Coastal regions are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of rising sea levels and extreme weather events. Accurate real-time forecasting of hydrodynamic processes in these areas is essential for infrastructure planning and climate adaptation. In this study, we present the Multiple-Input Temporal Operator Network (MITONet), a novel autoregressive neural emulator that employs dimensionality reduction to efficiently approximate high-dimensional numerical solvers for complex, nonlinear problems that are governed by time-dependent, parameterized partial differential equations. Although MITONet is applicable to a wide range of problems, we showcase its capabilities by forecasting regional tide-driven dynamics described by the two-dimensional shallow-water equations, while incorporating initial conditions, boundary conditions, and a varying domain parameter. We demonstrate MITONet's performance in a real-world application, highlighting its ability to make accurate predictions by extrapolating both in time and parametric space.

We introduce KANICE (Kolmogorov-Arnold Networks with Interactive Convolutional Elements), a novel neural architecture that combines Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) with Kolmogorov-Arnold Network (KAN) principles. KANICE integrates Interactive Convolutional Blocks (ICBs) and KAN linear layers into a CNN framework. This leverages KANs' universal approximation capabilities and ICBs' adaptive feature learning. KANICE captures complex, non-linear data relationships while enabling dynamic, context-dependent feature extraction based on the Kolmogorov-Arnold representation theorem. We evaluated KANICE on four datasets: MNIST, Fashion-MNIST, EMNIST, and SVHN, comparing it against standard CNNs, CNN-KAN hybrids, and ICB variants. KANICE consistently outperformed baseline models, achieving 99.35% accuracy on MNIST and 90.05% on the SVHN dataset. Furthermore, we introduce KANICE-mini, a compact variant designed for efficiency. A comprehensive ablation study demonstrates that KANICE-mini achieves comparable performance to KANICE with significantly fewer parameters. KANICE-mini reached 90.00% accuracy on SVHN with 2,337,828 parameters, compared to KANICE's 25,432,000. This study highlights the potential of KAN-based architectures in balancing performance and computational efficiency in image classification tasks. Our work contributes to research in adaptive neural networks, integrates mathematical theorems into deep learning architectures, and explores the trade-offs between model complexity and performance, advancing computer vision and pattern recognition. The source code for this paper is publicly accessible through our GitHub repository (https://github.com/m-ferdaus/kanice).

Imbalanced datasets are a significant challenge in real-world scenarios. They lead to models that underperform on underrepresented classes, which is a critical issue in infrastructure inspection. This paper introduces the Enhanced Feature Pyramid Network (E-FPN), a deep learning model for the semantic segmentation of culverts and sewer pipes within imbalanced datasets. The E-FPN incorporates architectural innovations like sparsely connected blocks and depth-wise separable convolutions to improve feature extraction and handle object variations. To address dataset imbalance, the model employs strategies like class decomposition and data augmentation. Experimental results on the culvert-sewer defects dataset and a benchmark aerial semantic segmentation drone dataset show that the E-FPN outperforms state-of-the-art methods, achieving an average Intersection over Union (IoU) improvement of 13.8% and 27.2%, respectively. Additionally, class decomposition and data augmentation together boost the model's performance by approximately 6.9% IoU. The proposed E-FPN presents a promising solution for enhancing object segmentation in challenging, multi-class real-world datasets, with potential applications extending beyond culvert-sewer defect detection.

This paper introduces Semantic Haar-Adaptive Refined Pyramid Network (SHARP-Net), a novel architecture for semantic segmentation. SHARP-Net integrates a bottom-up pathway featuring Inception-like blocks with varying filter sizes (3x3$ and 5x5), parallel max-pooling, and additional spatial detection layers. This design captures multi-scale features and fine structural details. Throughout the network, depth-wise separable convolutions are used to reduce complexity. The top-down pathway of SHARP-Net focuses on generating high-resolution features through upsampling and information fusion using $1\times1$ and $3\times3$ depth-wise separable convolutions. We evaluated our model using our developed challenging Culvert-Sewer Defects dataset and the benchmark DeepGlobe Land Cover dataset. Our experimental evaluation demonstrated the base model's (excluding Haar-like features) effectiveness in handling irregular defect shapes, occlusions, and class imbalances. It outperformed state-of-the-art methods, including U-Net, CBAM U-Net, ASCU-Net, FPN, and SegFormer, achieving average improvements of 14.4% and 12.1% on the Culvert-Sewer Defects and DeepGlobe Land Cover datasets, respectively, with IoU scores of 77.2% and 70.6%. Additionally, the training time was reduced. Furthermore, the integration of carefully selected and fine-tuned Haar-like features enhanced the performance of deep learning models by at least 20%. The proposed SHARP-Net, incorporating Haar-like features, achieved an impressive IoU of 94.75%, representing a 22.74% improvement over the base model. These features were also applied to other deep learning models, showing a 35.0% improvement, proving their versatility and effectiveness. SHARP-Net thus provides a powerful and efficient solution for accurate semantic segmentation in challenging real-world scenarios.

Measuring an overall autonomy score for a robotic system requires the combination of a set of relevant aspects and features of the system that might be measured in different units, qualitative, and/or discordant. In this paper, we build upon an existing non-contextual autonomy framework that measures and combines the Autonomy Level and the Component Performance of a system as overall autonomy score. We examine several methods of combining features, showing how some methods find different rankings of the same data, and we employ the weighted product method to resolve this issue. Furthermore, we introduce the non-contextual autonomy coordinate and represent the overall autonomy of a system with an autonomy distance. We apply our method to a set of seven Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and obtain their absolute autonomy score as well as their relative score with respect to the best system.

The rapid progress in Large Language Models (LLMs) could transform many fields, but their fast development creates significant challenges for oversight, ethical creation, and building user trust. This comprehensive review looks at key trust issues in LLMs, such as unintended harms, lack of transparency, vulnerability to attacks, alignment with human values, and environmental impact. Many obstacles can undermine user trust, including societal biases, opaque decision-making, potential for misuse, and the challenges of rapidly evolving technology. Addressing these trust gaps is critical as LLMs become more common in sensitive areas like finance, healthcare, education, and policy. To tackle these issues, we suggest combining ethical oversight, industry accountability, regulation, and public involvement. AI development norms should be reshaped, incentives aligned, and ethics integrated throughout the machine learning process, which requires close collaboration across technology, ethics, law, policy, and other fields. Our review contributes a robust framework to assess trust in LLMs and analyzes the complex trust dynamics in depth. We provide contextualized guidelines and standards for responsibly developing and deploying these powerful AI systems. This review identifies key limitations and challenges in creating trustworthy AI. By addressing these issues, we aim to build a transparent, accountable AI ecosystem that benefits society while minimizing risks. Our findings provide valuable guidance for researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders striving to establish trust in LLMs and ensure they are used responsibly across various applications for the good of society.

This paper addresses trust issues created from the ubiquity of black box algorithms and surrogate explainers in Explainable Intrusion Detection Systems (X-IDS). While Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) aims to enhance transparency, black box surrogate explainers, such as Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanation (LIME) and SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP), are difficult to trust. The black box nature of these surrogate explainers makes the process behind explanation generation opaque and difficult to understand. To avoid this problem, one can use transparent white box algorithms such as Rule Extraction (RE). There are three types of RE algorithms: pedagogical, decompositional, and eclectic. Pedagogical methods offer fast but untrustworthy white-box explanations, while decompositional RE provides trustworthy explanations with poor scalability. This work explores eclectic rule extraction, which strikes a balance between scalability and trustworthiness. By combining techniques from pedagogical and decompositional approaches, eclectic rule extraction leverages the advantages of both, while mitigating some of their drawbacks. The proposed Hybrid X-IDS architecture features eclectic RE as a white box surrogate explainer for black box Deep Neural Networks (DNN). The presented eclectic RE algorithm extracts human-readable rules from hidden layers, facilitating explainable and trustworthy rulesets. Evaluations on UNSW-NB15 and CIC-IDS-2017 datasets demonstrate the algorithm's ability to generate rulesets with 99.9% accuracy, mimicking DNN outputs. The contributions of this work include the hybrid X-IDS architecture, the eclectic rule extraction algorithm applicable to intrusion detection datasets, and a thorough analysis of performance and explainability, demonstrating the trade-offs involved in rule extraction speed and accuracy.

Process-Based Modeling (PBM) and Machine Learning (ML) are often perceived as distinct paradigms in the geosciences. Here we present differentiable geoscientific modeling as a powerful pathway toward dissolving the perceived barrier between them and ushering in a paradigm shift. For decades, PBM offered benefits in interpretability and physical consistency but struggled to efficiently leverage large datasets. ML methods, especially deep networks, presented strong predictive skills yet lacked the ability to answer specific scientific questions. While various methods have been proposed for ML-physics integration, an important underlying theme -- differentiable modeling -- is not sufficiently recognized. Here we outline the concepts, applicability, and significance of differentiable geoscientific modeling (DG). "Differentiable" refers to accurately and efficiently calculating gradients with respect to model variables, critically enabling the learning of high-dimensional unknown relationships. DG refers to a range of methods connecting varying amounts of prior knowledge to neural networks and training them together, capturing a different scope than physics-guided machine learning and emphasizing first principles. Preliminary evidence suggests DG offers better interpretability and causality than ML, improved generalizability and extrapolation capability, and strong potential for knowledge discovery, while approaching the performance of purely data-driven ML. DG models require less training data while scaling favorably in performance and efficiency with increasing amounts of data. With DG, geoscientists may be better able to frame and investigate questions, test hypotheses, and discover unrecognized linkages.

Performance Benchmarking of HPC systems is an ongoing effort that seeks to provide information that will allow for increased performance and improve the job schedulers that manage these systems. We develop a benchmarking tool that utilizes machine learning models and gathers performance data on GPU-accelerated nodes while they perform material segmentation analysis. The benchmark uses a ML model that has been converted from Caffe to PyTorch using the MMdnn toolkit and the MINC-2500 dataset. Performance data is gathered on two ERDC DSRC systems, Onyx and Vulcanite. The data reveals that while Vulcanite has faster model times in a large number of benchmarks, and it is also more subject to some environmental factors that can cause performances slower than Onyx. In contrast the model times from Onyx are consistent across benchmarks. 1. Introduction The demand for intelligent devices and tools that will facilitate safer work environments, safer roadways, and an increased quality of life is ever growing.

The current state of the art systems in Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled intrusion detection use a variety of black box methods. These black box methods are generally trained using Error Based Learning (EBL) techniques with a focus on creating accurate models. These models have high performative costs and are not easily explainable. A white box Competitive Learning (CL) based eXplainable Intrusion Detection System (X-IDS) offers a potential solution to these problem. CL models utilize an entirely different learning paradigm than EBL approaches. This different learning process makes the CL family of algorithms innately explainable and less resource intensive. In this paper, we create an X-IDS architecture that is based on DARPA's recommendation for explainable systems. In our architecture we leverage CL algorithms like, Self Organizing Maps (SOM), Growing Self Organizing Maps (GSOM), and Growing Hierarchical Self Organizing Map (GHSOM). The resulting models can be data-mined to create statistical and visual explanations. Our architecture is tested using NSL-KDD and CIC-IDS-2017 benchmark datasets, and produces accuracies that are 1% - 3% less than EBL models. However, CL models are much more explainable than EBL models. Additionally, we use a pruning process that is able to significantly reduce the size of these CL based models. By pruning our models, we are able to increase prediction speeds. Lastly, we analyze the statistical and visual explanations generated by our architecture, and we give a strategy that users could use to help navigate the set of explanations. These explanations will help users build trust with an Intrusion Detection System (IDS), and allow users to discover ways to increase the IDS's potency.