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Machine learning for modelling unstructured grid data in computational physics: a review

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Unstructured grid data are essential for modelling complex geometries and dynamics in computational physics. Yet, their inherent irregularity presents significant challenges for conventional machine learning (ML) techniques. This paper provides a comprehensive review of advanced ML methodologies designed to handle unstructured grid data in high-dimensional dynamical systems. Key approaches discussed include graph neural networks, transformer models with spatial attention mechanisms, interpolation-integrated ML methods, and meshless techniques such as physics-informed neural networks. These methodologies have proven effective across diverse fields, including fluid dynamics and environmental simulations. This review is intended as a guidebook for computational scientists seeking to apply ML approaches to unstructured grid data in their domains, as well as for ML researchers looking to address challenges in computational physics. It places special focus on how ML methods can overcome the inherent limitations of traditional numerical techniques and, conversely, how insights from computational physics can inform ML development. To support benchmarking, this review also provides a summary of open-access datasets of unstructured grid data in computational physics. Finally, emerging directions such as generative models with unstructured data, reinforcement learning for mesh generation, and hybrid physics-data-driven paradigms are discussed to inspire future advancements in this evolving field.


Replay-free Online Continual Learning with Self-Supervised MultiPatches

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Online Continual Learning (OCL) methods train a model on a non-stationary data stream where only a few examples are available at a time, often leveraging replay strategies. However, usage of replay is sometimes forbidden, especially in applications with strict privacy regulations. Therefore, we propose Continual MultiPatches (CMP), an effective plug-in for existing OCL self-supervised learning strategies that avoids the use of replay samples. CMP generates multiple patches from a single example and projects them into a shared feature space, where patches coming from the same example are pushed together without collapsing into a single point. CMP surpasses replay and other SSL-based strategies on OCL streams, challenging the role of replay as a go-to solution for self-supervised OCL.


Computational methods for Dynamic Answer Set Programming

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

In our daily lives and industrial settings, we often encounter dynamic problems that require reasoning over time and metric constraints. These include tasks such as scheduling, routing, and production sequencing. Dynamic logics have traditionally addressed these needs but often lack the flexibility and integration required for comprehensive problem modeling. This research aims to extend Answer Set Programming (ASP), a powerful declarative problem-solving approach, to handle dynamic domains effectively. By integrating concepts from dynamic, temporal, and metric logics into ASP, we seek to develop robust systems capable of modeling complex dynamic problems and performing efficient reasoning tasks, thereby enhancing ASPs applicability in industrial contexts.


Exploring the Needs of Practising Musicians in Co-Creative AI Through Co-Design

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Recent advances in generative AI music have resulted in new technologies that are being framed as co-creative tools for musicians with early work demonstrating their potential to add to music practice. While the field has seen many valuable contributions, work that involves practising musicians in the design and development of these tools is limited, with the majority of work including them only once a tool has been developed. In this paper, we present a case study that explores the needs of practising musicians through the co-design of a musical variation system, highlighting the importance of involving a diverse range of musicians throughout the design process and uncovering various design insights. This was achieved through two workshops and a two week ecological evaluation, where musicians from different musical backgrounds offered valuable insights not only on a musical system's design but also on how a musical AI could be integrated into their musical practices.


Co-designing Large Language Model Tools for Project-Based Learning with K12 Educators

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The emergence of generative AI, particularly large language models (LLMs), has opened the door for student-centered and active learning methods like project-based learning (PBL). However, PBL poses practical implementation challenges for educators around project design and management, assessment, and balancing student guidance with student autonomy. The following research documents a co-design process with interdisciplinary K-12 teachers to explore and address the current PBL challenges they face. Through teacher-driven interviews, collaborative workshops, and iterative design of wireframes, we gathered evidence for ways LLMs can support teachers in implementing high-quality PBL pedagogy by automating routine tasks and enhancing personalized learning. Teachers in the study advocated for supporting their professional growth and augmenting their current roles without replacing them. They also identified affordances and challenges around classroom integration, including resource requirements and constraints, ethical concerns, and potential immediate and long-term impacts. Drawing on these, we propose design guidelines for future deployment of LLM tools in PBL.


Feature-based Graph Attention Networks Improve Online Continual Learning

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Online continual learning for image classification is crucial for models to adapt to new data while retaining knowledge of previously learned tasks. This capability is essential to address real-world challenges involving dynamic environments and evolving data distributions. Traditional approaches predominantly employ Convolutional Neural Networks, which are limited to processing images as grids and primarily capture local patterns rather than relational information. Although the emergence of transformer architectures has improved the ability to capture relationships, these models often require significantly larger resources. In this paper, we present a novel online continual learning framework based on Graph Attention Networks (GATs), which effectively capture contextual relationships and dynamically update the task-specific representation via learned attention weights. Our approach utilizes a pre-trained feature extractor to convert images into graphs using hierarchical feature maps, representing information at varying levels of granularity. These graphs are then processed by a GAT and incorporate an enhanced global pooling strategy to improve classification performance for continual learning. In addition, we propose the rehearsal memory duplication technique that improves the representation of the previous tasks while maintaining the memory budget. Comprehensive evaluations on benchmark datasets, including SVHN, CIFAR10, CIFAR100, and MiniImageNet, demonstrate the superiority of our method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.


Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Classroom Learning Experience

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Shadeeb Hossain Engineering Technology and Information Sciences DeVry University New York, USA [ORCID ID: 0000 - 0002 - 5224 - 7684 ] Abstract -- This paper explores advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance classroom learning, highlighting contributions from companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, and ChatGPT, as well as the potential of brain signal analysis. The focus is on improving students' learning experiences by using Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to (i) identify a student's preferred learning style (visual or auditory) and (ii) predict academic dropout risk. A Logistic Regression algorithm is applied for binary classification using six predictor variables, such as assessment scores, lesson duration, and preferred learning style, to accurately identify learning preferences. In comparison, the Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) classifier achieved an accuracy of 83.1% on the same dataset Individual feedback to students and customized learning materials has a significant impact on their learning ability and have been areas of active research focus [1]. However, in the United States, due to the vast diversity in classroom populations, it becomes inherently difficult for educators to customize lessons and address individual students' problems [2]. V arious factors contribute to the effectiveness of individual learning processes [3,4]. Questionnaires have often been used as a tool to predict an individual's learning style [5 - 8]. Learning analytics, which involves the collection, analysis, and use of da ta, has been suggested to improve students' learning experiences [9]. In most cases, these assessments have been used to generalize the overall learning patterns of a classroom rather than addressing the needs of individual students. The concept of a SMART classroom incorporates both hardware and software components to adapt to dynamic learning patterns in a classroom, and it has been an area of ongoing research [10,11].


VTutor: An Open-Source SDK for Generative AI-Powered Animated Pedagogical Agents with Multi-Media Output

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

The rapid evolution of large language models (LLMs) has transformed human-computer interaction (HCI), but the interaction with LLMs is currently mainly focused on text-based interactions, while other multi-model approaches remain under-explored. This paper introduces VTutor, an open-source Software Development Kit (SDK) that combines generative AI with advanced animation technologies to create engaging, adaptable, and realistic APAs for human-AI multi-media interactions. VTutor leverages LLMs for real-time personalized feedback, advanced lip synchronization for natural speech alignment, and WebGL rendering for seamless web integration. Supporting various 2D and 3D character models, VTutor enables researchers and developers to design emotionally resonant, contextually adaptive learning agents. This toolkit enhances learner engagement, feedback receptivity, and human-AI interaction while promoting trustworthy AI principles in education. VTutor sets a new standard for next-generation APAs, offering an accessible, scalable solution for fostering meaningful and immersive human-AI interaction experiences. The VTutor project is open-sourced and welcomes community-driven contributions and showcases.


CLEAR: Cluster-based Prompt Learning on Heterogeneous Graphs

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Prompt learning has attracted increasing attention in the graph domain as a means to bridge the gap between pretext and downstream tasks. Existing studies on heterogeneous graph prompting typically use feature prompts to modify node features for specific downstream tasks, which do not concern the structure of heterogeneous graphs. Such a design also overlooks information from the meta-paths, which are core to learning the high-order semantics of the heterogeneous graphs. To address these issues, we propose CLEAR, a Cluster-based prompt LEARning model on heterogeneous graphs. We present cluster prompts that reformulate downstream tasks as heterogeneous graph reconstruction. In this way, we align the pretext and downstream tasks to share the same training objective. Additionally, our cluster prompts are also injected into the meta-paths such that the prompt learning process incorporates high-order semantic information entailed by the meta-paths. Extensive experiments on downstream tasks confirm the superiority of CLEAR. It consistently outperforms state-of-the-art models, achieving up to 5% improvement on the F1 metric for node classification.


Handwritten Text Recognition: A Survey

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) has become an essential field within pattern recognition and machine learning, with applications spanning historical document preservation to modern data entry and accessibility solutions. The complexity of HTR lies in the high variability of handwriting, which makes it challenging to develop robust recognition systems. This survey examines the evolution of HTR models, tracing their progression from early heuristic-based approaches to contemporary state-of-the-art neural models, which leverage deep learning techniques. The scope of the field has also expanded, with models initially capable of recognizing only word-level content progressing to recent end-to-end document-level approaches. Our paper categorizes existing work into two primary levels of recognition: (1) \emph{up to line-level}, encompassing word and line recognition, and (2) \emph{beyond line-level}, addressing paragraph- and document-level challenges. We provide a unified framework that examines research methodologies, recent advances in benchmarking, key datasets in the field, and a discussion of the results reported in the literature. Finally, we identify pressing research challenges and outline promising future directions, aiming to equip researchers and practitioners with a roadmap for advancing the field.