Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Commons^™

Pearl: Towards Permutation-Resilient Llms, Liang Chen, Li Shen, Yang Deng, Xiaoyan Zhao, Bin Liang, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The in-context learning (ICL) capability of large language models (LLMs) enables them to perform challenging tasks using provided demonstrations. However, ICL is highly sensitive to the ordering of demonstrations, leading to instability in predictions. This paper shows that this vulnerability can be exploited to design a natural attack - difficult for model providers to detect - that achieves nearly 80% success rate on LLaMA-3 by simply permuting the demonstrations. Existing mitigation methods primarily rely on post-processing and fail to enhance the model's inherent robustness to input permutations, raising concerns about safety and reliability of LLMs. To address this issue, we …

Chatcrs: Incorporating External Knowledge And Goal Guidance For Llm-Based Conversational Recommender Systems, Chuang Li, Yang Deng, Hengchang Hu, Min-Yen Kan, Haizhou Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper aims to efficiently enable large language models (LLMs) to use external knowledge and goal guidance in conversational recommender system (CRS) tasks. Advanced LLMs (e.g., ChatGPT) are limited in domain-specific CRS tasks for 1) generating grounded responses with recommendation-oriented knowledge, or 2) proactively leading the conversations through different dialogue goals. In this work, we first analyze those limitations through a comprehensive evaluation, showing the necessity of external knowledge and goal guidance which contribute significantly to the recommendation accuracy and language quality. In light of this finding, we propose a novel ChatCRS framework to decompose the complex CRS task into …

A Selective Vehicle Routing Problem For The Bloodmobile System, Aldy Gunawan, Samuel Alan Darmasaputra, Sy Hoang Do, Vincent F. Yu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Mobile blood collection has the advantage of greater reach compared to blood drives at fixed donation sites and is preferable for individuals with limited time or means of transportation. Bloodmobiles are widely used in healthcare logistics to increase the number of donors and donation frequency and to better match blood demand with collection. Bloodmobiles are stationed at predetermined locations, while shuttles are assigned to visit these locations to collect the donated blood. This problem is formulated as the Selective Vehicle Routing Problem under the Bloodmobile System (SVRP-BM). This research extends the Selective Vehicle Routing Problem with Integrated Tours problem (SVRPwIT) …

Towards Understanding Why Fixmatch Generalizes Better Than Supervised Learning, Jingyang Li, Jiachun Pan, Vincent Tan, Kim-Chuan Toh, Pan Zhou

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Semi-supervised learning (SSL), exemplified by FixMatch (Sohn et al., 2020), has shown significant generalization advantages over supervised learning (SL), particularly in the context of deep neural networks (DNNs). However, it is still unclear, from a theoretical standpoint, why FixMatch-like SSL algorithms generalize better than SL on DNNs. In this work, we present the first theoretical justification for the enhanced test accuracy observed in FixMatch-like SSL applied to DNNs by taking convolutional neural networks (CNNs) on classification tasks as an example. Our theoretical analysis reveals that the semantic feature learning processes in FixMatch and SL are rather different. In particular, FixMatch …

Capo: Cooperative Plan Optimization For Efficient Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperation, Jie Liu, Pan Zhou, Yingjun Du, Ah-Hwee Tan, Cees Snoek, Jan-Jakob Sonke, Efstratios Gavves

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this work, we address the cooperation problem among large language model (LLM) based embodied agents, where agents must cooperate to achieve a common goal. Previous methods often execute actions extemporaneously and incoherently, without long-term strategic and cooperative planning, leading to redundant steps, failures, and even serious repercussions in complex tasks like search-and-rescue missions where discussion and cooperative plan are crucial. To solve this issue, we propose Cooperative Plan Optimization (CaPo) to enhance the cooperation efficiency of LLM-based embodied agents. Inspired by human cooperation schemes, CaPo improves cooperation efficiency with two phases: 1) meta-plan generation, and 2) progress-adaptive meta-plan and …

Configx: Modular Configuration For Evolutionary Algorithms Via Multitask Reinforcement Learning, Hongshu Guo, Zeyuan Ma, Jiacheng Chen, Yining Ma, Zhiguang Cao, Xinglin Zhang, Yue-Jiao Gong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent advances in Meta-learning for Black-Box Optimization (MetaBBO) have shown the potential of using neural networks to dynamically configure evolutionary algorithms (EAs), enhancing their performance and adaptability across various BBO instances. However, they are often tailored to a specific EA, which limits their generalizability and necessitates retraining or redesigns for different EAs and optimization problems. To address this limitation, we introduce ConfigX, a new paradigm of the MetaBBO framework that is capable of learning a universal configuration agent (model) for boosting diverse EAs. To achieve so, our ConfigX first leverages a novel modularization system that enables the flexible combination of …

Dual Operation Aggregation Graph Neural Networks For Solving Flexible Job-Shop Scheduling Problem With Reinforcement Learning, Peng Zhao, You Zhou, Di Wang, Zhiguang Cao, Yubin Xiao, Xuan Wu, Yuanshu Li, Hongjia Liu, Wei Du, Yuan Jiang, Liupu Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

With the widespread adoption of Internet Protocol (IP) communication technology and web-based platforms, cloud manufacturing has become a significant hallmark of Industry 4.0. Integrating graph algorithms into these web-enabled environments is crucial as they facilitate the representation and analysis of complex relationships in manufacturing processes, enabling efficient decision-making and adaptability in dynamic environments. As a key scheduling problem in cloud manufacturing, the flexible job-shop scheduling problem (FJSP) finds extensive applications in real-world scenarios. However, traditional FJSP-solving methods struggle to meet the efficiency and adaptability demands of cloud manufacturing due to generalization issues and excessive computational time, while reinforcement learning-based methods …

Graph-Assisted Offline-Online Deep Reinforcement Learning For Dynamic Workflow Scheduling, Yifan Yang, Gang Chen, Hui Ma, Cong Zhang, Zhiguang Cao, Mengjie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Dynamic workflow scheduling (DWS) in cloud computing presents substantial challenges due to heterogeneous machine configurations, unpredictable workflow arrivals/patterns, and constantly evolving environments. However, existing research often assumes homogeneous setups and static conditions, limiting flexibility and adaptability in real-world scenarios. In this paper, we propose a novel Graph assisted Offline-Online Deep Reinforcement Learning (GOODRL) approach to building an effective and efficient scheduling agent for DWS. Our approach features three key innovations: (1) a task-specific graph representation and a Graph Attention Actor Network that enable the agent to dynamically assign focused tasks to heterogeneous machines while explicitly considering the future impact of …

Neural Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Via Graph-Image Multimodal Fusion, Jinbiao Chen, Jiahai Wang, Zhiguang Cao, Yaoxin Wu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Existing neural multi-objective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) methods still exhibit an optimality gap since they fail to fully exploit the intrinsic features of problem instances. A significant factor contributing to this shortfall is their reliance solely on graph-modal information. To overcome this, we propose a novel graph-image multimodal fusion (GIMF) framework that enhances neural MOCO methods by integrating graph and image information of the problem instances. Our GIMF framework comprises three key components: (1) a constructed coordinate image to better represent the spatial structure of the problem instance, (2) a problem-size adaptive resolution strategy during the image construction process to improve …

Rethinking Light Decoder-Based Solvers For Vehicle Routing Problems, Ziwei Huang, Jianan Zhou, Zhiguang Cao, Yixin Xu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Light decoder-based solvers have gained popularity for solving vehicle routing problems (VRPs) due to their efficiency and ease of integration with reinforcement learning algorithms. However, they often struggle with generalization to larger problem instances or different VRP variants. This paper revisits light decoder-based approaches, analyzing the implications of their reliance on static embeddings and the inherent challenges that arise. Specifically, we demonstrate that in the light decoder paradigm, the encoder is implicitly tasked with capturing information for all potential decision scenarios during solution construction within a single set of embeddings, resulting in high information density. Furthermore, our empirical analysis reveals …

Rethinking Neural Multi-Objective Combinatorial Optimization Via Neat Weight Embedding, Jinbiao Chen, Zhiguang Cao, Jiahai Wang, Yaoxin Wu, Hanzhang Qin, Zizhen Zhang, Yue-Jiao Gong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recent decomposition-based neural multi-objective combinatorial optimization (MOCO) methods struggle to achieve desirable performance. Even equipped with complex learning techniques, they often suffer from significant optimality gaps in weight-specific subproblems. To address this challenge, we propose a neat weight embedding method to learn weight-specific representations, which captures weight-instance interaction for the subproblems and was overlooked by most current methods. We demonstrate the potentials of our method in two instantiations. First, we introduce a succinct addition model to learn weight-specific node embeddings, which surpassed most existing neural methods. Second, we design an enhanced conditional attention model to simultaneously learn the weight embedding …

Alphaedit: Null-Space Constrained Knowledge Editing For Language Models, Junfeng Fang, Houcheng Jiang, Kun Wang, Yunshan Ma, Jie Shi, Xiang Wang, Xiangnan He, Tat‑Seng Chua

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) often exhibit hallucinations, producing incorrector outdated knowledge. Hence, model editing methods have emerged to enabletargeted knowledge updates. To achieve this, a prevailing paradigm is the locatingthen-editing approach, which first locates influential parameters and then edits themby introducing a perturbation. While effective, current studies have demonstrated that this perturbation inevitably disrupt the originally preserved knowledge within LLMs, especially in sequential editing scenarios. To address this, we introduce AlphaEdit, a novel solution that projects perturbation onto the null space of the preserved knowledge before applying it to the parameters. We theoretically prove that this projection ensures the output …

Predictive Modelling For Vessel Traffic Flow: A Comprehensive Survey From Statistics To Ai, Deshan. Chen, Chen. Huang, Tengze. Fan, Hoong Chuin Lau, Xinping. Yan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Recognizing the specific complexities of vessel traffic flow, this comprehensive survey exclusively addresses the predictive modelling in maritime transportation, tracing the evolution from conventional statistical approaches to modern artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. The survey examines a broad range of predictive targets, including vessel volume, trajectories, velocities, destinations and traffic patterns. Through bibliometric analysis utilizing Citespace, the central research themes and technological trends characterizing the vessel traffic flow prediction domain have been identified and discussed. Our analysis indicates a clear trend towards AI-based models, highlighting their increasing dominance in enhancing predictive accuracy and efficiency. Additionally, we highlight persistent challenges, such as …

Bigcodebench: Benchmarking Code Generation With Diverse Function Calls And Complex Instructions, T.Y. Zhuo, M.C. Vu, J. Chim, ..., David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Task automation has been greatly empowered by the recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) via Python code, where the tasks ranging from software engineering development to general-purpose reasoning. While current benchmarks have shown that LLMs can solve tasks using programs like human developers, the majority of their evaluations are limited to short and self-contained algorithmic tasks or standalone function calls. Solving challenging and practical tasks requires the capability of utilizing diverse function calls as tools to efficiently implement functionalities like data analysis and web development. In addition, using multiple tools to solve a task needs compositional reasoning by accurately …

Cutting-Edge Deep Learning Methods For Image-Based Object Detection In Autonomous Driving: In-Depth Survey, Narges Saeedizadeh, Seyed Mohammad Jafar Jalali, Burhan Khan, Shady Mohamed

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Object detection is a critical aspect of computer vision (CV) applications, especially within autonomous driving systems (AVs), where it is fundamental to ensuring safety and reducing traffic accidents. Recent advancements in computational resources have enabled the widespread adoption of Deep Learning (DL) techniques, significantly enhancing the efficiency and accuracy of object detection tasks. However, the technology for autonomous driving has yet to reach a level of maturity that guarantees consistent performance, reliability, and safety, with several challenges remaining unresolved. This study specifically focuses on 2D image-based object detection methods, which offer several advantages over other modalities, such as cost-effectiveness and …

The Impact Of Ai Usage On Employee Work Outcomes: The Mediating Roles Of Personal Control And Job Insecurity And The Moderating Role Of Ai Trust, Tiantian Wang

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

The widespread application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the workplace offers significant potential for process optimization andperformance improvement. However, the psychological mechanisms throughwhich AI usage affects employee outcomes remain underexplored. To address this gap, the present study investigated a sample of 170 employees froma media company in China, utilizing a three-wave longitudinal survey design. Specifically, this study examined how AI usage influenced employee creativity and task performance improvement through two mediatingmechanisms: the enhancement of personal control in problem-solving and the elicitation of job insecurity. Furthermore, the moderating role of trust in AI inthe relationship between AI usage and job …

Ai And Prompt Engineering For Library Discovery Services, James Day

Publications

We have seen the rise of generative artificial intelligence in the form of Large Language Models (LLMs) to provide answers to users’ queries. Services such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini have quickly become accepted and adopted in the research process. Now library vendors are adding artificial intelligence (AI) to their discovery services to allow for natural language queries to produce generative results. However, the AI model used for discovery services differs from normal LLMs in a significant way that has several positive benefits, but it affects how prompts are written. Library discovery services use a model called Retrieval- Augmented Generation …

Emerging Technologies In Beluga Research: Potential And Possibilities, Alejandro Zuniga-Schettino

Posters - 2025

Beluga whale face increasing threats in the Arctic, demanding effective research for conservation. Transitional methods going on field trips to collect short videos in excel, going on field trips to collect short videos, and having to rewatch the video are often time- consuming labor intensive, and limited in scope. This poster explores how engineering and AI can improve research. Engineering can provide robust tools like autonous underwater vehicles with advanced sensors for data collection in challenging environments. These technology offer an enhanced understanding of belugas behavior and ecology

Association Of Ai Derived Biomechanics And Hand Grip Strength, Theophile Nsabimana

Posters - 2025

Biomechanical analysis offers a way of better understanding the mechanism of a person's movement pattern or functional decline. Usually, motion analysis is costly and requires the purchase of a lot of equipment and software. This makes the technology out of reach of students, educators and researchers in austere settings.

Fortunately, artificial intelligence has brought affordability to motion analysis and created a whole new method of analyzing functional performance. OpenCap is an application which was produced by Stanford University and is hailed as being a future replacement to higher costing systems. Gait analysis provides an indication of a person's walking symmetry …

Applying Software Engineering Black-Box Methods For Testing Machine Learning Models, Timothy Elvira

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This dissertation proposes researching an approach to incorporate and align Software black-box testing methods into Machine Learning (ML) applications, specifically in the context of computer vision models. Typically, testing methods within Software Engineering (SE) encompass a range of test types that assess levels of a software system, such as Unit, Integration, Functional, and System testing [1]. The testing spectrum offers two perspectives on the system: black-box, where the system’s code is hidden, and white-box, where the system's code is exposed for testing. Software Quality pairs testing with requirements, in a many-to-one relationship, to ensure proper validation of the software system. …