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Results for “convolutional sparse representations”

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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PSF Estimation in Crowded Astronomical Imagery as a Convolutional Dictionary Learning Problem

In this paper, we present a new algorithm for estimating the Point Spread Function (PSF) in wide-field astronomical images with extreme source crowding. Robust and accurate PSF estimation in crowded astronomical images dramatically improves the fidelity of astrometric and photometric measurements extracted from wide-field sky monitoring imagery. Our radically new approach utilizes convolutional sparse representations to model the continuous functions involved in the image formation. This approach avoids the need to detect and precisely localize individual point sources that is shared by existing methods. In experiments involving simulated astronomical imagery, it significantly outperforms the recent alternative method with which it is compared.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Graph Partitioning and Sparse Matrix Ordering using Reinforcement Learning and Graph Neural Networks

We present a novel method for graph partitioning, based on reinforcement learning and graph convolutional neural networks. Our approach is to recursively partition coarser representations of a given graph. The neural network is implemented using SAGE graph convolution layers, and trained using an advantage actor critic (A2C) agent. We present two variants, one for finding an edge separator that minimizes the normalized cut or quotient cut, and one that finds a small vertex separator. The vertex separators are then used to construct a nested dissection ordering to permute a sparse matrix so that its triangular factorization will incur less fill-in. The partitioning quality is compared with partitions obtained using METIS and SCOTCH, and the nested dissection ordering is evaluated in the sparse solver SuperLU. Our results show that the proposed method achieves similar partitioning quality as METIS and SCOTCH. Furthermore, the method generalizes across different classes of graphs, and works well on a variety of graphs from the SuiteSparse sparse matrix collection.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Dictionary Learning with Accumulator Neurons

The Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA) uses local competition between non-spiking leaky integrator neurons to infer sparse representations, allowing for potentially real-time execution on massively parallel neuromorphic architectures such as Intel's Loihi processor. Here, we focus on the problem of inferring sparse representations from streaming video using dictionaries of spatiotemporal features optimized in an unsupervised manner for sparse reconstruction. Non-spiking LCA has previously been used to achieve unsupervised learning of spatiotemporal dictionaries composed of convolutional kernels from raw, unlabeled video. We demonstrate how unsupervised dictionary learning with spiking LCA (\hbox{S-LCA}) can be efficiently implemented using accumulator neurons, which combine a conventional leaky-integrate-and-fire (\hbox{LIF}) spike generator with an additional state variable that is used to minimize the difference between the integrated input and the spiking output. We demonstrate dictionary learning across a wide range of dynamical regimes, from graded to intermittent spiking, for inferring sparse representations of both static images drawn from the CIFAR database as well as video frames captured from a DVS camera. On a classification task that requires identification of the suite from a deck of cards being rapidly flipped through as viewed by a DVS camera, we find essentially no degradation in performance as the LCA model used to infer sparse spatiotemporal representations migrates from graded to spiking. We conclude that accumulator neurons are likely to provide a powerful enabling component of future neuromorphic hardware for implementing online unsupervised learning of spatiotemporal dictionaries optimized for sparse reconstruction of streaming video from event based DVS cameras.

artificial intelligence↗

Prong Segmentation using Point Set Transformers in Multiple View Neutrino Detectors

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino experiment studying neutrino oscillations by detecting neutrinos from the NuMI beam at Fermilab. Its physics analysis relies on accurate prong segmentation, which involves matching each hit to its source particle and identifying the particle type. This task has commonly been addressed using a combination of traditional clustering algorithms and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). However, NOvA’s detector design presents data as two sparse and decoupled 2D images (XZ and YZ views) rather than a native 3D representation, posing a significant challenge for traditional CNN-based models. In this talk, we propose a novel neural network based on the Point Set Transformer. By treating detector hits as sparse point clouds and implementing a cross-view attention mechanism, our model enables efficient information mixing between both views. Evaluated on NOvA simulated data, our model achieves superior accuracy while requiring significantly fewer computational resources compared to other models. Furthermore, the model demonstrates great performance when applied to Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LArTPC) data, which shows its potential as a universal prong segmentation algorithm for multiple view neutrino detectors.

Liu, Jiaxi [UC, Irvine]↗

Heterogeneous Point Set Transformers for Segmentation of Multiple View Particle Detectors

NOvA is a long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiment that detects neutrino particles from the NuMI beam at Fermilab. Before data from this experiment can be used in analyses, raw hits in the detector must be matched to their source particles, and the type of each particle must be identified. This task has commonly been done using a mix of traditional clustering approaches and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Due to the construction of the detector, the data is presented as two sparse 2D images: an XZ and a YZ view of the detector, rather than a 3D representation. We propose a point set neural network that operates on the sparse matrices with an operation that mixes information from both views. Our model uses less than 10% of the memory required using previous methods while achieving a 96.8% AUC score, a higher score than obtained when both views are processed independently (85.4%).

Robles, Edgar E. [UC, Irvine (main)]↗

ReLU, Sparseness, and the Encoding of Optic Flow in Neural Networks

Accurate self-motion estimation is critical for various navigational tasks in mobile robotics. Optic flow provides a means to estimate self-motion using a camera sensor and is particularly valuable in GPS- and radio-denied environments. The present study investigates the influence of different activation functions—ReLU, leaky ReLU, GELU, and Mish—on the accuracy, robustness, and encoding properties of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) and multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) trained to estimate self-motion from optic flow. Our results demonstrate that networks with ReLU and leaky ReLU activation functions not only achieved superior accuracy in self-motion estimation from novel optic flow patterns but also exhibited greater robustness under challenging conditions. The advantages offered by ReLU and leaky ReLU may stem from their ability to induce sparser representations than GELU and Mish do. Our work characterizes the encoding of optic flow in neural networks and highlights how the sparseness induced by ReLU may enhance robust and accurate self-motion estimation from optic flow.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Deep Learning for Simultaneous Inference of Hydraulic and Transport Properties

Abstract Identification of a heterogeneous conductivity field and reconstruction of a contaminant release history are key aspects of subsurface remediation. These two goals are achieved by combining model predictions with sparse and noisy hydraulic head and concentration measurements. Solution of this inverse problem is notoriously difficult due to, in part, high dimensionality of the parameter space and high computational cost of repeated forward solves. We use a convolutional adversarial autoencoder (CAAE) to parameterize a heterogeneous non‐Gaussian conductivity field via a low‐dimensional latent representation. A three‐dimensional dense convolutional encoder‐decoder (DenseED) network serves as a forward surrogate of the flow and transport model. The CAAE‐DenseED surrogate is fed into the ensemble smoother with multiple data assimilation (ESMDA) algorithm to sample from the Bayesian posterior distribution of the unknown parameters, forming a CAAE‐DenseED‐ESMDA inversion framework. The resulting CAAE‐DenseED‐ESMDA inversion strategy is used to identify a three‐dimensional contaminant source and conductivity field. A comparison of the inversion results from CAAE‐ESMDA with physical flow and transport simulator and from CAAE‐DenseED‐ESMDA shows that the latter yields accurate reconstruction results at the fraction of the computational cost of the former.

Zhou, Zitong↗

Machine learning for detection of 3D features using sparse x-ray tomographic reconstruction

In many inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments, the neutron yield and other parameters cannot be completely accounted for with one and two dimensional models. This discrepancy suggests that there are three dimensional effects that may be significant. Sources of these effects include defects in the shells and defects in shell interfaces, the fill tube of the capsule, and the joint feature in double shell targets. Due to their ability to penetrate materials, x rays are used to capture the internal structure of objects. Methods such as computational tomography use x-ray radiographs from hundreds of projections, in order to reconstruct a three dimensional model of the object. In experimental environments, such as the National Ignition Facility and Omega-60, the availability of these views is scarce, and in many cases only consists of a single line of sight. Mathematical reconstruction of a 3D object from sparse views is an ill-posed inverse problem. These types of problems are typically solved by utilizing prior information. Neural networks have been used for the task of 3D reconstruction as they are capable of encoding and leveraging this prior information. We utilize half a dozen, different convolutional neural networks to produce different 3D representations of ICF implosions from the experimental data. Deep supervision is utilized to train a neural network to produce high-resolution reconstructions. These representations are used to track 3D features of the capsules, such as the ablator, inner shell, and the joint between shell hemispheres. Machine learning, supplemented by different priors, is a promising method for 3D reconstructions in ICF and x-ray radiography, in general.

Wolfe, Bradley T. (ORCID:0000000268301614)↗

Unifying Combinatorial and Graphical Methods in Artificial Intelligence

Recently, a new graph Laplacian, called the inner product Laplacian, was introduced which generalizes many existing Laplacians, including the normalized and combinatorial Laplacian and their weighted variants. The key observation behind the inner product Laplacian is that by defining appropriate inner product spaces on the vertices and edges, the standard Laplacians can be recovered as Hodge Laplacians over the simplicial complex formed by the edges and vertices. These inner product spaces form a natural way to incorporate non-combinatorial information into the definition of a domain-specific Laplacian. In particular, in contrast to current domain-specific weighting schemes which rely solely on edge weights, information regarding the similarity of non-adjacent vertices and arbitrary pairs of edges can be effectively incorporated into the Laplacian. In order to illustrate this approach we consider the problem of calculating the potential energy of an atomistic configuration using Graph Neural Networks. In comparison with start-of-the-art approaches, such as SchNet, our approach replaces a learned (via auto-encoder) representation of the atom types with an inner product space on atoms based on scientific knowledge (e.g., electronegativity). We will illustrate how this approach captures key chemical properties of the molecules and compare the energy calculations with state-of-the-art neural network approaches. However, to compute the resulting Laplacian involves a mixture of sparse and dense matrix computation and yields a dense matrix as the basis for the graph convolution. This dense convolutional kernel necessitates moving away from the standard message passing framework for graph neural networks and increases the computational cost of applying the kernel. In order to mitigate these costs we investigate means of leveraging the mixed sparse and dense computations to reduce the overall computational cost and how these approaches can be automatically transferred to energy efficient hardware (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Global field reconstruction from sparse sensors with Veronoi tessellation-assisted deep learning

Achieving accurate and robust global situational awareness of a complex time-evolving field from a limited number of sensors has been a longstanding challenge. This reconstruction problem is especially difficult when sensors are sparsely positioned in a seemingly random or unorganized manner, which is often encountered in a range of scientific and engineering problems. Moreover, these sensors can be in motion and can become online or offline over time. The key leverage in addressing this scientific issue is the wealth of data accumulated from the sensors. As a solution to this problem, we propose a data-driven spatial field recovery technique founded on a structured grid-based deep-learning approach for arbitrary positioned sensors of any numbers. It should be noted that the naïve use of machine learning becomes prohibitively expensive for global field reconstruction and is furthermore not adaptable to an arbitrary number of sensors. In the present work, we consider the use of Voronoi tessellation to obtain a structured-grid representation from sensor locations enabling the computationally tractable use of convolutional neural networks. One of the central features of the present method is its compatibility with deep-learning based super-resolution reconstruction techniques for structured sensor data that are established for image processing. The proposed reconstruction technique is demonstrated for unsteady wake flow, geophysical data, and three-dimensional turbulence. The current framework is able to handle an arbitrary number of moving sensors, and thereby overcomes a major limitation with existing reconstruction methods. The presented technique opens a new pathway towards the practical use of neural networks for real-time global field estimation.

Fukami, Kai↗

Latent code-based fusion: A Volterra neural network approach

We propose a deep structure encoder using Volterra Neural Networks (VNNs) to seek a latent representation of multi-modal data whose features are jointly captured by a union of subspaces. The so-called self-representation embedding of the latent codes leads to a simplified fusion which is driven by a similarly constructed decoding. The Volterra Filter architecture achieved reduction in parameter complexity is primarily due to controlled non-linearities being introduced by the higher-order convolutions in lieu of generalized activation functions. Experimental results on two different datasets have shown a significant improvement in the clustering performance for VNNs auto-encoder over conventional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) auto-encoder. In addition, we also show that the proposed approach demonstrates a much-improved sample complexity over CNN-based auto-encoder with a robust classification performance.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

How Low Can You Go? Using Synthetic 3D Imagery to Drastically Reduce Real-World Training Data for Object Detection

Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) currently provide state-of-the-art performance on image classification and object detection tasks, and there are many global security mission areas where such models could be extremely useful. Crucially, the success of these models is driven in large part by the widespread availability of high-quality open source data sets such as Image Net, Common Objects in Context (COCO), and KITTI, which contain millions of images with thousands of unique labels. However, global security relevant objects-of-interest can be difficult to obtain: relevant events are low frequency and high consequence; the content of relevant images is sensitive; and adversaries and proliferators seek to obscure their activities. For these cases where exemplar data is hard to come-by, even fine-tuning an existing model with available data can be effectively impossible. Recent work demonstrated that models can be trained using a combination of real-world and synthetic images generated from 3D representations; that such models can exceed the performance of models trained using real-world data alone; and that the generated images need not be perfectly realistic (Tremblay, et al., 2018). However, this approach still required hundreds to thousands of real-world images for training and fine tuning, which for sparse, global security-relevant datasets can be an unrealistic hurdle. In this research, we validate the performance and behavior of DCNN models as we drive the number of real-world images used for training object detection tasks down to a minimal set. We perform multiple experiments to identify the best approach to train DCNNs from an extremely small set of real-world images. In doing so, we: Develop state-of-the-art, parameterized 3D models based on real-world images and sample from their parameters to increase the variance in synthetic image training data; Use machine learning explainability techniques to highlight and correct through targeted training the biases that result from training using completely synthetic images; and Validate our results by comparing the performance of the models trained on synthetic data to one another, and to a control model created by fine-tuning an existing ImageNet-trained model with a limited number (hundreds) of real-world images.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗