With the rapid evolution of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT have emerged as powerful tools capable of transforming various sectors. Their vast knowledge base and dynamic interaction capabilities represent significant potential in improving education by operating as a personalized assistant. However, the possibility of generating incorrect, biased, or unhelpful answers are a key challenge to resolve when deploying LLMs in an education context. This work introduces an innovative architecture that combines the strengths of ChatGPT with a traditional information retrieval based chatbot framework to offer enhanced student support in higher education. Our empirical evaluations underscore the high promise of this approach.

Generative AI systems such as ChatGPT have a disruptive effect on learning and assessment. Computer science requires practice to develop skills in problem solving and programming that are traditionally developed using assignments. Generative AI has the capability of completing these assignments for students with high accuracy, which dramatically increases the potential for academic integrity issues and students not achieving desired learning outcomes. This work investigates the performance of ChatGPT by evaluating it across three courses (CS1,CS2,databases). ChatGPT completes almost all introductory assessments perfectly. Existing detection methods, such as MOSS and JPlag (based on similarity metrics) and GPTzero (AI detection), have mixed success in identifying AI solutions. Evaluating instructors and teaching assistants using heuristics to distinguish between student and AI code shows that their detection is not sufficiently accurate. These observations emphasize the need for adapting assessments and improved detection methods.

This work analyzes and parallelizes LearnedSort, the novel algorithm that sorts using machine learning models based on the cumulative distribution function. LearnedSort is analyzed under the lens of algorithms with predictions, and it is argued that LearnedSort is a learning-augmented SampleSort. A parallel LearnedSort algorithm is developed combining LearnedSort with the state-of-the-art SampleSort implementation, IPS4o. Benchmarks on synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate improved parallel performance for parallel LearnedSort compared to IPS4o and other sorting algorithms.

Tree fruit breeding is a long-term activity involving repeated measurements of various fruit quality traits on a large number of samples. These traits are traditionally measured by manually counting the fruits, weighing to indirectly measure the fruit size, and fruit colour is classified subjectively into different color categories using visual comparison to colour charts. These processes are slow, expensive and subject to evaluators' bias and fatigue. Recent advancements in deep learning can help automate this process. Objective data can be generated for consistent characterization of germplasm, with greater speed and higher accuracy. A method was developed to automatically count the number of sweet cherry fruits in a camera's field of view in real time using YOLOv3. A system capable of analyzing the image data for other traits such as size and color was also developed using Python. The YOLO model obtained close to 99% accuracy in object detection and counting of cherries and 90% on the Intersection over Union metric for object localization when extracting size and colour information. The model surpasses human performance and offers a significant improvement compared to manual counting.

Adaptive and sequential experiment design is a well-studied area in numerous domains. We survey and synthesize the work of the online statistical learning paradigm referred to as multi-armed bandits integrating the existing research as a resource for a certain class of online experiments. We first explore the traditional stochastic model of a multi-armed bandit, then explore a taxonomic scheme of complications to that model, for each complication relating it to a specific requirement or consideration of the experiment design context. Finally, at the end of the paper, we present a table of known upper-bounds of regret for all studied algorithms providing both perspectives for future theoretical work and a decision-making tool for practitioners looking for theoretical guarantees.

Real-time heuristic search algorithms obey a constant limit on planning time per move. Agents using these algorithms can execute each move as it is computed, suggesting a strong potential for application to real-time video-game AI. Recently, a breakthrough in real-time heuristic search performance was achieved through the use of case-based reasoning. In this framework, the agent optimally solves a set of problems and stores their solutions in a case base. Then, given any new problem, it seeks a similar case in the case base and uses its solution as an aid to solve the problem at hand. A number of ad hoc approaches to the case base formation problem have been proposed and empirically shown to perform well. In this paper, we investigate a theoretically driven approach to solving the problem. We mathematically relate properties of a case base to the suboptimality of the solutions it produces and subsequently develop an algorithm that addresses these properties directly. An empirical evaluation shows our new algorithm outperforms the existing state of the art on contemporary video-game pathfinding benchmarks.