In biology, defects are generally bad. But in materials science, defects can be intentionally tuned to give materials useful new properties. Today, atomic-scale defects are carefully introduced during the manufacturing process of products like steel, semiconductors, and solar cells to help improve strength, control electrical conductivity, optimize performance, and more. But even as defects have become a powerful tool, accurately measuring different types of defects and their concentrations in finished products has been challenging, especially without cutting open or damaging the final material. Without knowing what defects are in their materials, engineers risk making products that perform poorly or have unintended properties.

Each year the AAAI recognizes a group of individuals who have made significant, sustained contributions to the field of artificial intelligence by appointing them as Fellows. Over the course of the next few months, we'll be talking to some of the 2026 AAAI Fellows . In this interview, we met with Yan Liu, University of Southern California, who was elected as a Fellow . We found out about how time series research has progressed, the vast range of applications, and what the future holds for this field. Could you start with a quick introduction to your area of research?

Neural Information Processing Systems http://nips.cc/

The activities of online drug trafficking are nimble and resilient, which call for novel techniques to effectively detect, disrupt, and dismantle illicit drug trades.

We consider a general sum partially observableMarkovgamewhere agents ofdifferent types share asingle policy network, conditioned on agent-specific information. This paper aims at i) formally understanding equilibria reached by such agents, and ii) matching emergent phenomena ofsuch equilibria toreal-worldtargets. Parameter sharing with decentralized execution has been introduced as an efficient way to train multiple agents using a single policy network.

Shadow or no shadow, the rodents have a special set of ecological skills. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Despite advances in meteorological technology, we still keep a close eye on a rodent's burrow every February 2 for a weather forecast. While groundhogs --also called woodchucks--have been associated with the end of winter and beginning of spring for centuries, there's more to know about our rodent friends than their amateur Al Roker'ing. Unlike bears, groundhogs are true hibernators.