Training specific deep learning models for particular tasks is common across various domains within seismology. However, this approach encounters two limitations: inadequate labeled data for certain tasks and limited generalization across regions. To address these challenges, we develop SeisCLIP, a seismology foundation model trained through contrastive learning from multi-modal data. It consists of a transformer encoder for extracting crucial features from time-frequency seismic spectrum and an MLP encoder for integrating the phase and source information of the same event. These encoders are jointly pre-trained on a vast dataset and the spectrum encoder is subsequently fine-tuned on smaller datasets for various downstream tasks. Notably, SeisCLIP's performance surpasses that of baseline methods in event classification, localization, and focal mechanism analysis tasks, employing distinct datasets from different regions. In conclusion, SeisCLIP holds significant potential as a foundational model in the field of seismology, paving the way for innovative directions in foundation-model-based seismology research.

The efficient representation of random fields on geometrically complex domains is crucial for Bayesian modelling in engineering and machine learning. Today's prevalent random field representations are either intended for unbounded domains or are too restrictive in terms of possible field properties. Because of these limitations, techniques leveraging the historically established link between stochastic PDEs (SPDEs) and random fields have been gaining interest. The SPDE representation is especially appealing for engineering applications which already have a finite element discretisation for solving the physical conservation equations. In contrast to the dense covariance matrix of a random field, its inverse, the precision matrix, is usually sparse and equal to the stiffness matrix of an elliptic SPDE. We use the SPDE representation to develop a scalable framework for large-scale statistical finite element analysis and Gaussian process (GP) regression on complex geometries. The statistical finite element method (statFEM) introduced by Girolami et al. (2022) is a novel approach for synthesising measurement data and finite element models. In both statFEM and GP regression, we use the SPDE formulation to obtain the relevant prior probability densities with a sparse precision matrix. The properties of the priors are governed by the parameters and possibly fractional order of the SPDE so that we can model on bounded domains and manifolds anisotropic, non-stationary random fields with arbitrary smoothness. The observation models for statFEM and GP regression are such that the posterior probability densities are Gaussians with a closed-form mean and precision. The respective mean vector and precision matrix and can be evaluated using only sparse matrix operations. We demonstrate the versatility of the proposed framework and its convergence properties with Poisson and thin-shell examples.

Three major challenges in reinforcement learning are the complex dynamical systems with large state spaces, the costly data acquisition processes, and the deviation of real-world dynamics from the training environment deployment. To overcome these issues, we study distributionally robust Markov decision processes with continuous state spaces under the widely used Kullback-Leibler, chi-square, and total variation uncertainty sets. We propose a model-based approach that utilizes Gaussian Processes and the maximum variance reduction algorithm to efficiently learn multi-output nominal transition dynamics, leveraging access to a generative model (i.e., simulator). We further demonstrate the statistical sample complexity of the proposed method for different uncertainty sets. These complexity bounds are independent of the number of states and extend beyond linear dynamics, ensuring the effectiveness of our approach in identifying near-optimal distributionally-robust policies. The proposed method can be further combined with other model-free distributionally robust reinforcement learning methods to obtain a near-optimal robust policy. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of our algorithm to distributional shifts and its superior performance in terms of the number of samples needed.

Inspired by the vertebrate branch of the animal kingdom, articulated soft robots are robotic systems embedding elastic elements into a classic rigid (skeleton-like) structure. Leveraging on their bodies elasticity, soft robots promise to push their limits far beyond the barriers that affect their rigid counterparts. However, existing control strategies aiming at achieving this goal are either tailored on specific examples, or rely on model cancellations -- thus defeating the purpose of introducing elasticity in the first place. In a series of recent works, we proposed to implement efficient oscillatory motions in robots subject to a potential field, aimed at solving these issues. A main component of this theory are Eigenmanifolds, that we defined as nonlinear continuations of the classic linear eigenspaces. When the soft robot is initialized on one of these manifolds, it evolves autonomously while presenting regular -- and thus practically useful -- evolutions, called normal modes. In addition to that, we proposed a control strategy making modal manifolds attractors for the system, and acting on the total energy of the soft robot to move from a modal evolution to the other. In this way, a large class of autonomous behaviors can be excited, which are direct expression of the embodied intelligence of the soft robot. Despite the fact that the idea behind our work comes from physical intuition and preliminary experimental validations, the formulation that we have provided so far is however rather theoretical, and very much in need of an experimental validation. The aim of this paper is to provide such an experimental validation using as testbed the articulated soft leg. We will introduce a simplified control strategy, and we will test its effectiveness on this system, to implement swing-like oscillations. We plan to extend this validation with a soft quadruped.

The recent ubiquitous adoption of remote conferencing has been accompanied by omnipresent frustration with distorted or otherwise unclear voice communication. Audio enhancement can compensate for low-quality input signals from, for example, small true wireless earbuds, by applying noise suppression techniques. Such processing relies on voice activity detection (VAD) with low latency and the added capability of discriminating the wearer's voice from others - a task of significant computational complexity. The tight energy budget of devices as small as modern earphones, however, requires any system attempting to tackle this problem to do so with minimal power and processing overhead, while not relying on speaker-specific voice samples and training due to usability concerns. This paper presents the design and implementation of a custom research platform for low-power wireless earbuds based on novel, commercial, MEMS bone-conduction microphones. Such microphones can record the wearer's speech with much greater isolation, enabling personalized voice activity detection and further audio enhancement applications. Furthermore, the paper accurately evaluates a proposed low-power personalized speech detection algorithm based on bone conduction data and a recurrent neural network running on the implemented research platform. This algorithm is compared to an approach based on traditional microphone input. The performance of the bone conduction system, achieving detection of speech within 12.8ms at an accuracy of 95\% is evaluated. Different SoC choices are contrasted, with the final implementation based on the cutting-edge Ambiq Apollo 4 Blue SoC achieving 2.64mW average power consumption at 14uJ per inference, reaching 43h of battery life on a miniature 32mAh li-ion cell and without duty cycling.

Current time-series forecasting problems use short-term weather attributes as exogenous inputs. However, in specific time-series forecasting solutions (e.g., demand prediction in the supply chain), seasonal climate predictions are crucial to improve its resilience. Representing mid to long-term seasonal climate forecasts is challenging as seasonal climate predictions are uncertain, and encoding spatio-temporal relationship of climate forecasts with demand is complex. We propose a novel modeling framework that efficiently encodes seasonal climate predictions to provide robust and reliable time-series forecasting for supply chain functions. The encoding framework enables effective learning of latent representations -- be it uncertain seasonal climate prediction or other time-series data (e.g., buyer patterns) -- via a modular neural network architecture. Our extensive experiments indicate that learning such representations to model seasonal climate forecast results in an error reduction of approximately 13\% to 17\% across multiple real-world data sets compared to existing demand forecasting methods.

Onboard intelligent processing is widely applied in emergency tasks in the field of remote sensing. However, it is predominantly confined to an individual platform with a limited observation range as well as susceptibility to interference, resulting in limited accuracy. Considering the current state of multi-platform collaborative observation, this article innovatively presents a distributed collaborative perception network called DCP-Net. Firstly, the proposed DCP-Net helps members to enhance perception performance by integrating features from other platforms. Secondly, a self-mutual information match module is proposed to identify collaboration opportunities and select suitable partners, prioritizing critical collaborative features and reducing redundant transmission cost. Thirdly, a related feature fusion module is designed to address the misalignment between local and collaborative features, improving the quality of fused features for the downstream task. We conduct extensive experiments and visualization analyses using three semantic segmentation datasets, including Potsdam, iSAID and DFC23. The results demonstrate that DCP-Net outperforms the existing methods comprehensively, improving mIoU by 2.61%~16.89% at the highest collaboration efficiency, which promotes the performance to a state-of-the-art level.

Causal probabilistic graph-based models have gained widespread utility, enabling the modeling of cause-and-effect relationships across diverse domains. With their rising adoption in new areas, such as automotive system safety and machine learning, the need for an integrated lifecycle framework akin to DevOps and MLOps has emerged. Currently, a process reference for organizations interested in employing causal engineering is missing. To address this gap and foster widespread industrial adoption, we propose CausalOps, a novel lifecycle framework for causal model development and application. By defining key entities, dependencies, and intermediate artifacts generated during causal engineering, we establish a consistent vocabulary and workflow model. This work contextualizes causal model usage across different stages and stakeholders, outlining a holistic view of creating and maintaining them. CausalOps' aim is to drive the adoption of causal methods in practical applications within interested organizations and the causality community.

Empirical studies on the landscape of neural networks have shown that low-energy configurations are often found in complex connected structures, where zero-energy paths between pairs of distant solutions can be constructed. Here we consider the spherical negative perceptron, a prototypical non-convex neural network model framed as a continuous constraint satisfaction problem. We introduce a general analytical method for computing energy barriers in the simplex with vertex configurations sampled from the equilibrium. We find that in the over-parameterized regime the solution manifold displays simple connectivity properties. There exists a large geodesically convex component that is attractive for a wide range of optimization dynamics. Inside this region we identify a subset of atypical high-margin solutions that are geodesically connected with most other solutions, giving rise to a star-shaped geometry. We analytically characterize the organization of the connected space of solutions and show numerical evidence of a transition, at larger constraint densities, where the aforementioned simple geodesic connectivity breaks down.

Wind energy is a widely distributed, renewable, and environmentally friendly energy source that plays a crucial role in mitigating global warming and addressing energy shortages. Nevertheless, wind power generation is characterized by volatility, intermittence, and randomness, which hinder its ability to serve as a reliable power source for the grid. Accurate wind power forecasting is crucial for developing a new power system that heavily relies on renewable energy sources. However, traditional wind power forecasting systems primarily focus on ultra-short-term or short-term forecasts, limiting their ability to address the diverse adjustment requirements of the power system simultaneously. To overcome these challenges, We propose an automatic framework capable of forecasting wind power across multi-time scale. The framework based on the tree-structured Parzen estimator (TPE) and temporal fusion transformer (TFT) that can provide ultra-short-term, short-term and medium-term wind power forecasting power.Our approach employs the TFT for wind power forecasting and categorizes features based on their properties. Additionally, we introduce a generic algorithm to simultaneously fine-tune the hyperparameters of the decomposition method and model. We evaluate the performance of our framework by conducting ablation experiments using three commonly used decomposition algorithms and six state-of-the-art models for forecasting multi-time scale. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method considerably improves prediction accuracy on the public dataset Engie https://opendata-renewables.engie.com. Compared to the second-best state-of-the-art model, our approach exhibits a reduction of 31.75% and 28.74% in normalized mean absolute error (nMAE) for 24-hour forecasting, and 20.79% and 16.93% in nMAE for 48-hour forecasting, respectively.