Designing solutions for complex engineering challenges is crucial in human production activities. However, previous research in the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) field has not sufficiently addressed tasks related to the design of complex engineering solutions. To fill this gap, we introduce a new benchmark, SolutionBench, to evaluate a system's ability to generate complete and feasible solutions for engineering problems with multiple complex constraints. To further advance the design of complex engineering solutions, we propose a novel system, SolutionRAG, that leverages the tree-based exploration and bi-point thinking mechanism to generate reliable solutions. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that SolutionRAG achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance on the SolutionBench, highlighting its potential to enhance the automation and reliability of complex engineering solution design in real-world applications.

Managing resources effectively in uncertain demand, variable availability, and complex governance policies is a significant challenge. This paper presents a paradigmatic framework for addressing these issues in water management scenarios by integrating advanced physical modelling, remote sensing techniques, and Artificial Intelligence algorithms. The proposed approach accurately predicts water availability, estimates demand, and optimizes resource allocation on both short- and long-term basis, combining a comprehensive hydrological model, agronomic crop models for precise demand estimation, and Mixed-Integer Linear Programming for efficient resource distribution. In the study case of the Segura Hydrographic Basin, the approach successfully allocated approximately 642 million cubic meters ($hm^3$) of water over six months, minimizing the deficit to 9.7% of the total estimated demand. The methodology demonstrated significant environmental benefits, reducing CO2 emissions while optimizing resource distribution. This robust solution supports informed decision-making processes, ensuring sustainable water management across diverse contexts. The generalizability of this approach allows its adaptation to other basins, contributing to improved governance and policy implementation on a broader scale. Ultimately, the methodology has been validated and integrated into the operational water management practices in the Segura Hydrographic Basin in Spain.

While Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated their proficiency in complex reasoning tasks, their performance in dynamic, interactive, and competitive scenarios - such as business strategy and stock market analysis - remains underexplored. To bridge this gap, we formally explore the dynamic reasoning capabilities of LLMs for decision-making in rapidly evolving environments. We introduce two game theory-based pilot challenges that mirror the complexities of real-world dynamic decision-making. These challenges are well-defined, enabling clear, controllable, and precise evaluation of LLMs' dynamic reasoning abilities. Through extensive experiments, we find that existing reasoning methods tend to falter in dynamic settings that require k-level thinking - a key concept not tackled by previous works. To address this, we propose a novel reasoning approach for LLMs, named "K-Level Reasoning". This approach adopts the perspective of rivals to recursively employ k-level thinking based on available historical information, which significantly improves the prediction accuracy of rivals' subsequent moves and informs more strategic decision-making. This research not only sets a robust quantitative benchmark for the assessment of dynamic reasoning but also markedly enhances the proficiency of LLMs in dynamic contexts.

This paper introduces Alympics (Olympics for Agents), a systematic simulation framework utilizing Large Language Model (LLM) agents for game theory research. Alympics creates a versatile platform for studying complex game theory problems, bridging the gap between theoretical game theory and empirical investigations by providing a controlled environment for simulating human-like strategic interactions with LLM agents. In our pilot case study, the "Water Allocation Challenge," we explore Alympics through a challenging strategic game focused on the multi-round auction on scarce survival resources. This study demonstrates the framework's ability to qualitatively and quantitatively analyze game determinants, strategies, and outcomes. Additionally, we conduct a comprehensive human assessment and an in-depth evaluation of LLM agents in strategic decision-making scenarios. Our findings not only expand the understanding of LLM agents' proficiency in emulating human strategic behavior but also highlight their potential in advancing game theory knowledge, thereby enriching our understanding of both game theory and empowering further research into strategic decision-making domains with LLM agents. Codes, prompts, and all related resources are available at https://github.com/microsoft/Alympics.

The Aerospace Corporation President and CEO Steve Isakowitz said he anticipates the future of space exploration and defense will include AI-controlled satellites and permanent living on the surface of the Moon and Mars. Speaking with Fox News Digital at the Milken Global Conference on May 4, Isakowitz noted that NASA has been using artificial intelligence (AI) for many years in Mars rovers because of the time it takes to communicate back and forth with Earth. The rover needed to know where to go and how to do so safely to combat the delay. Today, with the expansion in capabilities of AI and smaller, more affordable computer chips, advanced AI tech can now be packed into the satellites orbiting Earth. "I do think we're entering an age where we're going to have hyper-intelligence satellites, satellites that will not just be dumb cameras that are looking at the Earth and just filming everything, but you could tell it what to look for. So, don't just take pictures of the Pacific Ocean. Look for these kinds of tankers or look for these kinds of ships or look for these kind of warships or these kind of airplanes where you actually have the satellite. Know what it's looking at that has the intelligence to know if it doesn't feel well," Isakowitz said.

The preservation, monitoring, and control of water resources has been a major challenge in recent decades. Water resources must be constantly monitored to know the contamination levels of water. To meet this objective, this paper proposes a water monitoring system using autonomous surface vehicles, equipped with water quality sensors, based on a multimodal particle swarm optimization, and the federated learning technique, with Gaussian process as a surrogate model, the AquaFeL-PSO algorithm. The proposed monitoring system has two phases, the exploration phase and the exploitation phase. In the exploration phase, the vehicles examine the surface of the water resource, and with the data acquired by the water quality sensors, a first water quality model is estimated in the central server. In the exploitation phase, the area is divided into action zones using the model estimated in the exploration phase for a better exploitation of the contamination zones. To obtain the final water quality model of the water resource, the models obtained in both phases are combined. The results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed path planner in obtaining water quality models of the pollution zones, with a 14$\%$ improvement over the other path planners compared, and the entire water resource, obtaining a 400$\%$ better model, as well as in detecting pollution peaks, the improvement in this case study is 4,000$\%$. It was also proven that the results obtained by applying the federated learning technique are very similar to the results of a centralized system.

Monitoring and patrolling large water resources is a major challenge for conservation. The problem of acquiring data of an underlying environment that usually changes within time involves a proper formulation of the information. The use of Autonomous Surface Vehicles equipped with water quality sensor modules can serve as an early-warning system agents for contamination peak-detection, algae blooms monitoring, or oil-spill scenarios. In addition to information gathering, the vehicle must plan routes that are free of obstacles on non-convex maps. This work proposes a framework to obtain a collision-free policy that addresses the patrolling task for static and dynamic scenarios. Using information gain as a measure of the uncertainty reduction over data, it is proposed a Deep Q-Learning algorithm improved by a Q-Censoring mechanism for model-based obstacle avoidance. The obtained results demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed algorithm for water resource monitoring for static and dynamic scenarios. Simulations showed the use of noise-networks are a good choice for enhanced exploration, with 3 times less redundancy in the paths. Previous coverage strategies are also outperformed both in the accuracy of the obtained contamination model by a 13% on average and by a 37% in the detection of dangerous contamination peaks. Finally, these results indicate the appropriateness of the proposed framework for monitoring scenarios with autonomous vehicles.

In recent years the increase of machine learning applications to water resources have allowed us to propose new solutions to complex problems. Alumni from the Hydroinformatics program have explored new areas that in many cases have led to implementations at different places in the world, and have shown to be able to compete with ongoing traditional solutions. For this seminar we will make an overview of some of the most recent ideas of applications of machine learning in Hydroinformatics. These presentations will be divided into two sessions that will cover forecasting problems. An introduction in both sessions to a variety of machine learning basic concepts will be given to introduce the topics, limitations and a friendly way to see the theory.

Southern Africa has experienced drought-flood cycles for the past decade that strain the ability of any country to properly manage water resources. This dynamic is exacerbated by human drivers such as the heavy reliance of sectors such as mining and agriculture on groundwater and surface water, as well as subsistence agriculture in rural areas along rivers. These factors have progressively depleted natural freshwater systems and contributed to an accumulation of sediment in river systems. In a region where two or more countries share many of the groundwater and surface resources, water security cuts across the socioeconomic divide and is both a rural and urban issue. For example, the City of Cape Town had to heavily ration all water uses in 2017 and 2018, as its dams were drying up.

The global degradation of water resources is a matter of great concern, especially for the survival of humanity. The effective monitoring and management of existing water resources is necessary to achieve and maintain optimal water quality. The prediction of the quality of water resources will aid in the timely identification of possible problem areas and thus increase the efficiency of water management. The purpose of this research is to develop a water quality prediction model based on water quality parameters through the application of a specialised recurrent neural network (RNN), Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and the use of historical water quality data over several years. Both multivariate single and multiple step LSTM models were developed, using a Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) activation function and a Root Mean Square Propagation (RMSprop) optimiser was developed. The single step model attained an error of 0.01 mg/L, whilst the multiple step model achieved a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 0.227 mg/L.