Education
Inferring Ingrained Remote Information in AC Power Flows Using Neuromorphic Modality Regime
Diao, Xiaoguang, Song, Yubo, Sahoo, Subham
In this paper, we infer remote measurements such as remote voltages and currents online with change in AC power flows using spiking neural network (SNN) as grid-edge technology for efficient coordination of power electronic converters. This work unifies power and information as a means of data normalization using a multi-modal regime in the form of spikes using energy-efficient neuromorphic learning and event-driven asynchronous data collection. Firstly, we organize the synchronous real-valued measurements at each edge and translate them into asynchronous spike-based events to collect sparse data for training of SNN at each edge. Instead of relying on error-dependent supervised data-driven learning theory, we exploit the latency-driven unsupervised Hebbian learning rule to obtain modulation pulses for switching of power electronic converters that can now comprehend grid disturbances locally and adapt their operation without requiring explicit infrastructure for global coordination. Not only does this philosophy block exogenous path arrival for cyber attackers by dismissing the cyber layer, it also entails converter adaptation to system reconfiguration and parameter mismatch issues. We conclude this work by validating its energy-efficient and effective online learning performance under various scenarios in different system sizes, including modified IEEE 14-bus system and under experimental conditions.
Investigating a Benchmark for Training-set free Evaluation of Linguistic Capabilities in Machine Reading Comprehension
Schlegel, Viktor, Nenadic, Goran, Batista-Navarro, Riza
Performance of NLP systems is typically evaluated by collecting a large-scale dataset by means of crowd-sourcing to train a data-driven model and evaluate it on a held-out portion of the data. This approach has been shown to suffer from spurious correlations and the lack of challenging examples that represent the diversity of natural language. Instead, we examine a framework for evaluating optimised models in training-set free setting on synthetically generated challenge sets. We find that despite the simplicity of the generation method, the data can compete with crowd-sourced datasets with regard to naturalness and lexical diversity for the purpose of evaluating the linguistic capabilities of MRC models. We conduct further experiments and show that state-of-the-art language model-based MRC systems can learn to succeed on the challenge set correctly, although, without capturing the general notion of the evaluated phenomenon.
Enhancing Exploratory Learning through Exploratory Search with the Emergence of Large Language Models
Luo, Yiming, Cheong-Iao, Patrick, Chang, Shanton
In the information era, how learners find, evaluate, and effectively use information has become a challenging issue, especially with the added complexity of large language models (LLMs) that have further confused learners in their information retrieval and search activities. This study attempts to unpack this complexity by combining exploratory search strategies with the theories of exploratory learning to form a new theoretical model of exploratory learning from the perspective of students' learning. Our work adapts Kolb's learning model by incorporating high-frequency exploration and feedback loops, aiming to promote deep cognitive and higher-order cognitive skill development in students. Additionally, this paper discusses and suggests how advanced LLMs integrated into information retrieval and information theory can support students in their exploratory searches, contributing theoretically to promoting student-computer interaction and supporting their learning journeys in the new era with LLMs.
Beyond Closure Models: Learning Chaotic-Systems via Physics-Informed Neural Operators
Wang, Chuwei, Berner, Julius, Li, Zongyi, Zhou, Di, Wang, Jiayun, Bae, Jane, Anandkumar, Anima
Accurately predicting the long-term behavior of chaotic systems is crucial for various applications such as climate modeling. However, achieving such predictions typically requires iterative computations over a dense spatiotemporal grid to account for the unstable nature of chaotic systems, which is expensive and impractical in many real-world situations. An alternative approach to such a full-resolved simulation is using a coarse grid and then correcting its errors through a \textit{closure model}, which approximates the overall information from fine scales not captured in the coarse-grid simulation. Recently, ML approaches have been used for closure modeling, but they typically require a large number of training samples from expensive fully-resolved simulations (FRS). In this work, we prove an even more fundamental limitation, i.e., the standard approach to learning closure models suffers from a large approximation error for generic problems, no matter how large the model is, and it stems from the non-uniqueness of the mapping. We propose an alternative end-to-end learning approach using a physics-informed neural operator (PINO) that overcomes this limitation by not using a closure model or a coarse-grid solver. We first train the PINO model on data from a coarse-grid solver and then fine-tune it with (a small amount of) FRS and physics-based losses on a fine grid. The discretization-free nature of neural operators means that they do not suffer from the restriction of a coarse grid that closure models face, and they can provably approximate the long-term statistics of chaotic systems. In our experiments, our PINO model achieves a 120x speedup compared to FRS with a relative error $\sim 5\%$. In contrast, the closure model coupled with a coarse-grid solver is $58$x slower than PINO while having a much higher error $\sim205\%$ when the closure model is trained on the same FRS dataset.
Evaluating the capability of large language models to personalize science texts for diverse middle-school-age learners
Vaccaro, Michael Jr, Friday, Mikayla, Zaghi, Arash
Evaluating the capability of large language models to personalize science texts for diverse middle-school-age learners Michael Vaccaro Jr. Abstract Large language models (LLMs), including OpenAI's GPT-series, have made significant advancements in recent years. Known for their expertise across diverse subject areas and quick adaptability to user-provided prompts, LLMs hold unique potential as Personalized Learning (PL) tools. Despite this potential, their application in K-12 education remains largely unexplored. This paper presents one of the first randomized controlled trials (n = 23) to evaluate the effectiveness of GPT-4 in personalizing educational science texts for middle school students. In this study, GPT-4 was used to profile student learning preferences based on choices made during a training session. For the experimental group, GPT-4 was used to rewrite science texts to align with the student's predicted profile while, for students in the control group, texts were rewritten to contradict their learning preferences. The results of a Mann-Whitney U test showed that students significantly preferred (at the.10 level) the rewritten texts when they were aligned with their profile (p =.059). These findings suggest that GPT-4 can effectively interpret and tailor educational content to diverse learner preferences, marking a significant advancement in PL technology. The limitations of this study and ethical considerations for using artificial intelligence in education are also discussed. Keywords: Large Language Models (LLMs), GPT-4, Personalized Learning, AI Generated Content (AIGC), Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT), K-12 Education 1 Introduction In 2008, the National Academy of Engineering named advancements in Personalized Learning (PL) one of the fourteen grand challenges for the twenty-first century (National Academy of Engineering, 2008). Since this time, PL has emerged as a prominent area of education research. Through this work, PL has evolved into a broad term which now encompasses a vast number of interventions and programs (Shemshack and Spector, 2020; Walkington and Bernacki, 2020). The work presented in this paper aims to build on this existing research by investigating the potential of novel Large Language Models (LLMs) to foster highly adaptive PL environments.
Communicate to Play: Pragmatic Reasoning for Efficient Cross-Cultural Communication in Codenames
White, Isadora, Pandey, Sashrika, Pan, Michelle
Cultural differences in common ground may result in pragmatic failure and misunderstandings during communication. We develop our method Rational Speech Acts for Cross-Cultural Communication (RSA+C3) to resolve cross-cultural differences in common ground. To measure the success of our method, we study RSA+C3 in the collaborative referential game of Codenames Duet and show that our method successfully improves collaboration between simulated players of different cultures. Our contributions are threefold: (1) creating Codenames players using contrastive learning of an embedding space and LLM prompting that are aligned with human patterns of play, (2) studying culturally induced differences in common ground reflected in our trained models, and (3) demonstrating that our method RSA+C3 can ease cross-cultural communication in gameplay by inferring sociocultural context from interaction. Our code is publicly available at github.com/icwhite/codenames.
Exploring Capability-Based Control Distributions of Human-Robot Teams Through Capability Deltas: Formalization and Implications
Mandischer, Nils, Usai, Marcel, Flemisch, Frank, Mikelsons, Lars
The implicit assumption that human and autonomous agents have certain capabilities is omnipresent in modern teaming concepts. However, none formalize these capabilities in a flexible and quantifiable way. In this paper, we propose Capability Deltas, which establish a quantifiable source to craft autonomous assistance systems in which one agent takes the leader and the other the supporter role. We deduct the quantification of human capabilities based on an established assessment and documentation procedure from occupational inclusion of people with disabilities. This allows us to quantify the delta, or gap, between a team's current capability and a requirement established by a work process. The concept is then extended to the multi-dimensional capability space, which then allows to formalize compensation behavior and assess required actions by the autonomous agent.
Generating novel experimental hypotheses from language models: A case study on cross-dative generalization
Neural network language models (LMs) have been shown to successfully capture complex linguistic knowledge. However, their utility for understanding language acquisition is still debated. We contribute to this debate by presenting a case study where we use LMs as simulated learners to derive novel experimental hypotheses to be tested with humans. We apply this paradigm to study cross-dative generalization (CDG): productive generalization of novel verbs across dative constructions (she pilked me the ball/she pilked the ball to me) -- acquisition of which is known to involve a large space of contextual features -- using LMs trained on child-directed speech. We specifically ask: "what properties of the training exposure facilitate a novel verb's generalization to the (unmodeled) alternate construction?" To answer this, we systematically vary the exposure context in which a novel dative verb occurs in terms of the properties of the theme and recipient, and then analyze the LMs' usage of the novel verb in the unmodeled dative construction. We find LMs to replicate known patterns of children's CDG, as a precondition to exploring novel hypotheses. Subsequent simulations reveal a nuanced role of the features of the novel verbs' exposure context on the LMs' CDG. We find CDG to be facilitated when the first postverbal argument of the exposure context is pronominal, definite, short, and conforms to the prototypical animacy expectations of the exposure dative. These patterns are characteristic of harmonic alignment in datives, where the argument with features ranking higher on the discourse prominence scale tends to precede the other. This gives rise to a novel hypothesis that CDG is facilitated insofar as the features of the exposure context -- in particular, its first postverbal argument -- are harmonically aligned. We conclude by proposing future experiments that can test this hypothesis in children.
The impact of internal variability on benchmarking deep learning climate emulators
Lütjens, Björn, Ferrari, Raffaele, Watson-Parris, Duncan, Selin, Noelle
Full-complexity Earth system models (ESMs) are computationally very expensive, limiting their use in exploring the climate outcomes of multiple emission pathways. More efficient emulators that approximate ESMs can directly map emissions onto climate outcomes, and benchmarks are being used to evaluate their accuracy on standardized tasks and datasets. We investigate a popular benchmark in data-driven climate emulation, ClimateBench, on which deep learning-based emulators are currently achieving the best performance. We implement a linear regression-based emulator, akin to pattern scaling, and find that it outperforms the incumbent 100M-parameter deep learning foundation model, ClimaX, on 3 out of 4 regionally-resolved surface-level climate variables. While emulating surface temperature is expected to be predominantly linear, this result is surprising for emulating precipitation. We identify that this outcome is a result of high levels of internal variability in the benchmark targets. To address internal variability, we update the benchmark targets with ensemble averages from the MPI-ESM1.2-LR model that contain 50 instead of 3 climate simulations per emission pathway. Using the new targets, we show that linear pattern scaling continues to be more accurate on temperature, but can be outperformed by a deep learning-based model for emulating precipitation. We publish our code, data, and an interactive tutorial at github.com/blutjens/climate-emulator.
The Linear Fallacy
As one gains seniority, there is a presumption--dubious, perhaps--that one also gains wisdom. Thus, I find myself asked, not infrequently, to share some wisdom with junior researchers who seek insight that can foster success in their careers or life in general. I offer one cautionary bit of advice: "Life is not linear." Linearity is one of the greatest success stories in mathematics. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, "Unlike other parts of mathematics that are frequently invigorated by new ideas and unsolved problems, linear algebra is very well understood." In the U.S., in eighth grade, pupils learn how to analyze and represent linear functions and solve linear equations and systems of linear equations.