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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 307 records · Page 17

IRIS-GNN: Leveraging Graph Neural Networks for Scheduling on Truly Heterogeneous Runtime Systems

The diversity of accelerators in computer systems poses significant challenges for software developers, such as managing vendor-specific compiler toolchains, code fragmentation requiring different kernel implementations, and performance portability issues. To address these, the Intelligent Runtime System (IRIS) was developed. IRIS works across various systems, from smartphones to supercomputers, enabling automatic performance scaling based on available accelerators. It introduces abstract tasks for seamless execution transitions between accelerators while ensuring memory consistency and task dependencies. Although IRIS simplifies system details, optimal dynamic scheduling still requires user input to understand workload structures. To address this, we introduce a new scheduling policy for IRIS, termed IRIS-GNN, which is the first IRIS hybrid policy that operates in conjunction with the dynamic policies. This policy employs a Graph-Neural Network (GNN) to conduct Graph Classification of any task graphs submitted to IRIS. This GNN analyzes the structure and attributes of the task graph, categorizing it as either locality, concurrency, or mixed. This classification subsequently guides the selection of the dynamic policy used by IRIS. We provide a comparison of the performance of IRIS-GNN against the complete spectrum of IRIS’s dynamic policies, assess the overhead introduced by the GNN within this scheduling framework, and ultimately explore its practical application in real-world scenarios.

Johnston, Beau↗

Dynamic Model Development of a Wind Power Plant Using Neural Net Method to Forecast Wind Power Output (CRADA Final Report)

This project is intended to model wind power plant based on monitored data at the wind power plant. This project will promote the university research in Renewable Energy area and trains the future highly qualified engineers. The dynamic model will be based on neural net model with the input from the two met towers (12 inputs), and the number of turbines in operation (one input). The overall input will be 13 inputs to drive the simulations. The output power at the point of interconnection will be used to tune the neural net weight coefficients. Two neural net concepts will be investigated (the back propagation neural net and the dynamic recurrent neural net with feedback).

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Deep Neural Network for Precision Multi-band Infrared Image Segmentation

Image segmentation is one of the fundamental steps in computer vision. Separating targets from background clutter with high precision is a challenging operation for both humans and computers. Currently, segmenting objects from IR images is done by tedious manual work. The implementation of a Deep Neural Network (DNN) to perform precision segmentation of multi-band IR video images is presented. A customized pix2pix DNN with multiple layers of generative encoder/decoder and discriminator architecture is used in the IR image segmentation process. Real and synthetic images and ground truths are employed to train the DNN. Iterative training is performed to achieve optimum accuracy of segmentation using a minimal number of training data. Special training images are created to enhance the missing features and to increase the segmentation accuracy of the objects. Retraining strategies are developed to minimize the DNN training time. Single pixel accuracy has been achieved in IR target boundary segmentation using DNNs. The segmentation accuracy between the customized pix2pix DNN and simple thresholding, GraphCut, simple neural network and ResNet models are compared.

Torres, Gil↗

Effective Uncertainty Quantification for Multi-Angle Polarimetric Aerosol Remote Sensing Over Ocean

Multi-angle polarimetric (MAP) measurements can enable detailed characterization of aerosol microphysical and optical properties and improve atmospheric correction in ocean color remote sensing. Advanced retrieval algorithms have been developed to obtain multiple geophysical parameters in the atmosphere–ocean system. Theoretical pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties based on error propagation have been used to quantify retrieval performance and determine the quality of data products. However, standard error propagation techniques in high-dimensional retrievals may not always represent true retrieval errors well due to issues such as local minima and the nonlinear dependence of the forward model on the retrieved parameters near the solution. In this work, we analyze these theoretical uncertainty estimates and validate them using a flexible Monte Carlo approach. The Fast Multi-Angular Polarimetric Ocean coLor (FastMAPOL) retrieval algorithm, based on efficient neural network forward models, is used to conduct the retrievals and uncertainty quantification on both synthetic HARP2 (Hyper-Angular Rainbow Polarimeter 2) and AirHARP (airborne version of HARP2) datasets. In addition, for practical application of the uncertainty evaluation technique in operational data processing, we use the automatic differentiation method to calculate derivatives analytically based on the neural network models. Both the speed and accuracy associated with uncertainty quantification for MAP retrievals are addressed in this study. Pixel-wise retrieval uncertainties are further evaluated for the real AirHARP field campaign data. The uncertainty quantification methods and results can be used to evaluate the quality of data products, as well as guide MAP algorithm development for current and future satellite systems such as NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) mission.

PACE↗

On the universality of S n -equivariant k -body gates

The importance of symmetries has recently been recognized in quantum machine learning from the simple motto: if a task exhibits a symmetry (given by a group $\mathfrak{G}$), the learning model should respect said symmetry. This can be instantiated via $\mathfrak{G}$-equivariant quantum neural networks (QNNs), i.e. parametrized quantum circuits whose gates are generated by operators commuting with a given representation of $\mathfrak{G}$. In practice, however, there might be additional restrictions to the types of gates one can use, such as being able to act on at most k qubits. In this work we study how the interplay between symmetry and k-bodyness in the QNN generators affect its expressiveness for the special case of $\mathfrak{G}=S_n$, the symmetric group. Our results show that if the QNN is generated by one- and two-body Sn-equivariant gates, the QNN is semi-universal but not universal. That is, the QNN can generate any arbitrary special unitary matrix in the invariant subspaces, but has no control over the relative phases between them. Then, we show that in order to reach universality one needs to include n-body generators (if n is even) or ($n-1$)-body generators (if n is odd). As such, our results brings us a step closer to better understanding the capabilities and limitations of equivariant QNNs.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dynamic Validation of CNN-Based Surrogate Models for Inverter-Based Resources in Open-Source Solvers

Traditionally, distribution system planning has focused on steady-state analyses, with limited consideration of dynamic behavior. However, as large or medium-scale inverter-based resources (IBRs), particularly grid-following (GFL) inverters in commercial or industry buildings, become more prevalent, understanding their dynamic impact is essential for grid planning and operation. This article presents an innovative deep-learning (DL)-approach using convolutional neural networks technique to model the GFL inverters. Developed from real grid-tied commercial IBR transient data, these dynamic DL models overcome proprietary constraints by requiring minimal knowledge of internal converter physics while maintaining high accuracy and flexibility. To demonstrate their applicability, the models were incorporated into GridLAB-D, an open-source, three-phase distribution analysis tool. This integration enables dynamic simulations of large-scale distribution networks with high IBR penetration stability analysis. Rigorous testing and validation, aligned with industry standards, confirmed the reliability and efficiency of this approach, paving the way for enhanced planning and operational assessments of modern power systems.

Deep-learning↗

Temperature Field Reconstruction of Surfaces Heated Through Radiative Heat Transfer Using Convolutional Neural Networks

Microreactors could play a crucial role in decarbonizing our energy portfolio. However, their development and implementation come with specific challenges, particularly regarding cost. Due to their compact size and the harsh operational environment, collecting real-time data on reactor operation can be challenging. Many probe designs are unable to withstand extreme conditions (e.g., temperature, radiation) in the reactor. In this context, using convolutional neural networks (CNNs) can pave the way for developing a nonintrusive approach that relies solely on ex-core sensors. A well-trained physics-informed CNN can reconstruct the distribution of a given physical quantity over a domain using only a few sensors, allowing us to reconstruct the desired field distribution even in a limited space or complex geometries where a large array of sensors is impractical. In this work, we present the initial steps toward developing a real-time tool for monitoring the thermal behavior of nuclear reactor pressure vessels. Based on an experimental setup, a computational model using the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment (moose) framework was built, where the Ray Tracing and Heat Conduction modules were used to evaluate the temperature distribution over a convex metal surface heated through radiative heat transfer. This metal surface represents a section of a heated nuclear reactor vessel wall. The model also accounts for solid mechanics physics through the moose Solid Mechanics module. In situ experimental data, acquired from a Texas A&M facility, were used to validate the computational model. Part of the data generated by the moose model was used to train the convolutional neural network to reconstruct the vessel wall's outer surface temperature. The CNN generalization was then compared against the experimental and computational data.

Aldeia Machado, Luiz Carlos↗

Design of thrust vectoring exhaust nozzles for real-time applications using neural networks

Thrust vectoring continues to be an important issue in military aircraft system designs. A recently developed concept of vectoring aircraft thrust makes use of flexible exhaust nozzles. Subtle modifications in the nozzle wall contours produce a non-uniform flow field containing a complex pattern of shock and expansion waves. The end result, due to the asymmetric velocity and pressure distributions, is vectored thrust. Specification of the nozzle contours required for a desired thrust vector angle (an inverse design problem) has been achieved with genetic algorithms. This approach is computationally intensive and prevents the nozzles from being designed in real-time, which is necessary for an operational aircraft system. An investigation was conducted into using genetic algorithms to train a neural network in an attempt to obtain, in real-time, two-dimensional nozzle contours. Results show that genetic algorithm trained neural networks provide a viable, real-time alternative for designing thrust vectoring nozzles contours. Thrust vector angles up to 20 deg were obtained within an average error of 0.0914 deg. The error surfaces encountered were highly degenerate and thus the robustness of genetic algorithms was well suited for minimizing global errors.

Prasanth, Ravi K.↗

scANN

SAND2025-00656O scANN, also known as sampling by coinflips artificial neural networks, is a software tool that estimates uncertainty in artificial intelligence by performing Monte Carlo analysis on the weight matrices of feedforward neural networks. This computationally intensive process aims to explore the potential value added by future probabilistic hardware. The program’s output helps researchers gain insights into how probabilistic neural networks work. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International Inc., for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525.

SciDAC↗

Analog Systems for Edge Optimization

Over the past decade, analog computing has the subject of substantial research interest providing a path toward improved computational efficiency in the post-Dennard era. Analog matrix vector multiplication (MVM) accelerators provide a popular approach given the ubiquity of MVM operations in numerous applications. However, historically analog computing systems can struggle with applications requiring high precision due to the inherent susceptibility of these systems to analog non-idealities. Therefore, prior work on analog systems has focused either on applications known to be tolerant of limited precision (e.g., neural network inference), or using expensive techniques to emulate high-precision using many analog MVM operations. In this work, we propose an alternative approach. Motivated by recent advances in inexact nonlinear solvers and optimizers, we explore the potential of co-designing optimization algorithms which can take full advantage of the fundamentally inexact analog MVM operations. To enable these co-designed algorithms we also develop a general mathematical theory of the precision and energy efficiency of analog operations, and a new system architecture for tightly-coupled analog and digital computation. Finally, we examine the applicability of analog computing to a wider class of symmetric positive definite systems and find potential in using analog operations as a sparse approximate inverse preconditioner. With these core innovations, this project provides a path toward effectively implementing optimization algorithms on power-constrained autonomous and semi-autonomous systems.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Mission scheduling

How a neural network can work, compared to a hybrid system based on an operations research and artificial intelligence approach, is investigated through a mission scheduling problem. The characteristic features of each system are discussed.

Gaspin, Christine↗

Self-Aligning Optical Measurement Systems

The paper discusses how to teach a system of neural networks to respond to the alignment clues used by a human operator in performing routine, initial alignments. A paradigm is proposed for automating the alignment of the components of optical measurement systems. The paradigm which was tested on a spatial filter has proved to be successful for optical alignment.

Decker, Arthur J.↗

Robust neural classifier circuits using asynchronous design

Aerospace neural circuits must be adaptive, offer a practical size-performance ratio, and be environmentally robust. Our approach to building such circuits combines asynchronous design with a new fuzzy/neural classifier model. Asynchronous circuits offer many design advantages for neural hardware and our hybrid fuzzy/neural model, using mainly min and max operators, promises a low circuit complexity. The general approach is described and a description of a use of rule-induction to further reduce circuit complexity is described.

Hurdle, John F.↗

Feature Extraction and Selection Strategies for Automated Target Recognition

Several feature extraction and selection methods for an existing automatic target recognition (ATR) system using JPLs Grayscale Optical Correlator (GOC) and Optimal Trade-Off Maximum Average Correlation Height (OT-MACH) filter were tested using MATLAB. The ATR system is composed of three stages: a cursory region of-interest (ROI) search using the GOC and OT-MACH filter, a feature extraction and selection stage, and a final classification stage. Feature extraction and selection concerns transforming potential target data into more useful forms as well as selecting important subsets of that data which may aide in detection and classification. The strategies tested were built around two popular extraction methods: Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA). Performance was measured based on the classification accuracy and free-response receiver operating characteristic (FROC) output of a support vector machine(SVM) and a neural net (NN) classifier.

computer vision↗

Learning Based Edge Computing in Air-to-Air Communication Network

This paper studies learning-based edge computing and communication in a dynamic Air-to-Air Ad-hoc Network (AAAN). Due to spectrum scarcity, we assume the number of Air-to-Air (A2A) communication links is greater than that of the available frequency channels, such that some communication links have to share the same channel, causing co-channel interference. We formulate the joint channel selection and power control optimization problem to maximize the aggregate spectrum utilization efficiency under resource and fairness constraints. A distributed deep Q learning-based edge computing and communication algorithm is proposed to find the optimal solution. In particular, we design two different neural network structures and each communication link can converge to the optimal operation by exploiting only the local information from its neighbors, making it scalable to large networks. Finally, experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed solution in various AAAN scenarios.

Zhe Wang↗

SafeAeroBERT: Towards a Safety-Informed Aerospace-Specific Language Model

As aviation systems continue to operate with high traffic, large amounts of documents containing safety-relevant data continue to be generated via reporting systems such as the ASRS. Advanced natural language processing techniques, specifically pre-trained language models, have shown great success in domain-specific applications; however, the text in aviation safety reports is inundated with jargon and thus not fully utilized by general pre-trained models. In this research, we work towards developing a safety-informed aerospace-specific language model by pre-training a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformer (BERT) model on reports from the Aviation Safety Reporting System and the National Transportation Safety Board. The resulting model, called SafeAeroBERT, is fine-tuned for the specific task of document classification, and can be further tuned for named-entity recognition, relation detection, information retrieval, and summarization. Results from the classification task are compared between SafeAeroBERT, the base BERT, and SciBERT models and show SafeAeroBERT outperforms the general BERT and SciBERT on classifying reports about human factors, aircraft, and procedure. SafeAeroBERT can be used on custom tasks, not limited to document classification, and is intended to aid an intelligent knowledge manager for safety report repositories.

Aviation↗

Neural Networks for Prediction of Complex Chemistry in Water Treatment Process Optimization

Water chemistry plays a critical role in the design and operation of water treatment processes. Detailed chemistry modeling tools use a combination of advanced thermodynamic models and extensive databases to predict phase equilibria and reaction phenomena. The complexity and formulation of these models preclude their direct integration in equation-oriented modeling platforms, making it difficult to use their capabilities for rigorous water treatment process optimization. Neural networks (NN) can provide a pathway for integrating the predictive capability of chemistry software into equation-oriented models and enable optimization of complex water treatment processes across a broad range of conditions and process designs. Herein, we assess how NN architecture and training data impact their accuracy and use in equation-oriented water treatment models. We generate training data using PhreeqC software and determine how data generation and sample size impact the accuracy of trained NNs. The effect of NN architecture on optimization is evaluated by optimizing hypothetical black-box desalination processes using a range of feed compositions from USGS brackish water data set, tracking the number of successful optimizations, and testing the impact of initial guess on the final solution. Our results clearly demonstrate that data generation and architecture impact NN accuracy and viability for use in equation-oriented optimization problems.

Dudchenko, Alexander V↗

Towards Explainability of UAV-Based Convolutional Neural Networks for Object Classification

f autonomous systems using trust and trustworthiness is the focus of Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability (ATTRACTOR), a new NASA Convergent Aeronautical Solutions (CAS) Project. One critical research element of ATTRACTOR is explainability of the decision-making across relevant subsystems of an autonomous system. The ability to explain why an autonomous system makes a decision is needed to establish a basis of trustworthiness to safely complete a mission. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) are popular visual object classifiers that have achieved high levels of classification performances without clear insight into the mechanisms of the internal layers and features. To explore the explainability of the internal components of CNNs, we reviewed three feature visualization methods in a layer-by-layer approach using aviation related images as inputs. Our approach to this is to analyze the key components of a classification event in order to generate component labels for features of the classified image at different layers of depths. For example, an airplane has wings, engines, and landing gear. These could possibly be identified somewhere in the hidden layers from the classification and these descriptive labels could be provided to a human or machine teammate while conducting a shared mission and to engender trust. Each descriptive feature may also be decomposed to a combination of primitives such as shapes and lines. We expect that knowing the combination of shapes and parts that create a classification will enable trust in the system and insight into creating better structures for the CNN.

Dolph, Chester V.↗