We introduce MinConvLSTM and MinConvGRU, two novel spatiotemporal models that combine the spatial inductive biases of con-volutional recurrent networks with the training efficiency of minimal, parallelizable RNNs. Our approach extends the log-domain prefix-sum formulation of MinLSTM and MinGRU to convolutional architectures, enabling fully parallel training while retaining localized spatial modeling. This eliminates the need for sequential hidden state updates during teacher forcing--a major bottleneck in conventional ConvRNN models. In addition, we incorporate an exponential gating mechanism inspired by the xLSTM architecture into the MinConvLSTM, which further simplifies the log-domain computation. Our models are structurally minimal and computationally efficient, with reduced parameter count and improved scalability. We evaluate our models on two spatiotemporal forecasting tasks: Navier-Stokes dynamics and real-world geopotential data. In terms of training speed, our architectures significantly outperform standard ConvLSTMs and ConvGRUs. Moreover, our models also achieve lower prediction errors in both domains, even in closed-loop au-toregressive mode. These findings demonstrate that minimal recurrent structures, when combined with convolutional input aggregation, offer a compelling and efficient alternative for spatiotemporal sequence modeling, bridging the gap between recurrent simplicity and spatial complexity.

The hydrogen trapping behaviour of metallic alloys is generally characterised using Thermal Desorption Spectroscopy (TDS). However, as an indirect method, extracting key parameters (trap binding energies and densities) remains a significant challenge. To address these limitations, this work introduces a machine learning-based scheme for parameter identification from TDS spectra. A multi-Neural Network (NN) model is developed and trained exclusively on synthetic data to predict trapping parameters directly from experimental data. The model comprises two multi-layer, fully connected, feed-forward NNs trained with backpropagation. The first network (classification model) predicts the number of distinct trap types. The second network (regression model) then predicts the corresponding trap densities and binding energies. The NN architectures, hyperparameters, and data pre-processing were optimised to minimise the amount of training data. The proposed model demonstrated strong predictive capabilities when applied to three tempered martensitic steels of different compositions. The code developed is freely provided.

The core challenge in automotive exterior design is balancing subjective aesthetics with objective aerodynamic performance while dramatically accelerating the development cycle. To address this, we propose a novel, LLM-driven multi-agent framework that automates the end-to-end workflow from ambiguous requirements to 3D concept model performance validation. The workflow is structured in two stages: conceptual generation and performance validation. In the first stage, agents collaborate to interpret fuzzy design requirements, generate concept sketches, and produce photorealistic renderings using diffusion models. In the second stage, the renderings are converted to 3D point clouds, where a Drag Prediction Agent, built upon a lightweight surrogate model, provides near-instantaneous predictions of the drag coefficient and pressure fields, replacing time-consuming CFD simulations. The primary contribution of this work is the seamless integration of creative generation with a rapid engineering validation loop within a unified, automated system, which provides a new paradigm for efficiently balancing creative exploration with engineering constraints in the earliest stages of design.

Accurate real-time prediction of phase-resolved ocean wave fields remains a critical yet largely unsolved problem, primarily due to the absence of practical data assimilation methods for reconstructing initial conditions from sparse or indirect wave measurements. While recent advances in supervised deep learning have shown potential for this purpose, they require large labelled datasets of ground truth wave data, which are infeasible to obtain in real-world scenarios. To overcome this limitation, we propose a Physics-Informed Neural Operator (PINO) framework for reconstructing spatially and temporally phase-resolved, nonlinear ocean wave fields from sparse measurements, without the need for ground truth data during training. This is achieved by embedding residuals of the free surface boundary conditions of ocean gravity waves into the loss function of the PINO, constraining the solution space in a soft manner. After training, we validate our approach using highly realistic synthetic wave data and demonstrate the accurate reconstruction of nonlinear wave fields from both buoy time series and radar snapshots. Our results indicate that PINOs enable accurate, real-time reconstruction and generalize robustly across a wide range of wave conditions, thereby paving the way for operational, data-driven wave reconstruction and prediction in realistic marine environments.

High throughput experimentation tools, machine learning (ML) methods, and open material databases are radically changing the way new materials are discovered. From the experimentally driven approach in the past, we are moving quickly towards the artificial intelligence (AI) driven approach, realizing the 'inverse design' capabilities that allow the discovery of new materials given the desired properties. This review aims to discuss different principles of AI-driven generative models that are applicable for materials discovery, including different materials representations available for this purpose. We will also highlight specific applications of generative models in designing new catalysts, semiconductors, polymers, or crystals while addressing challenges such as data scarcity, computational cost, interpretability, synthesizability, and dataset biases. Emerging approaches to overcome limitations and integrate AI with experimental workflows will be discussed, including multimodal models, physics informed architectures, and closed-loop discovery systems. This review aims to provide insights for researchers aiming to harness AI's transformative potential in accelerating materials discovery for sustainability, healthcare, and energy innovation.

The investigation employs a standardized tool, the Environmental Knowledge Test (EKT - 19), supple mented by targeted questions, to evaluate the environmental knowledge of university students in comparison to the responses generated by the AI models. The results of this study suggest that while AI models possess a vast, readily accessible, and valid kno wledge base with the potential to empower both students and academic staff, a human discipline specialist in environmental sciences may still be necessary to validate the accuracy of the information provided. Keywords: En vironmental Education; AI Models; EKT - 19 1. Introduction Extreme weather events, increasing global temperatures, rising sea - levels, and changes to ecosystems and biodiversity are all consequences of climate change, which is mostly caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions ( Masson - Delmotte et al., 2018). Meanwhile, the loss of biodiversity due to habitat degradation, pollution, overexploitation, and invasive species threatens the resilience of society's ecosystems (Nature, 2021). These consequences pose questions regarding food security, public he alth, and socioeconomic stability. Thus, effective access to accurate environmental knowledge is crucial for developing sustainable solutions and informed environmental policies.

Accurate estimation of aerodynamic forces is essential for advancing the control, modeling, and design of flapping-wing aerial robots with dynamic morphing capabilities. In this paper, we investigate two distinct methodologies for force estimation on Aerobat, a bio-inspired flapping-wing platform designed to emulate the inertial and aerodynamic behaviors observed in bat flight. Our goal is to quantify aerodynamic force contributions during tethered flight, a crucial step toward closed-loop flight control. The first method is a physics-based observer derived from Hamiltonian mechanics that leverages the concept of conjugate momentum to infer external aerodynamic forces acting on the robot. This observer builds on the system's reduced-order dynamic model and utilizes real-time sensor data to estimate forces without requiring training data. The second method employs a neural network-based regression model, specifically a multi-layer perceptron (MLP), to learn a mapping from joint kinematics, flapping frequency, and environmental parameters to aerodynamic force outputs. We evaluate both estimators using a 6-axis load cell in a high-frequency data acquisition setup that enables fine-grained force measurements during periodic wingbeats. The conjugate momentum observer and the regression model demonstrate strong agreement across three force components (Fx, Fy, Fz).

Conventional machine learning approaches accelerate inorganic materials design via accurate property prediction and targeted material generation, yet they operate as single-shot models limited by the latent knowledge baked into their training data. A central challenge lies in creating an intelligent system capable of autonomously executing the full inorganic materials discovery cycle, from ideation and planning to experimentation and iterative refinement. We introduce SparksMatter, a multi-agent AI model for automated inorganic materials design that addresses user queries by generating ideas, designing and executing experimental workflows, continuously evaluating and refining results, and ultimately proposing candidate materials that meet the target objectives. SparksMatter also critiques and improves its own responses, identifies research gaps and limitations, and suggests rigorous follow-up validation steps, including DFT calculations and experimental synthesis and characterization, embedded in a well-structured final report. The model's performance is evaluated across case studies in thermoelectrics, semiconductors, and perovskite oxides materials design. The results demonstrate the capacity of SparksMatter to generate novel stable inorganic structures that target the user's needs. Benchmarking against frontier models reveals that SparksMatter consistently achieves higher scores in relevance, novelty, and scientific rigor, with a significant improvement in novelty across multiple real-world design tasks as assessed by a blinded evaluator. These results demonstrate SparksMatter's unique capacity to generate chemically valid, physically meaningful, and creative inorganic materials hypotheses beyond existing materials knowledge.

Microplastics, defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters, have become a pervasive environmental contaminant that accumulates on beaches due to wind patterns and tidal forcing. Detecting microplastics and mapping their concentration in the wild remains one of the primary challenges in addressing this environmental issue. This paper introduces a novel robotic platform that automatically detects and chemically analyzes microplastics on beach surfaces. This mobile manipulator system scans areas for microplastics using a camera mounted on the robotic arm's end effector. The system effectively segments candidate microplastic particles on sand surfaces even in the presence of organic matter such as leaves and clams. Once a candidate microplastic particle is detected, the system steers a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopic sensor onto the particle using both NIR and visual feedback to chemically analyze it in real-time. Through experiments in lab and beach environments, the system is shown to achieve an excellent positional precision in manipulation control and high microplastic classification accuracy.

--Edge Digital Twins (EDTs) are crucial for monitoring and control of Power Electronics Systems (PES). However, existing modeling approaches struggle to consistently capture continuously evolving hybrid dynamics that are inherent in PES, degrading Sim-to-Real generalization on resource-constrained edge devices. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a Physics-Embedded Neural ODEs (PENODE) that (i) embeds the hybrid operating mechanism as an event automaton to explicitly govern discrete switching and (ii) injects known governing ODE components directly into the neural parameterization of unmodeled dynamics. This unified design yields a differentiable end-to-end trainable architecture that preserves physical interpretability while reducing redundancy, and it supports a cloud-to-edge toolchain for efficient FPGA deployment. Experimental results demonstrate that PENODE achieves significantly higher accuracy in benchmarks in white-box, gray-box, and black-box scenarios, with a 75% reduction in neuron count, validating that the proposed PENODE maintains physical interpretability, efficient edge deployment, and real-time control enhancement. OWER electronics systems (PES) are the fundamental to drive efficient energy conversion [1] but require precise and real-time monitoring and predictive analysis due to the ultra-high standards for reliability and performance [2]. Digital Twin (DT), a high-fidelity virtual counterpart of a physical asset, presents a promising solution [3]. However, it is difficult to implement cloud-or-server-based DTs with high communication latency and limited bandwidth in PES because the PES dynamics differ significantly from power grids [4].