Government
Predicting the time-evolution of multi-physics systems with sequence-to-sequence models
Humbird, K. D., Peterson, J. L., McClarren, R. G.
In this work, sequence-to-sequence (seq2seq) models, originally developed for language translation, are used to predict the temporal evolution of complex, multi-physics computer simulations. The predictive performance of seq2seq models is compared to state transition models for datasets generated with multiphysics codes with varying levels of complexity-from simple 1D diffusion calculations to simulations of inertial confinement fusion implosions. Seq2seq models demonstrate the ability to accurately emulate complex systems, enabling the rapid estimation of the evolution of quantities of interest in computationally expensive simulations. Keywords: recurrent neural network, sequence-to-sequence, multiphysics simulation, radiation hydrodynamics 1. Introduction Computer simulations of detailed multi-physics systems often take several hours to run, making exploration throughout a vast design space prohibitively expensive. A common method for mapping design spaces of large computer codes is to train a machine learning model to emulate the code in a region of the design space [1, 2, 3]. The machine learning model, often called a "surrogate", D. Humbird) Preprint submitted to Elsevier November 15, 2018 learns to accurately interpolate between a set of simulations spread throughout the reduced design space, such that it can rapidly predict quantities of interest anywhere within that space without requiring additional expensive simulations.
Analysis of Atomistic Representations Using Weighted Skip-Connections
Nicoli, Kim A., Kessel, Pan, Gastegger, Michael, Schรผtt, Kristof T.
In this work, we extend the SchNet architecture by using weighted skip connections to assemble the final representation. This enables us to study the relative importance of each interaction block for property prediction. We demonstrate on both the QM9 and MD17 dataset that their relative weighting depends strongly on the chemical composition and configurational degrees of freedom of the molecules which opens the path towards a more detailed understanding of machine learning models for molecules.
How Fei-Fei Li Will Make Artificial Intelligence Better for Humanity
Sometime around 1 am on a warm night last June, Fei-Fei Li was sitting in her pajamas in a Washington, DC, hotel room, practicing a speech she would give in a few hours. Before going to bed, Li cut a full paragraph from her notes to be sure she could reach her most important points in the short time allotted. When she woke up, the 5'3" expert in artificial intelligence put on boots and a black and navy knit dress, a departure from her frequent uniform of a T-shirt and jeans. Then she took an Uber to the Rayburn House Office Building, just south of the US Capitol. Before entering the chambers of the US House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, she lifted her phone to snap a photo of the oversize wooden doors. Then she stepped inside the cavernous room and walked to the witness table. The hearing that morning, titled "Artificial Intelligence--With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility," included Timothy Persons, chief scientist of the Government Accountability Office, and Greg ...
Arm Leads Project to Develop an Armpit-Sniffing Plastic AI Chip
Body odor is a stubborn problem. Sensors and the computing attached to them struggle to perceive armpit odors in the way humans do, because B.O. is really a complex mix of dozens of gaseous chemicals. The UK's PlasticArmPit project is designing the first machine learningโenabled flexible plastic sensor chip. Its target audience: those who think they might stink. The prototype chip will be manufactured and tested in 2019.
US Army recruiting soldiers to enter professional video game contests
The US Army is now using video games to reel in new recruits. The Army revealed a plan to dip its does into the world of esports, calling on active duty troops and reservists to take part in gaming competitions, according to Stars and Stripes. While few details have been released, officials say a website will soon be online to inform hopefuls of how to join โ and, they'll soon be holding tryouts for the team. The upcoming esports team will be part of the Army's Marketing and Engagement Team at Fort Knox, Ky, and travel expenses for competitions will be covered by the Army, according to Stars and Stripes. The Army launched its own first-person shooter game 15 years ago in a bid to step up its recruiting tactics, Stars and Stripes reports.
Intelligent Drone Swarm for Search and Rescue Operations at Sea
Lomonaco, Vincenzo, Trotta, Angelo, Ziosi, Marta, รvila, Juan de Dios Yรกรฑez, Dรญaz-Rodrรญguez, Natalia
In recent years, a rising numbers of people arrived in the European Union, traveling across the Mediterranean Sea or overland through Southeast Europe in what has been later named as the European migrant crisis. In the last 5 years, more than 16 thousands people have lost their lives in the Mediterranean sea during the crossing. The United Nations Secretary General Strategy on New Technologies is supporting the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics to accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which includes safe and regular migration processes among the others. In the same spirit, the central idea of this project aims at using AI technology for Search And Rescue (SAR) operations at sea. In particular, we propose an autonomous fleet of self-organizing intelligent drones that would enable the coverage of a broader area, speeding-up the search processes and finally increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of migrants rescue operations.
Random Dictators with a Random Referee: Constant Sample Complexity Mechanisms for Social Choice
Fain, Brandon, Goel, Ashish, Munagala, Kamesh, Prabhu, Nina
We study social choice mechanisms in an implicit utilitarian framework with a metric constraint, where the goal is to minimize \textit{Distortion}, the worst case social cost of an ordinal mechanism relative to underlying cardinal utilities. We consider two additional desiderata: Constant sample complexity and Squared Distortion. Constant sample complexity means that the mechanism (potentially randomized) only uses a constant number of ordinal queries regardless of the number of voters and alternatives. Squared Distortion is a measure of variance of the Distortion of a randomized mechanism. Our primary contribution is the first social choice mechanism with constant sample complexity \textit{and} constant Squared Distortion (which also implies constant Distortion). We call the mechanism Random Referee, because it uses a random agent to compare two alternatives that are the favorites of two other random agents. We prove that the use of a comparison query is necessary: no mechanism that only elicits the top-k preferred alternatives of voters (for constant k) can have Squared Distortion that is sublinear in the number of alternatives. We also prove that unlike any top-k only mechanism, the Distortion of Random Referee meaningfully improves on benign metric spaces, using the Euclidean plane as a canonical example. Finally, among top-1 only mechanisms, we introduce Random Oligarchy. The mechanism asks just 3 queries and is essentially optimal among the class of such mechanisms with respect to Distortion. In summary, we demonstrate the surprising power of constant sample complexity mechanisms generally, and just three random voters in particular, to provide some of the best known results in the implicit utilitarian framework.
ROMAN: Reduced-Order Modeling with Artificial Neurons
Chua, Alvin J. K., Galley, Chad R., Vallisneri, Michele
Gravitational-wave data analysis is rapidly absorbing techniques from deep learning, with a focus on convolutional networks and related methods that treat noisy time series as images. We pursue an alternative approach, in which waveforms are first represented as weighted sums over reduced bases (reduced-order modeling); we then train artificial neural networks to map gravitational-wave source parameters into basis coefficients. Statistical inference proceeds directly in coefficient space, where it is theoretically straightforward and computationally efficient. The neural networks also provide analytic waveform derivatives, which are useful for gradient-based sampling schemes. We demonstrate fast and accurate coefficient interpolation for the case of a four-dimensional binary-inspiral waveform family, and discuss promising applications of our framework in parameter estimation.
Aequitas: A Bias and Fairness Audit Toolkit
Saleiro, Pedro, Kuester, Benedict, Stevens, Abby, Anisfeld, Ari, Hinkson, Loren, London, Jesse, Ghani, Rayid
Recent work has raised concerns on the risk of unintended bias in algorithmic decision making systems being used nowadays that can affect individuals unfairly based on race, gender or religion, among other possible characteristics. While a lot of bias metrics and fairness definitions have been proposed in recent years, there is no consensus on which metric/definition should be used and there are very few available resources to operationalize them. Therefore, despite recent awareness, auditing for bias and fairness when developing and deploying algorithmic decision making systems is not yet a standard practice. We present Aequitas, an open source bias and fairness audit toolkit that is an intuitive and easy to use addition to the machine learning workflow, enabling users to seamlessly test models for several bias and fairness metrics in relation to multiple population sub-groups. We believe Aequitas will facilitate informed and equitable decisions around developing and deploying algorithmic decision making systems for both data scientists, machine learning researchers and policymakers.