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 electrical engineering and computer science


Advancing Autonomous Driving: DepthSense with Radar and Spatial Attention

Hussain, Muhamamd Ishfaq, Naz, Zubia, Rafique, Muhammad Aasim, Jeon, Moongu

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Depth perception is crucial for spatial understanding and has traditionally been achieved through stereoscopic imaging. However, the precision of depth estimation using stereoscopic methods depends on the accurate calibration of binocular vision sensors. Monocular cameras, while more accessible, often suffer from reduced accuracy, especially under challenging imaging conditions. Optical sensors, too, face limitations in adverse environments, leading researchers to explore radar technology as a reliable alternative. Although radar provides coarse but accurate signals, its integration with fine-grained monocular camera data remains underexplored. In this research, we propose DepthSense, a novel radar-assisted monocular depth enhancement approach. DepthSense employs an encoder-decoder architecture, a Radar Residual Network, feature fusion with a spatial attention mechanism, and an ordinal regression layer to deliver precise depth estimations. We conducted extensive experiments on the nuScenes dataset to validate the effectiveness of DepthSense. Our methodology not only surpasses existing approaches in quantitative performance but also reduces parameter complexity and inference times. Our findings demonstrate that DepthSense represents a significant advancement over traditional stereo methods, offering a robust and efficient solution for depth estimation in autonomous driving. By leveraging the complementary strengths of radar and monocular camera data, DepthSense sets a new benchmark in the field, paving the way for more reliable and accurate spatial perception systems.


Using generative AI to diversify virtual training grounds for robots

Robohub

Chatbots like ChatGPT and Claude have experienced a meteoric rise in usage over the past three years because they can help you with a wide range of tasks. Whether you're writing Shakespearean sonnets, debugging code, or need an answer to an obscure trivia question, artificial intelligence systems seem to have you covered. Those data aren't enough to teach a robot to be a helpful household or factory assistant, though. To understand how to handle, stack, and place various arrangements of objects across diverse environments, robots need demonstrations. You can think of robot training data as a collection of how-to videos that walk the systems through each motion of a task.


GLOFNet -- A Multimodal Dataset for GLOF Monitoring and Prediction

Fatima, Zuha, Sohaib, Muhammad Anser, Talha, Muhammad, Sultana, Sidra, Kanwal, Ayesha, Perwaiz, Nazia

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are rare but destructive hazards in high mountain regions, yet predictive research is hindered by fragmented and unimodal data. Most prior efforts emphasize post-event mapping, whereas forecasting requires harmonized datasets that combine visual indicators with physical precursors. We present GLOFNet, a multimodal dataset for GLOF monitoring and prediction, focused on the Shisper Glacier in the Karakoram. It integrates three complementary sources: Sentinel-2 multispectral imagery for spatial monitoring, NASA ITS_LIVE velocity products for glacier kinematics, and MODIS Land Surface Temperature records spanning over two decades. Preprocessing included cloud masking, quality filtering, normalization, temporal interpolation, augmentation, and cyclical encoding, followed by harmonization across modalities. Exploratory analysis reveals seasonal glacier velocity cycles, long-term warming of ~0.8 K per decade, and spatial heterogeneity in cryospheric conditions. The resulting dataset, GLOFNet, is publicly available to support future research in glacial hazard prediction. By addressing challenges such as class imbalance, cloud contamination, and coarse resolution, GLOFNet provides a structured foundation for benchmarking multimodal deep learning approaches to rare hazard prediction.


Have scientists discovered a new colour called 'olo'?

Al Jazeera

A team of scientists claims to have discovered a new colour that humans cannot see without the help of technology. The researchers based in the United States said they were able to "experience" the colour, which they named "olo", by firing laser pulses into their eyes using a device named after the Wizard of Oz. Olo cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the five people who have seen it describe it as being similar to teal. Professors from the University of California, Berkeley and the University of Washington School of Medicine published an article in the journal, Science Advances, on April 18 in which they put forth their discovery of a hue beyond the gamut of human vision. They explained that they had devised a technique called Oz, which can "trick" the human eye into seeing olo.


Forging the digital future

MIT Technology Review

To that end, the college now encompasses multiple existing labs and centers, including the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), and multiple academic units, including the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. At the same time, the college has embarked on a plan to hire 50 new faculty members, half of whom will have shared appointments in other departments across all five schools to create a true Institute-wide entity. Those faculty members--two-thirds of whom have already been hired--will conduct research at the boundaries of advanced computing and AI. "We want to do two things: ensure that MIT stays at the forefront of computer science, AI research, and education and infuse the forefront of computing into disciplines across MIT." The new faculty members have already begun helping the college respond to an undeniable reality facing many students: They've been overwhelmingly drawn to advanced computing tools, yet computer science classes are often too technical for nonmajors who want to apply those tools in other disciplines.



I came, I saw, I certified: some perspectives on the safety assurance of cyber-physical systems

Sivakumar, Mithila, Belle, Alvine B., Shahandashti, Kimya Khakzad, Odu, Oluwafemi, Hemmati, Hadi, Kpodjedo, Segla, Wang, Song, Adesina, Opeyemi O.

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Abstract-- The execution failure of cyber-physical systems (e.g., autonomous driving systems, unmanned aerial systems, and robotic systems) could result in the loss of life, severe injuries, large-scale environmental damage, property destruction, and major economic loss. Hence, such systems usually require a strong justification that they will effectively support critical requirements (e.g., safety, security, and reliability) for which they were designed. Thus, it is often mandatory to develop compelling assurance cases to support that justification and allow regulatory bodies to certify such systems. In such contexts, detecting assurance deficits, relying on patterns to improve the structure of assurance cases, improving existing assurance case notations, and (semi-)automating the generation of assurance cases are key to develop compelling assurance cases and foster consumer acceptance. We therefore explore challenges related to such assurance enablers and outline some potential directions that could be explored to tackle them.


Image recognition accuracy: An unseen challenge confounding today's AI

AIHub

MVT, minimum viewing time, is a dataset difficulty metric measuring the minimum presentation time required for an image to be recognized. Researchers hope this metric will be used to evaluate models' performance and biological plausibility and guide the creation of new more difficult datasets, leading to new computer vision techniques that perform better in real life. Imagine you are scrolling through the photos on your phone and you come across an image that at first you can't recognize. It looks like maybe something fuzzy on the couch; could it be a pillow or a coat? That ball of fluff is your friend's cat, Mocha.


Researchers create a tool for accurately simulating complex systems

AIHub

Researchers often use simulations when designing new algorithms, since testing ideas in the real world can be both costly and risky. But since it's impossible to capture every detail of a complex system in a simulation, they typically collect a small amount of real data that they replay while simulating the components they want to study. Known as trace-driven simulation (the small pieces of real data are called traces), this method sometimes results in biased outcomes. This means researchers might unknowingly choose an algorithm that is not the best one they evaluated, and which will perform worse on real data than the simulation predicted that it should. MIT researchers have developed a new method that eliminates this source of bias in trace-driven simulation.


Explaining the ghosts: Feminist intersectional XAI and cartography as methods to account for invisible labour

Klumbyte, Goda, Piehl, Hannah, Draude, Claude

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Contemporary automation through AI entails a substantial amount of behind-the-scenes human labour, which is often both invisibilised and underpaid. Since invisible labour, including labelling and maintenance work, is an integral part of contemporary AI systems, it remains important to sensitise users to its role. We suggest that this could be done through explainable AI (XAI) design, particularly feminist intersectional XAI. We propose the method of cartography, which stems from feminist intersectional research, to draw out a systemic perspective of AI and include dimensions of AI that pertain to invisible labour.