, logistic growth, and the FitzHugh-Nagumo model. Results indicate that IRK-SINDy outperforms conventional SINDy and the RK4-SINDy framework, particularly under conditions of extreme data scarcity and noise, yielding interpretable and generalizable models.
Fast $\ell_1$-Regularized EEG Source Localization Using Variable Projection
Authors: Jack Michael Solomon, Rosemary Renaut, Matthias Chung
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: EEG

Electroencephalograms (EEG) are invaluable for treating neurological disorders, however, mapping EEG electrode readings to brain activity requires solving a challenging inverse problem. Due to the time series data, the use of $\ell_1$ regularization quickly becomes intractable for many solvers, and, despite the reconstruction advantages of $\ell_1$ regularization, $\ell_2$-based approaches such as sLORETA are used in practice. In this work, we formulate EEG source localization as a graphical generalized elastic net inverse problem and present a variable projected algorithm (VPAL) suitable for fast EEG source localization. We prove convergence of this solver for a broad class of separable convex, potentially non-smooth functions subject to linear constraints and include a modification of VPAL that reconstructs time points in sequence, suitable for real-time reconstruction. Our proposed methods are compared to state-of-the-art approaches including sLORETA and other methods for $\ell_1$-regularized inverse problems.
Regional climate projections using a deep-learning-based model-ranking and downscaling framework: Application to European climate zones
Authors: Parthiban Loganathan, Elias Zea, Ricardo Vinuesa, Evelyn Otero
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Deep Learning

Accurate regional climate forecast calls for high-resolution downscaling of Global Climate Models (GCMs). This work presents a deep-learning-based multi-model evaluation and downscaling framework ranking 32 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models using a Deep Learning-TOPSIS (DL-TOPSIS) mechanism and so refines outputs using advanced deep-learning models. Using nine performance criteria, five K\"oppen-Geiger climate zones -- Tropical, Arid, Temperate, Continental, and Polar -- are investigated over four seasons. While TaiESM1 and CMCC-CM2-SR5 show notable biases, ranking results show that NorESM2-LM, GISS-E2-1-G, and HadGEM3-GC31-LL outperform other models. Four models contribute to downscaling the top-ranked GCMs to 0.1$^{\circ}$ resolution: Vision Transformer (ViT), Geospatial Spatiotemporal Transformer with Attention and Imbalance-Aware Network (GeoSTANet), CNN-LSTM, and CNN-Long Short-Term Memory (ConvLSTM). Effectively capturing temperature extremes (TXx, TNn), GeoSTANet achieves the highest accuracy (Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) = 1.57$^{\circ}$C, Kling-Gupta Efficiency (KGE) = 0.89, Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) = 0.85, Correlation ($r$) = 0.92), so reducing RMSE by 20% over ConvLSTM. CNN-LSTM and ConvLSTM do well in Continental and Temperate zones; ViT finds fine-scale temperature fluctuations difficult. These results confirm that multi-criteria ranking improves GCM selection for regional climate studies and transformer-based downscaling exceeds conventional deep-learning methods. This framework offers a scalable method to enhance high-resolution climate projections, benefiting impact assessments and adaptation plans.
A Multiple Transferable Neural Network Method with Domain Decomposition for Elliptic Interface Problems
Authors: Tianzheng Lu, Lili Ju, Liyong Zhu
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00

The transferable neural network (TransNet) is a two-layer shallow neural network with pre-determined and uniformly distributed neurons in the hidden layer, and the least-squares solvers can be particularly used to compute the parameters of its output layer when applied to the solution of partial differential equations. In this paper, we integrate the TransNet technique with the nonoverlapping domain decomposition and the interface conditions to develop a novel multiple transferable neural network (Multi-TransNet) method for solving elliptic interface problems, which typically contain discontinuities in both solutions and their derivatives across interfaces. We first propose an empirical formula for the TransNet to characterize the relationship between the radius of the domain-covering ball, the number of hidden-layer neurons, and the optimal neuron shape. In the Multi-TransNet method, we assign each subdomain one distinct TransNet with an adaptively determined number of hidden-layer neurons to maintain the globally uniform neuron distribution across the entire computational domain, and then unite all the subdomain TransNets together by incorporating the interface condition terms into the loss function. The empirical formula is also extended to the Multi-TransNet and further employed to estimate appropriate neuron shapes for the subdomain TransNets, greatly reducing the parameter tuning cost. Additionally, we propose a normalization approach to adaptively select the weighting parameters for the terms in the loss function. Ablation studies and extensive experiments with comparison tests on different types of elliptic interface problems with low to high contrast diffusion coefficients in two and three dimensions are carried out to numerically demonstrate the superior accuracy, efficiency, and robustness of the proposed Multi-TransNet method.
High-fidelity Multiphysics Modelling for Rapid Predictions Using Physics-informed Parallel Neural Operator
Authors: Biao Yuan, He Wang, Yanjie Song, Ana Heitor, Xiaohui Chen
Date: 2025-02-26 00:00:00
Tasks: Computational Efficiency, Ensemble Learning, Operator learning

Modelling complex multiphysics systems governed by nonlinear and strongly coupled partial differential equations (PDEs) is a cornerstone in computational science and engineering. However, it remains a formidable challenge for traditional numerical solvers due to high computational cost, making them impractical for large-scale applications. Neural operators' reliance on data-driven training limits their applicability in real-world scenarios, as data is often scarce or expensive to obtain. Here, we propose a novel paradigm, physics-informed parallel neural operator (PIPNO), a scalable and unsupervised learning framework that enables data-free PDE modelling by leveraging only governing physical laws. The parallel kernel integration design, incorporating ensemble learning, significantly enhances both compatibility and computational efficiency, enabling scalable operator learning for nonlinear and strongly coupled PDEs. PIPNO efficiently captures nonlinear operator mappings across diverse physics, including geotechnical engineering, material science, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and fluid dynamics. The proposed method achieves high-fidelity and rapid predictions, outperforming existing operator learning approaches in modelling nonlinear and strongly coupled multiphysics systems. Therefore, PIPNO offers a powerful alternative to conventional solvers, broadening the applicability of neural operators for multiphysics modelling while ensuring efficiency, robustness, and scalability.
Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Vision-Based Dexterous Manipulation on Humanoids
Authors: Toru Lin, Kartik Sachdev, Linxi Fan, Jitendra Malik, Yuke Zhu
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Contact-rich Manipulation, reinforcement-learning, Reinforcement Learning, Robot Manipulation

Reinforcement learning has delivered promising results in achieving human- or even superhuman-level capabilities across diverse problem domains, but success in dexterous robot manipulation remains limited. This work investigates the key challenges in applying reinforcement learning to solve a collection of contact-rich manipulation tasks on a humanoid embodiment. We introduce novel techniques to overcome the identified challenges with empirical validation. Our main contributions include an automated real-to-sim tuning module that brings the simulated environment closer to the real world, a generalized reward design scheme that simplifies reward engineering for long-horizon contact-rich manipulation tasks, a divide-and-conquer distillation process that improves the sample efficiency of hard-exploration problems while maintaining sim-to-real performance, and a mixture of sparse and dense object representations to bridge the sim-to-real perception gap. We show promising results on three humanoid dexterous manipulation tasks, with ablation studies on each technique. Our work presents a successful approach to learning humanoid dexterous manipulation using sim-to-real reinforcement learning, achieving robust generalization and high performance without the need for human demonstration.
Physics-Driven Data Generation for Contact-Rich Manipulation via Trajectory Optimization
Authors: Lujie Yang, H. J. Terry Suh, Tong Zhao, Bernhard Paus Graesdal, Tarik Kelestemur, Jiuguang Wang, Tao Pang, Russ Tedrake
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Contact-rich Manipulation

We present a low-cost data generation pipeline that integrates physics-based simulation, human demonstrations, and model-based planning to efficiently generate large-scale, high-quality datasets for contact-rich robotic manipulation tasks. Starting with a small number of embodiment-flexible human demonstrations collected in a virtual reality simulation environment, the pipeline refines these demonstrations using optimization-based kinematic retargeting and trajectory optimization to adapt them across various robot embodiments and physical parameters. This process yields a diverse, physically consistent dataset that enables cross-embodiment data transfer, and offers the potential to reuse legacy datasets collected under different hardware configurations or physical parameters. We validate the pipeline's effectiveness by training diffusion policies from the generated datasets for challenging contact-rich manipulation tasks across multiple robot embodiments, including a floating Allegro hand and bimanual robot arms. The trained policies are deployed zero-shot on hardware for bimanual iiwa arms, achieving high success rates with minimal human input. Project website: https://lujieyang.github.io/physicsgen/.
Deep Reinforcement Learning based Autonomous Decision-Making for Cooperative UAVs: A Search and Rescue Real World Application
Authors: Thomas Hickling, Maxwell Hogan, Abdulla Tammam, Nabil Aouf
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Tasks: Decision Making, Deep Reinforcement Learning

This paper proposes a holistic framework for autonomous guidance, navigation, and task distribution among multi-drone systems operating in Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-denied indoor settings. We advocate for a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL)-based guidance mechanism, utilising the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient algorithm. To improve the efficiency of the training process, we incorporate an Artificial Potential Field (APF)-based reward structure, enabling the agent to refine its movements, thereby promoting smoother paths and enhanced obstacle avoidance in indoor contexts. Furthermore, we tackle the issue of task distribution among cooperative UAVs through a DRL-trained Graph Convolutional Network (GCN). This GCN represents the interactions between drones and tasks, facilitating dynamic and real-time task allocation that reflects the current environmental conditions and the capabilities of the drones. Such an approach fosters effective coordination and collaboration among multiple drones during search and rescue operations or other exploratory endeavours. Lastly, to ensure precise odometry in environments lacking GNSS, we employ Light Detection And Ranging Simultaneous Localisation and Mapping complemented by a depth camera to mitigate the hallway problem. This integration offers robust localisation and mapping functionalities, thereby enhancing the systems dependability in indoor navigation. The proposed multi-drone framework not only elevates individual navigation capabilities but also optimises coordinated task allocation in complex, obstacle-laden environments. Experimental evaluations conducted in a setup tailored to meet the requirements of the NATO Sapience Autonomous Cooperative Drone Competition demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed system, yielding outstanding results and culminating in a first-place finish in the 2024 Sapience competition.
Multi-Scale Neighborhood Occupancy Masked Autoencoder for Self-Supervised Learning in LiDAR Point Clouds
Authors: Mohamed Abdelsamad, Michael Ulrich, Claudius Gläser, Abhinav Valada
Date: 2025-02-27 00:00:00
Proceeding: CVPR 2025 1
Tasks: 3D Object Detection, Decoder, object-detection, Object Detection, Self-Supervised Learning, Semantic Segmentation

Masked autoencoders (MAE) have shown tremendous potential for self-supervised learning (SSL) in vision and beyond. However, point clouds from LiDARs used in automated driving are particularly challenging for MAEs since large areas of the 3D volume are empty. Consequently, existing work suffers from leaking occupancy information into the decoder and has significant computational complexity, thereby limiting the SSL pre-training to only 2D bird's eye view encoders in practice. In this work, we propose the novel neighborhood occupancy MAE (NOMAE) that overcomes the aforementioned challenges by employing masked occupancy reconstruction only in the neighborhood of non-masked voxels. We incorporate voxel masking and occupancy reconstruction at multiple scales with our proposed hierarchical mask generation technique to capture features of objects of different sizes in the point cloud. NOMAEs are extremely flexible and can be directly employed for SSL in existing 3D architectures. We perform extensive evaluations on the nuScenes and Waymo Open datasets for the downstream perception tasks of semantic segmentation and 3D object detection, comparing with both discriminative and generative SSL methods. The results demonstrate that NOMAE sets the new state-of-the-art on multiple benchmarks for multiple point cloud perception tasks.