Overview
Fundamental Limits in Formal Verification of Message-Passing Neural Networks
Output reachability and adversarial robustness are among the most relevant safety properties of neural networks. We show that in the context of Message Passing Neural Networks (MPNN), a common Graph Neural Network (GNN) model, formal verification is impossible. In particular, we show that output reachability of graph-classifier MPNN, working over graphs of unbounded size, non-trivial degree and sufficiently expressive node labels, cannot be verified formally: there is no algorithm that answers correctly (with yes or no), given an MPNN, whether there exists some valid input to the MPNN such that the corresponding output satisfies a given specification. However, we also show that output reachability and adversarial robustness of node-classifier MPNN can be verified formally when a limit on the degree of input graphs is given a priori. We discuss the implications of these results, for the purpose of obtaining a complete picture of the principle possibility to formally verify GNN, depending on the expressiveness of the involved GNN models and input-output specifications. The Graph Neural Network (GNN) framework, i.e. models that compute functions over graphs, has become a goto technique for learning tasks over structured data. This is not surprising since GNN application possibilities are enormous, ranging from natural sciences (cf. Fan et al. (2019)) to general knowledge graph applications which itself includes a broad range of applications (cf.
Speeding-Up Thermal Simulations Of Chips With ML
A new technical paper titled "A Thermal Machine Learning Solver For Chip Simulation" was published by researchers at Ansys. Abstract "Thermal analysis provides deeper insights into electronic chips' behavior under different temperature scenarios and enables faster design exploration. However, obtaining detailed and accurate thermal profile on chip is very time-consuming using FEM or CFD. Therefore, there is an urgent need for speeding up the on-chip thermal solution to address various system scenarios. In this paper, we propose a thermal machine-learning (ML) solver to speed-up thermal simulations of chips. The thermal ML-Solver is an extension of the recent novel approach, CoAEMLSim (Composable Autoencoder Machine Learning Simulator) with modifications to the solution algorithm to handle constant and distributed HTC. The proposed method is validated against commercial solvers, such as Ansys MAPDL, as well as a latest ML baseline, UNet, under different scenarios to demonstrate its enhanced accuracy, scalability, and generalizability."
Review of Clustering Methods for Functional Data
Functional data clustering is to identify heterogeneous morphological patterns in the continuous functions underlying the discrete measurements/observations. Application of functional data clustering has appeared in many publications across various fields of sciences, including but not limited to biology, (bio)chemistry, engineering, environmental science, medical science, psychology, social science, etc. The phenomenal growth of the application of functional data clustering indicates the urgent need for a systematic approach to develop efficient clustering methods and scalable algorithmic implementations. On the other hand, there is abundant literature on the cluster analysis of time series, trajectory data, spatio-temporal data, etc., which are all related to functional data. Therefore, an overarching structure of existing functional data clustering methods will enable the cross-pollination of ideas across various research fields. We here conduct a comprehensive review of original clustering methods for functional data. We propose a systematic taxonomy that explores the connections and differences among the existing functional data clustering methods and relates them to the conventional multivariate clustering methods. The structure of the taxonomy is built on three main attributes of a functional data clustering method and therefore is more reliable than existing categorizations. The review aims to bridge the gap between the functional data analysis community and the clustering community and to generate new principles for functional data clustering.
Learning with Limited Samples -- Meta-Learning and Applications to Communication Systems
Chen, Lisha, Jose, Sharu Theresa, Nikoloska, Ivana, Park, Sangwoo, Chen, Tianyi, Simeone, Osvaldo
Deep learning has achieved remarkable success in many machine learning tasks such as image classification, speech recognition, and game playing. However, these breakthroughs are often difficult to translate into real-world engineering systems because deep learning models require a massive number of training samples, which are costly to obtain in practice. To address labeled data scarcity, few-shot meta-learning optimizes learning algorithms that can efficiently adapt to new tasks quickly. While meta-learning is gaining significant interest in the machine learning literature, its working principles and theoretic fundamentals are not as well understood in the engineering community. This review monograph provides an introduction to meta-learning by covering principles, algorithms, theory, and engineering applications. After introducing meta-learning in comparison with conventional and joint learning, we describe the main meta-learning algorithms, as well as a general bilevel optimization framework for the definition of meta-learning techniques. Then, we summarize known results on the generalization capabilities of meta-learning from a statistical learning viewpoint. Applications to communication systems, including decoding and power allocation, are discussed next, followed by an introduction to aspects related to the integration of meta-learning with emerging computing technologies, namely neuromorphic and quantum computing. The monograph is concluded with an overview of open research challenges.
Green Learning: Introduction, Examples and Outlook
Kuo, C. -C. Jay, Madni, Azad M.
Rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) in the last decade have largely been built upon the wide applications of deep learning (DL). However, the high carbon footprint yielded by larger and larger DL networks becomes a concern for sustainability. Furthermore, DL decision mechanism is somewhat obsecure and can only be verified by test data. Green learning (GL) has been proposed as an alternative paradigm to address these concerns. GL is characterized by low carbon footprints, small model sizes, low computational complexity, and logical transparency. It offers energy-effective solutions in cloud centers as well as mobile/edge devices. GL also provides a clear and logical decision-making process to gain people's trust. Several statistical tools have been developed to achieve this goal in recent years. They include subspace approximation, unsupervised and supervised representation learning, supervised discriminant feature selection, and feature space partitioning. We have seen a few successful GL examples with performance comparable with state-of-the-art DL solutions. This paper offers an introduction to GL, its demonstrated applications, and future outlook.
When Infodemic Meets Epidemic: a Systematic Literature Review
Asaad, Chaimae, Khaouja, Imane, Ghogho, Mounir, Baïna, Karim
Epidemics and outbreaks present arduous challenges requiring both individual and communal efforts. Social media offer significant amounts of data that can be leveraged for bio-surveillance. They also provide a platform to quickly and efficiently reach a sizeable percentage of the population, hence their potential impact on various aspects of epidemic mitigation. The general objective of this systematic literature review is to provide a methodical overview of the integration of social media in different epidemic-related contexts. Three research questions were conceptualized for this review, resulting in over 10000 publications collected in the first PRISMA stage, 129 of which were selected for inclusion. A thematic method-oriented synthesis was undertaken and identified 5 main themes related to social media enabled epidemic surveillance, misinformation management, and mental health. Findings uncover a need for more robust applications of the lessons learned from epidemic post-mortem documentation. A vast gap exists between retrospective analysis of epidemic management and result integration in prospective studies. Harnessing the full potential of social media in epidemic related tasks requires streamlining the results of epidemic forecasting, public opinion understanding and misinformation propagation, all while keeping abreast of potential mental health implications. Pro-active prevention has thus become vital for epidemic curtailment and containment.
Requirements Engineering for Machine Learning: A Review and Reflection
Pei, Zhongyi, Liu, Lin, Wang, Chen, Wang, Jianmin
Today, many industrial processes are undergoing digital transformation, which often requires the integration of well-understood domain models and state-of-the-art machine learning technology in business processes. However, requirements elicitation and design decision making about when, where and how to embed various domain models and end-to-end machine learning techniques properly into a given business workflow requires further exploration. This paper aims to provide an overview of the requirements engineering process for machine learning applications in terms of cross domain collaborations. We first review the literature on requirements engineering for machine learning, and then go through the collaborative requirements analysis process step-by-step. An example case of industrial data-driven intelligence applications is also discussed in relation to the aforementioned steps.
The Real Deal: A Review of Challenges and Opportunities in Moving Reinforcement Learning-Based Traffic Signal Control Systems Towards Reality
Chen, Rex, Fang, Fei, Sadeh, Norman
Traffic signal control (TSC) is a high-stakes domain that is growing in importance as traffic volume grows globally. An increasing number of works are applying reinforcement learning (RL) to TSC; RL can draw on an abundance of traffic data to improve signalling efficiency. However, RL-based signal controllers have never been deployed. In this work, we provide the first review of challenges that must be addressed before RL can be deployed for TSC. We focus on four challenges involving (1) uncertainty in detection, (2) reliability of communications, (3) compliance and interpretability, and (4) heterogeneous road users. We show that the literature on RL-based TSC has made some progress towards addressing each challenge. However, more work should take a systems thinking approach that considers the impacts of other pipeline components on RL.
How Relevant is Selective Memory Population in Lifelong Language Learning?
Araujo, Vladimir, Balabin, Helena, Hurtado, Julio, Soto, Alvaro, Moens, Marie-Francine
Lifelong language learning seeks to have models continuously learn multiple tasks in a sequential order without suffering from catastrophic forgetting. State-of-the-art approaches rely on sparse experience replay as the primary approach to prevent forgetting. Experience replay usually adopts sampling methods for the memory population; however, the effect of the chosen sampling strategy on model performance has not yet been studied. In this paper, we investigate how relevant the selective memory population is in the lifelong learning process of text classification and question-answering tasks. We found that methods that randomly store a uniform number of samples from the entire data stream lead to high performances, especially for low memory size, which is consistent with computer vision studies.
Beyond Transmitting Bits: Context, Semantics, and Task-Oriented Communications
Gunduz, Deniz, Qin, Zhijin, Aguerri, Inaki Estella, Dhillon, Harpreet S., Yang, Zhaohui, Yener, Aylin, Wong, Kai Kit, Chae, Chan-Byoung
Communication systems to date primarily aim at reliably communicating bit sequences. Such an approach provides efficient engineering designs that are agnostic to the meanings of the messages or to the goal that the message exchange aims to achieve. Next generation systems, however, can be potentially enriched by folding message semantics and goals of communication into their design. Further, these systems can be made cognizant of the context in which communication exchange takes place, providing avenues for novel design insights. This tutorial summarizes the efforts to date, starting from its early adaptations, semantic-aware and task-oriented communications, covering the foundations, algorithms and potential implementations. The focus is on approaches that utilize information theory to provide the foundations, as well as the significant role of learning in semantics and task-aware communications.