Digital Commons Network^™

Dyvir: Virtual Reality Generated Synthetic Training Datasets For Ai, Garrett Williams

Graduate Student and Postdoctoral Fellow Symposium

Artificial Intelligence (AI) can perform complex tasks quickly such as object detection. To perform these tasks, the AI algorithms are first trained on data. However, some data such as labeled imagery of aerial objects is hard to obtain. Utilizing Virtual Reality (VR) software, a custom tool called DyViR was made to generate synthetic training datasets. Users customize the virtual environment, aerial objects, and sensor modality to produce custom-tailored datasets.

For Those Who Don't Know (How) To Ask: Building A Dataset Of Technology Questions For Digital Newcomers, Evan Lucas, Kelly S. Steelman, Leo Ureel, Charles Wallace

Michigan Tech Publications

While the rise of large language models (LLMs) has created rich new opportunities to learn about digital technology, many on the margins of this technology struggle to gain and maintain competency due to lexical or conceptual barriers that prevent them from asking appropriate questions. Although there have been many efforts to understand factuality of LLM-created content and ability of LLMs to answer questions, it is not well understood how unclear or nonstandard language queries affect the model outputs. We propose the creation of a dataset that captures questions of digital newcomers and outsiders, utilizing data we have compiled from a …

Preserving Linguistic Diversity In The Digital Age: A Scalable Model For Cultural Heritage Continuity, James Hutson, Pace Ellsworth, Matt Ellsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In the face of the rapid erosion of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage globally, the urgency for effective, wide-ranging preservation methods has never been greater. Traditional approaches in cultural preservation often focus narrowly on specific niches, overlooking the broader cultural tapestry, particularly the preservation of everyday cultural elements. This article addresses this critical gap by advocating for a comprehensive, scalable model for cultural preservation that leverages machine learning and big data analytics. This model aims to document and archive a diverse range of cultural artifacts, encompassing both extraordinary and mundane aspects of heritage. A central issue highlighted in the …

Improving Medical Image Classification Accuracy Through Unsupervised Segmentation And Confounder Mitigation With Limited Data, Nikolai Fetisov

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Medical images are indispensable for assisting health care professionals to make more accurate cancer diagnosis and prognosis decisions. Several image modalities exist including, but not limited to, histopathology or whole slide images (WSI), computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET) and radiography (i.e., X-Ray), each having their own application in clinical practice.

Today, machine learning and deep learning methods have evolved to the point of being practically usable. These approaches learn and extract knowledge from data to make possible automating certain tasks. At the point of writing this dissertation, they have reached human-level performance in general image recognition tasks, became …

Cr-Sam: Curvature Regularized Sharpness-Aware Minimization, Tao Wu, Tony Tie Luo, Donald C. Wunsch

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Capacity to Generalize to Future Unseen Data Stands as One of the Utmost Crucial Attributes of Deep Neural Networks. Sharpness-Aware Minimization (SAM) Aims to Enhance the Generalizability by Minimizing Worst-Case Loss using One-Step Gradient Ascent as an Approximation. However, as Training Progresses, the Non-Linearity of the Loss Landscape Increases, Rendering One-Step Gradient Ascent Less Effective. on the Other Hand, Multi-Step Gradient Ascent Will Incur Higher Training Cost. in This Paper, We Introduce a Normalized Hessian Trace to Accurately Measure the Curvature of Loss Landscape on Both Training and Test Sets. in Particular, to Counter Excessive Non-Linearity of Loss Landscape, …

An Automated Approach For Improving The Inference Latency And Energy Efficiency Of Pretrained Cnns By Removing Irrelevant Pixels With Focused Convolutions, Caleb Tung, Nick Eliopoulos, Purvish Jajal, Gowri Ramshankar, Chen-Yun Yang, Nicholas Synovic, Xuecen Zhang, Vipin Chaudhary, George K. Thiruvathukal, Yung-Hsiang Lu

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Computer vision often uses highly accurate Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), but these deep learning models are associated with ever-increasing energy and computation requirements. Producing more energy-efficient CNNs often requires model training which can be cost-prohibitive. We propose a novel, automated method to make a pretrained CNN more energy-efficient without re-training. Given a pretrained CNN, we insert a threshold layer that filters activations from the preceding layers to identify regions of the image that are irrelevant, i.e. can be ignored by the following layers while maintaining accuracy. Our modified focused convolution operation saves inference latency (by up to 25%) and energy …

Scriptblock Smuggling: Uncovering Stealthy Evasion Techniques In Powershell And .Net Environments, Anthony J. Rose, Scott R. Graham, Christine M. Schubert, Jacob Krasnov, Wayne C. Henry

Faculty Publications

The Antimalware Scan Interface (AMSI) plays a crucial role in detecting malware within Windows operating systems. This paper presents ScriptBlock Smuggling, a novel evasion and log spoofing technique exploiting PowerShell and .NET environments to circumvent the AMSI. By focusing on the manipulation of ScriptBlocks within the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST), this method creates dual AST representations, one for compiler execution and another for antivirus and log analysis, enabling the evasion of AMSI detection and challenging traditional memory patching bypass methods. This research provides a detailed analysis of PowerShell’s ScriptBlock creation and its inherent security features and pinpoints critical limitations in …

Lrs: Enhancing Adversarial Transferability Through Lipschitz Regularized Surrogate, Tao Wu, Tony Tie Luo, Donald C. Wunsch

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

The Transferability of Adversarial Examples is of Central Importance to Transfer-Based Black-Box Adversarial Attacks. Previous Works for Generating Transferable Adversarial Examples Focus on Attacking Given Pretrained Surrogate Models While the Connections between Surrogate Models and Adversarial Trasferability Have Been overlooked. in This Paper, We Propose Lipschitz Regularized Surrogate (LRS) for Transfer-Based Black-Box Attacks, a Novel Approach that Transforms Surrogate Models towards Favorable Adversarial Transferability. using Such Transformed Surrogate Models, Any Existing Transfer-Based Black-Box Attack Can Run Without Any Change, Yet Achieving Much Better Performance. Specifically, We Impose Lipschitz Regularization on the Loss Landscape of Surrogate Models to Enable a Smoother …

Data Supporting Research On Personalized Learning Paths, Sean Mochocki, Mark Reith

Faculty Publications

Personalized Learning Paths (PLPs) are a key application of Artificial Intelligence in E-Learning. In contrast to regular Learning Paths, they return a unique sequence of learning materials identified as meeting the individual needs of the students. In the literature, PLPs are often created from knowledge graphs, which assist with ordering topics and their associated learning materials. Knowledge graphs are typically directed and acyclic, to capture prerequisite relationships between topics, though they can also have bidirectional edges when these prerequisite relationships are not necessary. This data package provides a primarily un-directed knowledge graph, with associated repository of open-source learning materials that …

Deep Learning Can Be Used To Classify And Segment Plant Cell Types In Xylem Tissue, Reem Al Dabagh, Benjamin Shin, Sean Wu, Fabien Scalzo, Helen Holmlund, Jessica Lee, Chris Ghim, Samuel Fitzgerald, Marinna Grijalva

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Studies of plant anatomical traits are essential for understanding plant physiological adaptations to stressful environments. For example, shrubs in the chaparral ecosystem of southern California have adapted various xylem anatomical traits that help them survive drought and freezing. Previous studies have shown that xylem conduits with a narrow diameter allows certain chaparral shrub species to survive temperatures as low as -12 C. Other studies have shown that increased cell wall thickness of fibers surrounding xylem vessels improves resistance to water stress-induced embolism formation. Historically, these studies on xylem anatomical traits have relied on hand measurements of cells in light micrographs, …

Mechanistic Investigation Of C—C Bond Activation Of Phosphaalkynes With Pt(0) Complexes, Roberto M. Escobar, Abdurrahman C. Ateşin, Christian Müller, William D. Jones, Tülay Ateşin

Research Symposium

Carbon–carbon (C–C) bond activation has gained increased attention as a direct method for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. Due to the thermodynamic stability and kinetic inaccessibility of the C–C bonds, however, activation of C–C bonds by homogeneous transition-metal catalysts under mild homogeneous conditions is still a challenge. Most of the systems in which the activation occurs either have aromatization or relief of ring strain as the primary driving force. The activation of unstrained C–C bonds of phosphaalkynes does not have this advantage. This study employs Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations to elucidate Pt(0)-mediated C–CP bond activation mechanisms in phosphaalkynes. Investigating the …

Icolc Statement On Ai In Licensing, International Coalition Of Library Consortia

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) statement on artifical intelligence in licensing.

The Impact Of Data Preparation And Model Complexity On The Natural Language Classification Of Chinese News Headlines, Torrey J. Wagner, Dennis Guhl, Brent T. Langhals

Faculty Publications

Given the emergence of China as a political and economic power in the 21st century, there is increased interest in analyzing Chinese news articles to better understand developing trends in China. Because of the volume of the material, automating the categorization of Chinese-language news articles by headline text or titles can be an effective way to sort the articles into categories for efficient review. A 383,000-headline dataset labeled with 15 categories from the Toutiao website was evaluated via natural language processing to predict topic categories. The influence of six data preparation variations on the predictive accuracy of four algorithms was …

Ex-Vivo Hippocampus Segmentation Using Diffusion-Weighted Mri, Haoteng Tang, Siyuan Dai, Eric M. Zou, Guodong Liu, Ryan Ahearn, Ryan Krafty, Michel Modo, Liang Zhan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The hippocampus is a crucial brain structure involved in memory formation, spatial navigation, emotional regulation, and learning. An accurate MRI image segmentation of the human hippocampus plays an important role in multiple neuro-imaging research and clinical practice, such as diagnosing neurological diseases and guiding surgical interventions. While most hippocampus segmentation studies focus on using T1-weighted or T2-weighted MRI scans, we explore the use of diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI), which offers unique insights into the microstructural properties of the hippocampus. Particularly, we utilize various anisotropy measures derived from diffusion MRI (dMRI), including fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity, for …

Artificial Intelligence Usage And Data Privacy Discoveries Within Mhealth, Jennifer Schulte

Research & Publications

Advancements in artificial intelligence continue to impact nearly every aspect of human life by providing integration options that aim to supplement or improve current processes. One industry that continues to benefit from artificial intelligence integration is healthcare. For years now, elements of artificial intelligence have been used to assist in clinical decision making, helping to identify potential health risks at earlier stages, and supplementing precision medicine. An area of healthcare that specifically looks at wearable devices, sensors, phone applications, and other such devices is mobile health (mHealth). These devices are used to aid in health data collection and delivery. This …

Unraveling Biases And Customer Heterogeneity In E-Commerce Recommendation Systems, Sachin Sharma

Dissertations

This research explores the biases present in AI algorithms within e-commerce recommendation systems, focusing on how these biases prioritize popular, sponsored, and private-label products over actual customer preferences. We extend the responsible AI discourse by critically examining these biases and their implications for fairness in e-commerce. To strengthen the current understanding of AI fairness in the fields of information systems and computer science, we aim to challenge the assumption that AI fairness is objective and the same for everyone. We examine how individual differences, such as equity sensitivity and exchange ideology, contribute to users' varied perceptions of AI fairness. Through …

Algorithmic Harms In Child Welfare: Uncertainties In Practice, Organization, And Street-Level Decision-Making, Devansh Saxena, Shion Guha

Health Services and Informatics Research

Algorithms in public services such as child welfare, criminal justice, and education are increasingly being used to make high-stakes decisions about human lives. Drawing upon findings from a two-year ethnography conducted at a child welfare agency, we highlight how algorithmic systems are embedded within a complex decision-making ecosystem at critical points of the child welfare process. Caseworkers interact with algo rithms in their daily lives where they must collect information about families and feed it to algorithms to make critical decisions. We show how the interplay between systemic mechanics and algorithmic decision making can adversely impact the fairness of the …

Challenges On Public Security System In Ai Era—Preface For Special Column “Artificial Intelligence And Public Security”, Juan Cao, Qiang Sheng, Guojie Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The rapid development of artificial intelligence generated content (AIGC) technology has triggered new public security risks, posing a serious threat to national security and social stability. This study exhibits the recent advances of artificial intelligence (AI) content generation and detection techniques, points out the challenges of detection techniques in real-world scenarios, and advocates that it is necessary to develop AIGC detection technology for public security needs and build a whole-process detection technology system from generative models to online platforms, which supports AIGC to be labeled at the generation phase, identifiable during dissemination and source-traceable after the incident occurs.

Editorials For Spencial Topic “Scientific Focus: Open Source Innovation And Open Source Paradigm”

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Open Source In China: Opportunities In New Era, Qigang Zhu, Guofeng Zhang, Caihua Zhu, Yi Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

China has rapidly experienced industrialization and informatization, entering the era of digital economy. The combination of new productive forces represented by artificial intelligence, non-exclusive production factors represented by knowledge, and open source related relationships may form a new model. From the perspective of social practices of open source innovation, open source lacks systematic preparedness at theoretical, institutional, and talent levels. China should seize the historical opportunity to complete theoretical updates and cultural reconstruction those are adapted to it. Open source and openness also have conditions for China to create a global paradigm of cooperation, sharing, and innovation in the digital …

Thoughts On Ai Innovation And Open Source Development: Lessons From Deepseek, Yanjun Wu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

At a critical moment of intense competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) field, DeepSeek has released foundational large language models (LLM) such as V3/R1, with performance comparable to leading international organizations like OpenAI. This not only demonstrates China’s technological innovation capabilities in AI but also provides a Chinese innovative pathway for global AI development. Firstly, through low-cost training and inference, break the monopolistic barriers of high-end computing power and lower research and development thresholds. Secondly, through full-stack and comprehensive open-source strategies, support customizable and local deployment that benefits various industries. This technological innovation and open-source practice from DeepSeek deserves in-depth …

Current Situation, Challenges And Policy Suggestions Of Chinese Enterprises Participation In Open Source Innovation, Kaihua Chen, Xin Wen, Qigang Zhu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Open source is emerging as a new paradigm and a crucial driving force for technological innovation and industrial development. It is shaping new impetus for the development of the digital economy, promoting the construction of an innovation ecosystem in the digital era, and it also serves as an effective path for Chinese enterprises to catch up in technology and industry. Through investigations and literature research, this study discovers that Chinese enterprises have achieved remarkable progress in the field of open source, with the scale of participation continuously expanding and the influence steadily increasing. Nevertheless, they still face numerous challenges in …

Using Chatgpt To Generate Gendered Language, Shweta Soundararajan, Manuela Nayantara Jeyaraj, Sarah Jane Delany

Conference papers

Gendered language is the use of words that denote an individual's gender. This can be explicit where the gender is evident in the actual word used, e.g. mother, she, man, but it can also be implicit where social roles or behaviours can signal an individual's gender - for example, expectations that women display communal traits (e.g., affectionate, caring, gentle) and men display agentic traits (e.g., assertive, competitive, decisive). The use of gendered language in NLP systems can perpetuate gender stereotypes and bias. This paper proposes an approach to generating gendered language datasets using ChatGPT which will provide data for data-driven …

Development Demand, Power Energy Consumption And Green And Low-Carbon Transition For Computing Power In China, Xiaohong Chen, Liaoying Cao, Jiaolong Chen, Jinghui Zhang, Wenzhi Cao, Yangjie Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

As a critical digital infrastructure, computing power has become the core productivity and a new engine driving economic growth in the digital economy. Nevertheless, the power-hungry nature of computing/data centers, representing the computing infrastructure, consumes a significant amount of electrical energy. Currently, China’s economy is transitioning from high-speed growth to high-quality development. It is imperative to study how to coordinate the development of computing power while ensuring its safety and achieving green and low-carbon goals. Based on an overview of the current status of computing power development, this study predicts the future demand for computing power in China, analyzes the …

Research On Artificial Intelligence Crime And China’S Countermeasures, Jianxin Gao, Jinping Sun, Yukun Cai, Chongpeng Wang, Yanyan Yang, Kaiyue Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The rapid development of artificial intelligence technology has constantly given rise to new scenarios, models, and markets, changing the way information and knowledge are generated. Nevertheless, the security risks exposed by technology, such as algorithm bias, data leakage, false content generation, and improper use, are also prone to trigger various new types of crimes. There are still loopholes in legal regulation and technological prevention under the current situation, which poses severe challenges to crime crackdown. In order to effectively meet the new challenges of China’s artificial intelligence (AI) crime, we should supplement and improve the existing legal norms, improve the …

Intelligent Algorithm Safety: Concepts, Scientific Problems And Prospects, Xueqi Cheng, Wei Chen, Huawei Shen, Shiguang Shan, Xilin Chen, Guojie Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Intelligent algorithms refer to the methods embodied in the computational processes that realize intelligence. These methods are often characterized by being data-driven, involving uncertain computations, and with unexplainable model inferences. These characteristics simultaneously introduce potential safety risks to the application of intelligent algorithms and AI. This study firstly explores the concepts of intelligent algorithm safety. Specifically, intelligent algorithm safety, based on the degree of human-machine integration, extends from the univariate safety of the algorithm itself to the bivariate applicational safety when the algorithm serves humans, and finally evolves into the multivariate systemic safety arises within complex socio-technical systems of human-machine …

Embodied Artificial Intelligence Security And Governance, Wenyuan Xu, Xiaoyu Ji, Chen Yan, Yushi Cheng

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Embodied artificial intelligence (EAI) is progressively integrated into the fabric of our daily lives, enhancing various sectors such as industrial production, healthcare, and national defense. Nevertheless, the diverse range of hardware devices, software algorithms, and data communications that constitute these complex systems may contain vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers, posing a serious threat to personal, social, and national security. Thus, this study examines the security implications and proposes a security framework of EAI, from the perspectives of the information domain, physical domain, and social domain, focusing on its ontological security, interaction security, and application security. To mitigate these …

Suggestions On Building China’S Artificial Intelligence Open Source Innovation Ecosystem, Yuntao Long, Haibo Liu, Zheping Xu, Yungang Bao, Yanjun Wu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

With the release and application of open-source large language models (LLMs) represented by DeepSeek, open-source innovation has played an increasingly important role in the rapid development of global artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Through technological innovation, cost reduction, performance improvement, and application demonstration, DeepSeek has opened up a disruptive innovation path and improved the research and application level of AI in China and its international influence. In order to further promote the construction of China’s AI open source innovation ecosystem and promote the continuous innovation and iteration of AI technology, this study analyzes the outstanding problems in China’s AI innovation ecosystem …

Discussion On Open-Source And Closed-Source Technology Models In Era Of Artificial Intelligence, Xiaolong Zheng, Jiatong Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

This article presents the advantages and disadvantages of open-source and closed-source models in technology innovation and ecosystem construction in the era of artificial intelligence. We explore some current cutting-edge controversies between the two technology models, and puts forward some basic ideas for breaking the deadlock, which can provide some significant insights into promoting the healthy development of artificial intelligence technologies.

Exploration And Practice Of New Industry-Academia-Research Collaboration Mechanism Based On Open-Source Model, Yungang Bao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

DeepSeek has rapidly expanded globally on a large scale through the open-source model, prompting various sectors to reflect on the value and significance of open-source. This study argues that open-source is an effective way to build consensus and organize high-density talent, as it is supported by objective laws. These include sociological principles such as breaking knowledge monopolies and promoting knowledge dissemination, as well as economic principles like “transaction cost” and the “Jevons effect”. Furthermore, this study suggests that open-source is also an effective approach to establish efficient collaborative mechanisms among industry, academia, and research. Two specific cases are introduced—the Open-Source …