arXiv subjects

Yang Shi

Publications and source records attributed to Yang Shi.

At least 127 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2025

AI Models Still Lag Behind Traditional Numerical Models in Predicting Sudden-Turning Typhoons

Given the interpretability, accuracy, and stability of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models, current operational weather forecasting relies heavily on the NWP approach. In the past two years, the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has provided an alternative solution for medium-range (1-10 days) weather forecasting. Bi et al. (2023) (hereafter Bi23) introduced the first AI-based weather prediction (AIWP) model in China, named Pangu-Weather, which offers fast prediction without compromising accuracy. In their work, Bi23 made notable claims regarding its effectiveness in extreme weather predictions. However, this claim lacks persuasiveness because the extreme nature of the two tropical cyclones (TCs) examples presented in Bi23, namely Typhoon Kong-rey and Typhoon Yutu, stems primarily from their intensities rather than their moving paths. Their claim may mislead into another meaning which is that Pangu-Weather works well in predicting unusual typhoon paths, which was not explicitly analyzed. Here, we reassess Pangu-Weather's ability to predict extreme TC trajectories from 2020-2024. Results reveal that while Pangu-Weather overall outperforms NWP models in predicting tropical cyclone (TC) tracks, it falls short in accurately predicting the rarely observed sudden-turning tracks, such as Typhoon Khanun in 2023. We argue that current AIWP models still lag behind traditional NWP models in predicting such rare extreme events in medium-range forecasts.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2025

MM-RLHF: The Next Step Forward in Multimodal LLM Alignment

Despite notable advancements in Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs), most state-of-the-art models have not undergone thorough alignment with human preferences. This gap exists because current alignment research has primarily achieved progress in specific areas (e.g., hallucination reduction), while the broader question of whether aligning models with human preferences can systematically enhance MLLM capability remains largely unexplored. To this end, we introduce MM-RLHF, a dataset containing $\mathbf{120k}$ fine-grained, human-annotated preference comparison pairs. This dataset represents a substantial advancement over existing resources, offering superior size, diversity, annotation granularity, and quality. Leveraging this dataset, we propose several key innovations to improve both the quality of reward models and the efficiency of alignment algorithms. Notably, we introduce a Critique-Based Reward Model, which generates critiques of model outputs before assigning scores, offering enhanced interpretability and more informative feedback compared to traditional scalar reward mechanisms. Additionally, we propose Dynamic Reward Scaling, a method that adjusts the loss weight of each sample according to the reward signal, thereby optimizing the use of high-quality comparison pairs. Our approach is rigorously evaluated across $\mathbf{10}$ distinct dimensions and $\mathbf{27}$ benchmarks, with results demonstrating significant and consistent improvements in model performance. Specifically, fine-tuning LLaVA-ov-7B with MM-RLHF and our alignment algorithm leads to a $\mathbf{19.5}$% increase in conversational abilities and a $\mathbf{60}$% improvement in safety. We have open-sourced the preference dataset, reward model, training and evaluation code, as well as reward modeling and safety benchmarks. For more details, please visit our project page: https://mm-rlhf.github.io.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2025

Leveraging Foundation Models for Crafting Narrative Visualization: A Survey

Narrative visualization transforms data into engaging stories, making complex information accessible to a broad audience. Foundation models, with their advanced capabilities such as natural language processing, content generation, and multimodal integration, hold substantial potential for enriching narrative visualization. Recently, a collection of techniques have been introduced for crafting narrative visualizations based on foundation models from different aspects. We build our survey upon 66 papers to study how foundation models can progressively engage in this process and then propose a reference model categorizing the reviewed literature into four essential phases: Analysis, Narration, Visualization, and Interaction. Furthermore, we identify eight specific tasks (e.g. Insight Extraction and Authoring) where foundation models are applied across these stages to facilitate the creation of visual narratives. Detailed descriptions, related literature, and reflections are presented for each task. To make it a more impactful and informative experience for diverse readers, we discuss key research problems and provide the strengths and weaknesses in each task to guide people in identifying and seizing opportunities while navigating challenges in this field.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Compressed Gradient Tracking Algorithms for Distributed Nonconvex Optimization

In this paper, we study the distributed nonconvex optimization problem, which aims to minimize the average value of the local nonconvex cost functions using local information exchange. To reduce the communication overhead, we introduce three general classes of compressors, i.e., compressors with bounded relative compression error, compressors with globally bounded absolute compression error, and compressors with locally bounded absolute compression error. By integrating them with distributed gradient tracking algorithm, we then propose three compressed distributed nonconvex optimization algorithms. For each algorithm, we design a novel Lyapunov function to demonstrate its sublinear convergence to a stationary point if the local cost functions are smooth. Furthermore, when the global cost function satisfies the Polyak--Łojasiewicz (P--Ł) condition, we show that our proposed algorithms linearly converge to a global optimal point. It is worth noting that, for compressors with bounded relative compression error and globally bounded absolute compression error, our proposed algorithms' parameters do not require prior knowledge of the P--Ł constant. The theoretical results are illustrated by numerical examples, which demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in significantly reducing the communication burden while maintaining the convergence performance. Moreover, simulation results show that the proposed algorithms outperform state-of-the-art compressed distributed nonconvex optimization algorithms.

math.OC↗

arXiv2025

Data-Driven Distributionally Robust Mixed-Integer Control through Lifted Control Policy

This paper investigates the finite-horizon distributionally robust mixed-integer control (DRMIC) of uncertain linear systems. However, deriving an optimal causal feedback control policy to this DRMIC problem is computationally formidable for most ambiguity sets. To address the computational challenge, we propose a novel distributionally robust lifted control policy (DR-LCP) method to derive a high-quality approximate solution to this DRMIC problem for a rich class of Wasserstein metric-based ambiguity sets, including the Wasserstein ambiguity set and its variants. In theory, we analyze the asymptotic performance and establish a tight non-asymptotic bound of the proposed method. In numerical experiments, the proposed DR-LCP method empirically demonstrates superior performance compared with existing methods in the literature.

math.OC↗

arXiv2025

A Unified Attack Detection Strategy for Multi-Agent Systems over Transient and Steady Stages

This paper proposes a unified detection strategy against three kinds of attacks for multi-agent systems (MASs) which is applicable to both transient and steady stages. For attacks on the communication layer, a watermarking-based detection scheme with KullbackLeibler (KL) divergence is designed. Different from traditional communication schemes, each agent transmits a message set containing two state values with different types of watermarking. It is found that the detection performance is determined by the relevant parameters of the watermarking signal. Unlike the existing detection manoeuvres, such a scheme is capable of transient and steady stages. For attacks on the agent layer, a convergence rate related detection approach is put forward. It is shown that the resilience of the considered system is characterized by the coefficient and offset of the envelope. For hybrid attacks, based on the above detection mechanisms, a general framework resorting to trusted agents is presented, which requires weaker graph conditions and less information transmission. Finally, an example associated with the platooning of connected vehicles is given to support the theoretical results.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Political-LLM: Large Language Models in Political Science

In recent years, large language models (LLMs) have been widely adopted in political science tasks such as election prediction, sentiment analysis, policy impact assessment, and misinformation detection. Meanwhile, the need to systematically understand how LLMs can further revolutionize the field also becomes urgent. In this work, we--a multidisciplinary team of researchers spanning computer science and political science--present the first principled framework termed Political-LLM to advance the comprehensive understanding of integrating LLMs into computational political science. Specifically, we first introduce a fundamental taxonomy classifying the existing explorations into two perspectives: political science and computational methodologies. In particular, from the political science perspective, we highlight the role of LLMs in automating predictive and generative tasks, simulating behavior dynamics, and improving causal inference through tools like counterfactual generation; from a computational perspective, we introduce advancements in data preparation, fine-tuning, and evaluation methods for LLMs that are tailored to political contexts. We identify key challenges and future directions, emphasizing the development of domain-specific datasets, addressing issues of bias and fairness, incorporating human expertise, and redefining evaluation criteria to align with the unique requirements of computational political science. Political-LLM seeks to serve as a guidebook for researchers to foster an informed, ethical, and impactful use of Artificial Intelligence in political science. Our online resource is available at: http://political-llm.org/.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

Way to Specialist: Closing Loop Between Specialized LLM and Evolving Domain Knowledge Graph

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional performance across a wide variety of domains. Nonetheless, generalist LLMs continue to fall short in reasoning tasks necessitating specialized knowledge. Prior investigations into specialized LLMs focused on domain-specific training, which entails substantial efforts in domain data acquisition and model parameter fine-tuning. To address these challenges, this paper proposes the Way-to-Specialist (WTS) framework, which synergizes retrieval-augmented generation with knowledge graphs (KGs) to enhance the specialized capability of LLMs in the absence of specialized training. In distinction to existing paradigms that merely utilize external knowledge from general KGs or static domain KGs to prompt LLM for enhanced domain-specific reasoning, WTS proposes an innovative "LLM$\circlearrowright$KG" paradigm, which achieves bidirectional enhancement between specialized LLM and domain knowledge graph (DKG). The proposed paradigm encompasses two closely coupled components: the DKG-Augmented LLM and the LLM-Assisted DKG Evolution. The former retrieves question-relevant domain knowledge from DKG and uses it to prompt LLM to enhance the reasoning capability for domain-specific tasks; the latter leverages LLM to generate new domain knowledge from processed tasks and use it to evolve DKG. WTS closes the loop between DKG-Augmented LLM and LLM-Assisted DKG Evolution, enabling continuous improvement in the domain specialization as it progressively answers and learns from domain-specific questions. We validate the performance of WTS on 6 datasets spanning 5 domains. The experimental results show that WTS surpasses the previous SOTA in 4 specialized domains and achieves a maximum performance improvement of 11.3%.

cs.CL↗

arXiv2024

A Real-Time Adaptive Multi-Stream GPU System for Online Approximate Nearest Neighborhood Search

In recent years, Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search (ANNS) has played a pivotal role in modern search and recommendation systems, especially in emerging LLM applications like Retrieval-Augmented Generation. There is a growing exploration into harnessing the parallel computing capabilities of GPUs to meet the substantial demands of ANNS. However, existing systems primarily focus on offline scenarios, overlooking the distinct requirements of online applications that necessitate real-time insertion of new vectors. This limitation renders such systems inefficient for real-world scenarios. Moreover, previous architectures struggled to effectively support real-time insertion due to their reliance on serial execution streams. In this paper, we introduce a novel Real-Time Adaptive Multi-Stream GPU ANNS System (RTAMS-GANNS). Our architecture achieves its objectives through three key advancements: 1) We initially examined the real-time insertion mechanisms in existing GPU ANNS systems and discovered their reliance on repetitive copying and memory allocation, which significantly hinders real-time effectiveness on GPUs. As a solution, we introduce a dynamic vector insertion algorithm based on memory blocks, which includes in-place rearrangement. 2) To enable real-time vector insertion in parallel, we introduce a multi-stream parallel execution mode, which differs from existing systems that operate serially within a single stream. Our system utilizes a dynamic resource pool, allowing multiple streams to execute concurrently without additional execution blocking. 3) Through extensive experiments and comparisons, our approach effectively handles varying QPS levels across different datasets, reducing latency by up to 40%-80%. The proposed system has also been deployed in real-world industrial search and recommendation systems, serving hundreds of millions of users daily, and has achieved good results.

cs.IR↗

arXiv2024

Adaptive Distributed Observer-based Model Predictive Control for Multi-agent Formation with Resilience to Communication Link Faults

In order to address the nonlinear multi-agent formation tracking control problem with input constraints and unknown communication faults, a novel adaptive distributed observer-based distributed model predictive control method is developed in this paper. This design employs adaptive distributed observers in local control systems to estimate the leader's state, dynamics, and relative positioning with respect to the leader. Utilizing the estimated data as local references, the original formation tracking control problem can be decomposed into several fully localized tracking control problems, which can be efficiently solved by the local predictive controller. Through the incorporation of adaptive distributed observers, this proposed design not only enhances the resilience of distributed formation tracking against communication faults but also simplifies the distributed model predictive control formulation.

eess.SY↗

arXiv2024

Giant domain wall anomalous Hall effect in an antiferromagnet

Generally, the dissipationless Hall effect in solids requires time-reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB), where TRSB induced by external magnetic field results in ordinary Hall effect, while TRSB caused by spontaneous magnetization gives rise to anomalous Hall effect (AHE) which scales with the net magnetization. The AHE is therefore not expected in antiferromagnets with vanishing small magnetization. However, large AHE was recently observed in certain antiferromagnets with noncolinear spin structure and nonvanishing Berry curvature. Here, we report another origin of AHE in a layered antiferromagnet EuAl2Si2, namely the domain wall (DW) skew scattering with Weyl points near the Fermi level, in experiments for the first time. Interestingly, the DWs form a unique periodic stripe structure with controllable periodicity by external magnetic field, which decreases nearly monotonically from 975 nm at 0 T to 232 nm at 4 T. Electrons incident on DW with topological bound states experience strong asymmetric scattering, leading to a giant AHE, with the DW Hall conductivity (DWHC) at 2 K and 1.2 T reaching a record value of ~ 1,5100 S cm-1 among bulk systems and being two orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic anomalous Hall conductivity. The observation not only sets a new paradigm for exploration of large anomalous Hall effect, but also provides potential applications in spintronic devices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Price-guided user attention in large-scale E-commerce group recommendation

Existing group recommender systems utilize attention mechanisms to identify critical users who influence group decisions the most. We analyzed user attention scores from a widely-used group recommendation model on a real-world E-commerce dataset and found that item price and user interaction history significantly influence the selection of critical users. When item prices are low, users with extensive interaction histories are more influential in group decision-making. Conversely, their influence diminishes with higher item prices. Based on these observations, we propose a novel group recommendation approach that incorporates item price as a guiding factor for user aggregation. Our model employs an adaptive sigmoid function to adjust output logits based on item prices, enhancing the accuracy of user aggregation. Our model can be plugged into any attention-based group recommender system if the price information is available. We evaluate our model's performance on a public benchmark and a real-world dataset. We compare it with other state-of-the-art group recommendation methods. Our results demonstrate that our price-guided user attention approach outperforms the state-of-the-art methods in terms of hit ratio and mean square error.

cs.IR↗

arXiv2024

A survey on secure decentralized optimization and learning

Decentralized optimization has become a standard paradigm for solving large-scale decision-making problems and training large machine learning models without centralizing data. However, this paradigm introduces new privacy and security risks, with malicious agents potentially able to infer private data or impair the model accuracy. Over the past decade, significant advancements have been made in developing secure decentralized optimization and learning frameworks and algorithms. This survey provides a comprehensive tutorial on these advancements. We begin with the fundamentals of decentralized optimization and learning, highlighting centralized aggregation and distributed consensus as key modules exposed to security risks in federated and distributed optimization, respectively. Next, we focus on privacy-preserving algorithms, detailing three cryptographic tools and their integration into decentralized optimization and learning systems. Additionally, we examine resilient algorithms, exploring the design and analysis of resilient aggregation and consensus protocols that support these systems. We conclude the survey by discussing current trends and potential future directions.

cs.LG↗

arXiv2024

Fast and Accurate Multi-Agent Trajectory Prediction For Crowded Unknown Scenes

This paper studies the problem of multi-agent trajectory prediction in crowded unknown environments. A novel energy function optimization-based framework is proposed to generate prediction trajectories. Firstly, a new energy function is designed for easier optimization. Secondly, an online optimization pipeline for calculating parameters and agents' velocities is developed. In this pipeline, we first design an efficient group division method based on Frechet distance to classify agents online. Then the strategy on decoupling the optimization of velocities and critical parameters in the energy function is developed, where the the slap swarm algorithm and gradient descent algorithms are integrated to solve the optimization problems more efficiently. Thirdly, we propose a similarity-based resample evaluation algorithm to predict agents' optimal goals, defined as the target-moving headings of agents, which effectively extracts hidden information in observed states and avoids learning agents' destinations via the training dataset in advance. Experiments and comparison studies verify the advantages of the proposed method in terms of prediction accuracy and speed.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2024

An Approach to Detect Abnormal Submissions for CodeWorkout Dataset

Students interactions while solving problems in learning environments (i.e. log data) are often used to support students learning. For example, researchers use log data to develop systems that can provide students with personalized problem recommendations based on their knowledge level. However, anomalies in the students log data, such as cheating to solve programming problems, could introduce a hidden bias in the log data. As a result, these systems may provide inaccurate problem recommendations, and therefore, defeat their purpose. Classical cheating detection methods, such as MOSS, can be used to detect code plagiarism. However, these methods cannot detect other abnormal events such as a student gaming a system with multiple attempts of similar solutions to a particular programming problem. This paper presents a preliminary study to analyze log data with anomalies. The goal of our work is to overcome the abnormal instances when modeling personalizable recommendations in programming learning environments.

cs.CY↗

arXiv2024

Correlation between magnetic domain structures and quantum anomalous Hall effect in epitaxial MnBi2Te4 thin films

We use magnetic force microscopy (MFM) to study spatial uniformity of magnetization of epitaxially grown MnBi2Te4 thin films. Compared to films which exhibit no quantum anomalous Hall effect (QAH), films with QAH are observed to have more spatial uniformity of magnetization with larger domain size. The domain evolution upon magnetic field sweeping indicates that the magnetic domains or the spatial nonuniformity of magnetization originates from the strong pinning of the inherent sample inhomogeneity. A direct correlation between the Hall resistivity and the domain size has been established by analyzing a series of thin films with and without QAH. Our observation shows that one has to suppress the spatial nonuniformity of magnetization to allow the Hall resistivity to be quantized. The fact that a sizable longitudinal resistivity remains even for the QAH sample suggests a quantized Hall insulator scenario. Our work provides important insights to the understanding of the quantization mechanism and the dissipation of the QAH state in MnBi2Te4 system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2023

Students' Perceptions and Preferences of Generative Artificial Intelligence Feedback for Programming

The rapid evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically large language models (LLMs), has opened opportunities for various educational applications. This paper explored the feasibility of utilizing ChatGPT, one of the most popular LLMs, for automating feedback for Java programming assignments in an introductory computer science (CS1) class. Specifically, this study focused on three questions: 1) To what extent do students view LLM-generated feedback as formative? 2) How do students see the comparative affordances of feedback prompts that include their code, vs. those that exclude it? 3) What enhancements do students suggest for improving AI-generated feedback? To address these questions, we generated automated feedback using the ChatGPT API for four lab assignments in the CS1 class. The survey results revealed that students perceived the feedback as aligning well with formative feedback guidelines established by Shute. Additionally, students showed a clear preference for feedback generated by including the students' code as part of the LLM prompt, and our thematic study indicated that the preference was mainly attributed to the specificity, clarity, and corrective nature of the feedback. Moreover, this study found that students generally expected specific and corrective feedback with sufficient code examples, but had diverged opinions on the tone of the feedback. This study demonstrated that ChatGPT could generate Java programming assignment feedback that students perceived as formative. It also offered insights into the specific improvements that would make the ChatGPT-generated feedback useful for students.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2023

Resilient and constrained consensus against adversarial attacks: A distributed MPC framework

There has been a growing interest in realizing the resilient consensus of the multi-agent system (MAS) under cyber-attacks, which aims to achieve the consensus of normal agents (i.e., agents without attacks) in a network, depending on the neighboring information. The literature has developed mean-subsequence-reduced (MSR) algorithms for the MAS with F adversarial attacks and has shown that the consensus is achieved for the normal agents when the communication network is at least (2F+1)-robust. However, such a stringent requirement on the communication network needs to be relaxed to enable more practical applications. Our objective is, for the first time, to achieve less stringent conditions on the network, while ensuring the resilient consensus for the general linear MAS subject to control input constraints. In this work, we propose a distributed resilient consensus framework, consisting of a pre-designed consensus protocol and distributed model predictive control (DMPC) optimization, which can help significantly reduce the requirement on the network robustness and effectively handle the general linear constrained MAS under adversarial attacks. By employing a novel distributed adversarial attack detection mechanism based on the history information broadcast by neighbors and a convex set (i.e., resilience set), we can evaluate the reliability of communication links. Moreover, we show that the recursive feasibility of the associated DMPC optimization problem can be guaranteed. The proposed consensus protocol features the following properties: 1) by minimizing a group of control variables, the consensus performance is optimized; 2) the resilient consensus of the general linear constrained MAS subject to F-locally adversarial attacks is achieved when the communication network is (F+1)-robust. Finally, numerical simulation results are presented to verify the theoretical results.

eess.SY↗