arXiv subjects

Maya Burhanpurkar

Publications and source records attributed to Maya Burhanpurkar.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2021

Scaffolding Sets

Predictors map individual instances in a population to the interval $[0,1]$. For a collection $\mathcal C$ of subsets of a population, a predictor is multi-calibrated with respect to $\mathcal C$ if it is simultaneously calibrated on each set in $\mathcal C$. We initiate the study of the construction of scaffolding sets, a small collection $\mathcal S$ of sets with the property that multi-calibration with respect to $\mathcal S$ ensures correctness, and not just calibration, of the predictor. Our approach is inspired by the folk wisdom that the intermediate layers of a neural net learn a highly structured and useful data representation.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2019

Observations of Fast Radio Bursts at Frequencies down to 400 Megahertz

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are highly dispersed millisecond-duration radio flashes likely arriving from far outside the Milky Way galaxy. This phenomenon was discovered at radio frequencies near 1.4 GHz and to date has been observed in one case at as high as 8 GHz, but not below 700 MHz in spite of significant searches at low frequencies. Here we report detections of FRBs at radio frequencies as low as 400 MHz, on the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) using the CHIME/FRB instrument. We present 13 FRBs detected during a telescope pre-commissioning phase, when our sensitivity and field-of-view were not yet at design specifications. Emission in multiple events is seen down to 400 MHz, the lowest radio frequency to which we are sensitive. The FRBs show a variety of temporal scattering behaviours, with the majority significantly scattered, and some apparently unscattered to within measurement uncertainty even at our lowest frequencies. Of the 13 reported here, one event has the lowest dispersion measure yet reported, implying it is among the closest yet known, and another has shown multiple repeat bursts, as described in a companion paper. Our low-scattering events suggest that efforts to detect FRBs at radio frequencies below 400 MHz will eventually be successful. The overall scattering properties of our sample suggest that FRBs as a class are preferentially located in environments that scatter radio waves more strongly than the diffuse interstellar medium (ISM) in the Milky Way.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Cheap or Robust? The Practical Realization of Self-Driving Wheelchair Technology

To date, self-driving experimental wheelchair technologies have been either inexpensive or robust, but not both. Yet, in order to achieve real-world acceptance, both qualities are fundamentally essential. We present a unique approach to achieve inexpensive and robust autonomous and semi-autonomous assistive navigation for existing fielded wheelchairs, of which there are approximately 5 million units in Canada and United States alone. Our prototype wheelchair platform is capable of localization and mapping, as well as robust obstacle avoidance, using only a commodity RGB-D sensor and wheel odometry. As a specific example of the navigation capabilities, we focus on the single most common navigation problem: the traversal of narrow doorways in arbitrary environments. The software we have developed is generalizable to corridor following, desk docking, and other navigation tasks that are either extremely difficult or impossible for people with upper-body mobility impairments.

cs.RO↗