Robust 3D geometry estimation from videos is critical for applications such as autonomous navigation, SLAM, and 3D scene reconstruction. Recent methods like DUSt3R demonstrate that regressing dense pointmaps from image pairs enables accurate and efficient pose-free reconstruction. However, existing RGB-only approaches struggle under real-world conditions involving dynamic objects and extreme illumination, due to the inherent limitations of conventional cameras. In this paper, we propose EAG3R, a novel geometry estimation framework that augments pointmap-based reconstruction with asynchronous event streams. Built upon the MonST3R backbone, EAG3R introduces two key innovations: (1) a retinex-inspired image enhancement module and a lightweight event adapter with SNR-aware fusion mechanism that adaptively combines RGB and event features based on local reliability; and (2) a novel event-based photometric consistency loss that reinforces spatiotemporal coherence during global optimization. Our method enables robust geometry estimation in challenging dynamic low-light scenes without requiring retraining on night-time data. Extensive experiments demonstrate that EAG3R significantly outperforms state-of-the-art RGB-only baselines across monocular depth estimation, camera pose tracking, and dynamic reconstruction tasks.

Adaptive optimization methods (such as Adam) play a major role in LLM pretraining, significantly outperforming Gradient Descent (GD). Recent studies have proposed new smoothness assumptions on the loss function to explain the advantages of adaptive algorithms with structured preconditioners, e.g., coordinate-wise or layer-wise, and steepest descent methods w.r.t. non-euclidean norms, e.g., $\ell_\infty$ norm or spectral norm, over GD. However, it remains unclear how these smoothness assumptions manifest in language modelling tasks. In this work, we aim to analyze the benefit of $\ell_\infty$-norm descent (a.k.a. sign descent) directly from properties of the data distribution, namely, heavy-tailed class imbalance. We propose a minimal yet representative setting of next-token prediction, where we can provably show faster convergence of coordinate-wise algorithms such as Sign descent (steepest descent w.r.t. $\ell_\infty$ norm) over normalized GD (steepest descent w.r.t. to $\ell_2$ norm) in the presence of heavy tail class imbalance.

Analog circuit optimization is typically framed as black-box search over arbitrary smooth functions, yet device physics constrains performance mappings to structured families: exponential device laws, rational transfer functions, and regime-dependent dynamics. Off-the-shelf Gaussian-process surrogates impose globally smooth, stationary priors that are misaligned with these regime-switching primitives and can severely misfit highly nonlinear circuits at realistic sample sizes (50--100 evaluations). We demonstrate that pre-trained tabular models encoding these primitives enable reliable optimization without per-circuit engineering. Circuit Prior Network (CPN) combines a tabular foundation model (TabPFN v2) with Direct Expected Improvement (DEI), computing expected improvement exactly under discrete posteriors rather than Gaussian approximations. Across 6 circuits and 25 baselines, structure-matched priors achieve $R^2 \approx 0.99$ in small-sample regimes where GP-Matérn attains only $R^2 = 0.16$ on Bandgap, deliver $1.05$--$3.81\times$ higher FoM with $3.34$--$11.89\times$ fewer iterations, and suggest a shift from hand-crafting models as priors toward systematic physics-informed structure identification. Our code will be made publicly available upon paper acceptance.

Non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) is a matrix decomposition problem with applications in unsupervised learning. The general form of this problem (along with many of its variants) is NP-hard in nature. In our work, we explore how this problem could be solved with an energy-based optimization method suitable for certain machines with non-von Neumann architectures. We used the Dirac-3, a device based on the entropy computing paradigm and made by Quantum Computing Inc., to evaluate our approach. Our formulations consist of (i) a quadratic unconstrained binary optimization model (QUBO, suitable for Ising machines) and a quartic formulation that allows for real-valued and integer variables (suitable for machines like the Dirac-3). Although current devices cannot solve large NMF problems, the results of our preliminary experiments are promising enough to warrant further research. For non-negative real matrices, we observed that a fusion approach of first using Dirac-3 and then feeding its results as the initial factor matrices to Scikit-learn's NMF procedure outperforms Scikit-learn's NMF procedure on its own, with default parameters in terms of the error in the reconstructed matrices. For our experiments on non-negative integer matrices, we compared the Dirac-3 device to Google's CP-SAT solver (inside the Or-Tools package) and found that for serial processing, Dirac-3 outperforms CP-SAT in a majority of the cases. We believe that future work in this area might be able to identify domains and variants of the problem where entropy computing (and other non-von Neumann architectures) could offer a clear advantage.

Fractional-order models provide an effective means of describing intrinsically time-dependent viscoelastic dynamics with few parameters, as these models can naturally capture memory effects. However, due to the unintuitive frequency-dependent coupling between the order of the fractional element and the other parameters, determining appropriate parameters for fractional-order models that yield high perceived realism remains a significant challenge. In this study, we propose a systematic means of determining the parameters of fractional-order viscoelastic models that optimizes the perceived realism of haptic rendering across general populations. First, we demonstrate that the parameters of fractional-order models can be effectively optimized through active learning, via qualitative feedback-based human-in-the-loop (HiL) optimizations, to ensure consistently high realism ratings for each individual. Second, we propose a rigorous method to combine HiL optimization results to form an aggregate perceptual map trained on the entire dataset and demonstrate the selection of population-level optimal parameters from this representation that are broadly perceived as realistic across general populations. Finally, we provide evidence of the effectiveness of the generalized fractional-order viscoelastic model parameters by characterizing their perceived realism through human-subject experiments. Overall, generalized fractional-order viscoelastic models established through the proposed HiL optimization and aggregation approach possess the potential to significantly improve the sim-to-real transition performance of medical training simulators. Index T erms--Viscoelastic materials, fractional-order standard linear solid model, haptic rendering, human-in-the-loop optimization, perceived realism, and medical training simulators.

Modern AI inference faces an irreducible tension: no single computational resource simultaneously maximizes performance, preserves privacy, minimizes cost, and maintains trust. Existing orchestration frameworks optimize single dimensions (Kubernetes prioritizes latency, federated learning preserves privacy, edge computing reduces network distance), creating solutions that struggle under real-world heterogeneity. We present IslandRun, a multi-objective orchestration system that treats computational resources as autonomous "islands" spanning personal devices, private edge servers, and public cloud. Our key insights: (1) request-level heterogeneity demands policy-constrained multi-objective optimization, (2) data locality enables routing compute to data rather than data to compute, and (3) typed placeholder sanitization preserves context semantics across trust boundaries. IslandRun introduces agent-based routing, tiered island groups with differential trust, and reversible anonymization. This establishes a new paradigm for privacy-aware, decentralized inference orchestration across heterogeneous personal computing ecosystems.

Abstract--This paper presents a robust precoder design for resilient cell-free massive MIMO (CF-mMIMO) systems that minimizes the weighted sum of desired signal mean square error (MSE) and residual interference leakage power under a total transmit power constraint. The proposed robust preco der incorporates channel state information (CSI) error statis tics to enhance resilience against CSI imperfections. We employ an alternating optimization algorithm initialized with a min imum MSE-type solution, which iteratively refines the precoder w hile maintaining low computational complexity and ensuring fas t convergence. Numerical results show that the proposed meth od significantly outperforms conventional linear precoders, providing an effective balance between performance and computati onal efficiency. Cell-free massive multiple-input multiple-output (CF-mMIMO) networks have emerged as an extension of massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems [1], [2] an d cornerstone of next-generation wireless systems by deploy ing a large number of distributed access points (APs) to jointly serve users without cell boundaries [3], [4], [5].

Fairness in machine learning has been extensively studied in single-task settings, while fair multi-task learning (MTL), especially with heterogeneous tasks (classification, detection, regression) and partially missing labels, remains largely unexplored. Existing fairness methods are predominantly classification-oriented and fail to extend to continuous outputs, making a unified fairness objective difficult to formulate. Further, existing MTL optimization is structurally misaligned with fairness: constraining only the shared representation, allowing task heads to absorb bias and leading to uncontrolled task-specific disparities. Finally, most work treats fairness as a zero-sum trade-off with utility, enforcing symmetric constraints that achieve parity by degrading well-served groups. We introduce FairMT, a unified fairness-aware MTL framework that accommodates all three task types under incomplete supervision. At its core is an Asymmetric Heterogeneous Fairness Constraint Aggregation mechanism, which consolidates task-dependent asymmetric violations into a unified fairness constraint. Utility and fairness are jointly optimized via a primal--dual formulation, while a head-aware multi-objective optimization proxy provides a tractable descent geometry that explicitly accounts for head-induced anisotropy. Across three homogeneous and heterogeneous MTL benchmarks encompassing diverse modalities and supervision regimes, FairMT consistently achieves substantial fairness gains while maintaining superior task utility. Code will be released upon paper acceptance.

With the rapid advancement of intelligent education, Computerized Adaptive Testing (CAT) has attracted increasing attention by integrating educational psychology with deep learning technologies. Unlike traditional paper-and-pencil testing, CAT aims to efficiently and accurately assess examinee abilities by adaptively selecting the most suitable items during the assessment process. However, its real-time and sequential nature presents limitations in practical scenarios, particularly in large-scale assessments where interaction costs are high, or in sensitive domains such as psychological evaluations where minimizing noise and interference is essential. These challenges constrain the applicability of conventional CAT methods in time-sensitive or resourceconstrained environments. To this end, we first introduce a novel task called one-shot adaptive testing (OAT), which aims to select a fixed set of optimal items for each test-taker in a one-time selection. Meanwhile, we propose PEOAT, a Personalization-guided Evolutionary question assembly framework for One-shot Adaptive Testing from the perspective of combinatorial optimization. Specifically, we began by designing a personalization-aware initialization strategy that integrates differences between examinee ability and exercise difficulty, using multi-strategy sampling to construct a diverse and informative initial population. Building on this, we proposed a cognitive-enhanced evolutionary framework incorporating schema-preserving crossover and cognitively guided mutation to enable efficient exploration through informative signals. To maintain diversity without compromising fitness, we further introduced a diversity-aware environmental selection mechanism. The effectiveness of PEOAT is validated through extensive experiments on two datasets, complemented by case studies that uncovered valuable insights.

Model merging has emerged as a practical paradigm for integrating multiple independently trained models into a single model without joint retraining. Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of combining parameters through strategies such as parameter decomposition, coefficient optimization, and subspace learning, significantly reducing the need for expensive joint training and achieving strong empirical performance across diverse tasks. However, these approaches predominantly treat merging as a problem of parameter space decomposition or fusion coefficient optimization, while overlooking the critical role of directional information in both parameter and feature spaces. In practice, naïve merging introduces inconsistencies in dominant parameter directions and disrupts structural coherence across models, which can degrade performance. Moreover, coefficient-based optimization methods implicitly assume compatible feature-space directions across models. However, Neural Collapse indicates that class features follow structured directional patterns, which may differ across independently trained models, making coefficient optimization alone insufficient. In this work, we emphasize the importance of \emph{directional alignment} and introduce a unified geometric framework, \emph{Merging with Directional Alignment} (\method{}), which aligns directional structures consistently in both the parameter and feature spaces. Our analysis shows that directional alignment improves structural coherence, and extensive experiments across benchmarks, model scales, and task configurations further validate the effectiveness of our approach.