The batch size is an essential parameter to tune during the development of new neural networks. Amongst other quality indicators, it has a large degree of influence on the model's accuracy, generalisability, training times and parallelisability. This fact is generally known and commonly studied. However, during the application phase of a deep learning model, when the model is utilised by an end-user for inference, we find that there is a disregard for the potential benefits of introducing a batch size. In this study, we examine the effect of input batching on the energy consumption and response times of five fully-trained neural networks for computer vision that were considered state-of-the-art at the time of their publication. The results suggest that batching has a significant effect on both of these metrics. Furthermore, we present a timeline of the energy efficiency and accuracy of neural networks over the past decade. We find that in general, energy consumption rises at a much steeper pace than accuracy and question the necessity of this evolution. Additionally, we highlight one particular network, ShuffleNetV2(2018), that achieved a competitive performance for its time while maintaining a much lower energy consumption. Nevertheless, we highlight that the results are model dependent.

Most solutions to the inventory management problem assume a centralization of information that is incompatible with organisational constraints in real supply chain networks. The inventory management problem is a well-known planning problem in operations research, concerned with finding the optimal re-order policy for nodes in a supply chain. While many centralized solutions to the problem exist, they are not applicable to real-world supply chains made up of independent entities. The problem can however be naturally decomposed into sub-problems, each associated with an independent entity, turning it into a multi-agent system. Therefore, a decentralized data-driven solution to inventory management problems using multi-agent reinforcement learning is proposed where each entity is controlled by an agent. Three multi-agent variations of the proximal policy optimization algorithm are investigated through simulations of different supply chain networks and levels of uncertainty. The centralized training decentralized execution framework is deployed, which relies on offline centralization during simulation-based policy identification, but enables decentralization when the policies are deployed online to the real system. Results show that using multi-agent proximal policy optimization with a centralized critic leads to performance very close to that of a centralized data-driven solution and outperforms a distributed model-based solution in most cases while respecting the information constraints of the system.

In the era of data-driven science, machine learning has emerged as a transformative tool, offering unprecedented solutions to complex problems across a wide range of scientific and technological domains. Specifically, machine learning has found applications in diverse fields such as biology, medicine, material science, engineering, energy, manufacturing, and agriculture. Notable examples include rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 Ikponmwoba et al. [2022], advances in drug discovery and development Talevi et al. [2020], quality control and defect detection Wang et al. [2022], climate modeling and prediction Krasnopolsky and Fox-Rabinovitz [2006], as well as crop yield forecasting and optimization Di et al. [2022]. Some of these applications involve classification, which involves learning based on categorical data. In this regard, machine learning techniques, such as Support Vector Machines, Naive Bayes, K-nearest neighbor, and Neural Networks, have been used to extract texture features from images for subsequent classification Chola et al. [2022a,b]. Additionally, machine learning has facilitated the identification of high-order closure terms from fully kinetic simulations, a critical aspect of multi-scale modelingLaperre et al. [2022]. On the other hand, function approximation or regression involves estimating a continuous target quantity as a function of a set of input variables. Methods such as Sparse Identification of Nonlinear Dynamics (SINDy) Brunton et al. [2016], the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) Tibshirani [1996], Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) Schmid [2010], Mezić [2005], Koopman operator Mezić [2013] and the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) Juang and Pappa [1985] have contributed significantly to understanding complex systems by offering effective strategies for model selection, variable regularization, decomposition of high-dimensional systems, and extraction of state-space models from input-output data.

Deep learning-based methods have recently been established as fast and accurate surrogate simulators for optical multilayer thin film structures. However, existing methods only work for limited types of structures with different material arrangements, preventing their applications towards diverse and universal structures. Here, we propose the Opto-Layer (OL) Transformer to act as a universal surrogate simulator for enormous types of structures. Combined with the technique of structure serialization, our model can predict accurate reflection and transmission spectra for up to $10^{25}$ different multilayer structures, while still achieving a six-fold degradation in simulation time compared to physical solvers. Further investigation reveals that the general learning ability comes from the fact that our model first learns the physical embeddings and then uses the self-attention mechanism to capture the hidden relationship of light-matter interaction between each layer.

The probability prediction of multivariate time series is a notoriously challenging but practical task. On the one hand, the challenge is how to effectively capture the cross-series correlations between interacting time series, to achieve accurate distribution modeling. On the other hand, we should consider how to capture the contextual information within time series more accurately to model multivariate temporal dynamics of time series. In this work, we proposed a novel non-autoregressive deep learning model, called Multi-scale Attention Normalizing Flow(MANF), where we integrate multi-scale attention and relative position information and the multivariate data distribution is represented by the conditioned normalizing flow. Additionally, compared with autoregressive modeling methods, our model avoids the influence of cumulative error and does not increase the time complexity. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our model achieves state-of-the-art performance on many popular multivariate datasets.

Just four years ago, the movement to ban police departments from using face recognition in the US was riding high. By the end of 2020, around 18 cities had enacted restrictive laws, and lawmakers proposed a pause on the federal government's use of it. In the years since, that effort has slowed to a halt. Some local bans have even been partially repealed, and today, few seriously believe that a federal ban could pass in the foreseeable future. Right now in the US, facial recognition regulations are trapped in political gridlock.

The use of Machine Learning (ML) has rapidly spread across several fields, having encountered many applications in Structural Dynamics and Vibroacoustic (SD\&V). The increasing capabilities of ML to unveil insights from data, driven by unprecedented data availability, algorithms advances and computational power, enhance decision making, uncertainty handling, patterns recognition and real-time assessments. Three main applications in SD\&V have taken advantage of these benefits. In Structural Health Monitoring, ML detection and prognosis lead to safe operation and optimized maintenance schedules. System identification and control design are leveraged by ML techniques in Active Noise Control and Active Vibration Control. Finally, the so-called ML-based surrogate models provide fast alternatives to costly simulations, enabling robust and optimized product design. Despite the many works in the area, they have not been reviewed and analyzed. Therefore, to keep track and understand this ongoing integration of fields, this paper presents a survey of ML applications in SD\&V analyses, shedding light on the current state of implementation and emerging opportunities. The main methodologies, advantages, limitations, and recommendations based on scientific knowledge were identified for each of the three applications. Moreover, the paper considers the role of Digital Twins and Physics Guided ML to overcome current challenges and power future research progress. As a result, the survey provides a broad overview of the present landscape of ML applied in SD\&V and guides the reader to an advanced understanding of progress and prospects in the field.

Chaos and turbulence are complex physical phenomena, yet a precise definition of the complexity measure that quantifies them is still lacking. In this work we consider the relative complexity of chaos and turbulence from the perspective of deep neural networks. We analyze a set of classification problems, where the network has to distinguish images of fluid profiles in the turbulent regime from other classes of images such as fluid profiles in the chaotic regime, various constructions of noise and real world images. We analyze incompressible as well as weakly compressible fluid flows. We quantify the complexity of the computation performed by the network via the intrinsic dimensionality of the internal feature representations, and calculate the effective number of independent features which the network uses in order to distinguish between classes. In addition to providing a numerical estimate of the complexity of the computation, the measure also characterizes the neural network processing at intermediate and final stages. We construct adversarial examples and use them to identify the two point correlation spectra for the chaotic and turbulent vorticity as the feature used by the network for classification.

In CMF surgery, the planning of bony movement to achieve a desired facial outcome is a challenging task. Current bone driven approaches focus on normalizing the bone with the expectation that the facial appearance will be corrected accordingly. However, due to the complex non-linear relationship between bony structure and facial soft-tissue, such bone-driven methods are insufficient to correct facial deformities. Despite efforts to simulate facial changes resulting from bony movement, surgical planning still relies on iterative revisions and educated guesses. To address these issues, we propose a soft-tissue driven framework that can automatically create and verify surgical plans. Our framework consists of a bony planner network that estimates the bony movements required to achieve the desired facial outcome and a facial simulator network that can simulate the possible facial changes resulting from the estimated bony movement plans. By combining these two models, we can verify and determine the final bony movement required for planning. The proposed framework was evaluated using a clinical dataset, and our experimental results demonstrate that the soft-tissue driven approach greatly improves the accuracy and efficacy of surgical planning when compared to the conventional bone-driven approach.

The challenging deployment of compute-intensive applications from domains such Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Digital Signal Processing (DSP), forces the community of computing systems to explore new design approaches. Approximate Computing appears as an emerging solution, allowing to tune the quality of results in the design of a system in order to improve the energy efficiency and/or performance. This radical paradigm shift has attracted interest from both academia and industry, resulting in significant research on approximation techniques and methodologies at different design layers (from system down to integrated circuits). Motivated by the wide appeal of Approximate Computing over the last 10 years, we conduct a two-part survey to cover key aspects (e.g., terminology and applications) and review the state-of-the art approximation techniques from all layers of the traditional computing stack. In Part II of our survey, we classify and present the technical details of application-specific and architectural approximation techniques, which both target the design of resource-efficient processors/accelerators & systems. Moreover, we present a detailed analysis of the application spectrum of Approximate Computing and discuss open challenges and future directions.