Pre-Hoc Predictions in AutoML: Leveraging LLMs to Enhance Model Selection and Benchmarking for Tabular datasets

The field of AutoML has made remarkable progress in post-hoc model selection, with libraries capable of automatically identifying the most performing models for a given dataset. Nevertheless, these methods often rely on exhaustive hyperparameter searches, where methods automatically train and test different types of models on the target dataset. Contrastingly, pre-hoc prediction emerges as a promising alternative, capable of bypassing exhaustive search through intelligent pre-selection of models. Despite its potential, pre-hoc prediction remains under-explored in the literature. This paper explores the intersection of AutoML and pre-hoc model selection by leveraging traditional models and Large Language Model (LLM) agents to reduce the search space of AutoML libraries. By relying on dataset descriptions and statistical information, we reduce the AutoML search space. Our methodology is applied to the AWS AutoGluon portfolio dataset, a state-of-the-art AutoML benchmark containing 175 tabular classification datasets available on OpenML. The proposed approach offers a shift in AutoML workflows, significantly reducing computational overhead, while still selecting the best model for the given dataset.

Active Learning and Transfer Learning for Anomaly Detection in Time-Series Data

This paper examines the effectiveness of combining active learning and transfer learning for anomaly detection in cross-domain time-series data. Our results indicate that there is an interaction between clustering and active learning and in general the best performance is achieved using a single cluster (in other words when clustering is not applied). Also, we find that adding new samples to the training set using active learning does improve model performance but that in general, the rate of improvement is slower than the results reported in the literature suggest. We attribute this difference to an improved experimental design where distinct data samples are used for the sampling and testing pools. Finally, we assess the ceiling performance of transfer learning in combination with active learning across several datasets and find that performance does initially improve but eventually begins to tail off as more target points are selected for inclusion in training. This tail-off in performance may indicate that the active learning process is doing a good job of sequencing data points for selection, pushing the less useful points towards the end of the selection process and that this tail-off occurs when these less useful points are eventually added. Taken together our results indicate that active learning is effective but that the improvement in model performance follows a linear flat function concerning the number of points selected and labelled.

Extending TWIG: Zero-Shot Predictive Hyperparameter Selection for KGEs based on Graph Structure

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) have seen increasing use across various domains -- from biomedicine and linguistics to general knowledge modelling. In order to facilitate the analysis of knowledge graphs, Knowledge Graph Embeddings (KGEs) have been developed to automatically analyse KGs and predict new facts based on the information in a KG, a task called "link prediction". Many existing studies have documented that the structure of a KG, KGE model components, and KGE hyperparameters can significantly change how well KGEs perform and what relationships they are able to learn. Recently, the Topologically-Weighted Intelligence Generation (TWIG) model has been proposed as a solution to modelling how each of these elements relate. In this work, we extend the previous research on TWIG and evaluate its ability to simulate the output of the KGE model ComplEx in the cross-KG setting. Our results are twofold. First, TWIG is able to summarise KGE performance on a wide range of hyperparameter settings and KGs being learned, suggesting that it represents a general knowledge of how to predict KGE performance from KG structure. Second, we show that TWIG can successfully predict hyperparameter performance on unseen KGs in the zero-shot setting. This second observation leads us to propose that, with additional research, optimal hyperparameter selection for KGE models could be determined in a pre-hoc manner using TWIG-like methods, rather than by using a full hyperparameter search.

A Survey on Knowledge Graph Structure and Knowledge Graph Embeddings

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) and their machine learning counterpart, Knowledge Graph Embedding Models (KGEMs), have seen ever-increasing use in a wide variety of academic and applied settings. In particular, KGEMs are typically applied to KGs to solve the link prediction task; i.e. to predict new facts in the domain of a KG based on existing, observed facts. While this approach has been shown substantial power in many end-use cases, it remains incompletely characterised in terms of how KGEMs react differently to KG structure. This is of particular concern in light of recent studies showing that KG structure can be a significant source of bias as well as partially determinant of overall KGEM performance. This paper seeks to address this gap in the state-of-the-art. This paper provides, to the authors' knowledge, the first comprehensive survey exploring established relationships of Knowledge Graph Embedding Models and Graph structure in the literature. It is the hope of the authors that this work will inspire further studies in this area, and contribute to a more holistic understanding of KGs, KGEMs, and the link prediction task.

BIS: NL2SQL Service Evaluation Benchmark for Business Intelligence Scenarios

NL2SQL (Natural Language to Structured Query Language) transformation has seen wide adoption in Business Intelligence (BI) applications in recent years. However, existing NL2SQL benchmarks are not suitable for production BI scenarios, as they are not designed for common business intelligence questions. To address this gap, we have developed a new benchmark focused on typical NL questions in industrial BI scenarios. We discuss the challenges of constructing a BI-focused benchmark and the shortcomings of existing benchmarks. Additionally, we introduce question categories in our benchmark that reflect common BI inquiries. Lastly, we propose two novel semantic similarity evaluation metrics for assessing NL2SQL capabilities in BI applications and services.

A framework for measuring the training efficiency of a neural architecture

Measuring Efficiency in neural network system development is an open research problem. This paper presents an experimental framework to measure the training efficiency of a neural architecture. To demonstrate our approach, we analyze the training efficiency of Convolutional Neural Networks and Bayesian equivalents on the MNIST and CIFAR-10 tasks. Our results show that training efficiency decays as training progresses and varies across different stopping criteria for a given neural model and learning task. We also find a non-linear relationship between training stopping criteria, training Efficiency, model size, and training Efficiency. Furthermore, we illustrate the potential confounding effects of overtraining on measuring the training efficiency of a neural architecture. Regarding relative training efficiency across different architectures, our results indicate that CNNs are more efficient than BCNNs on both datasets. More generally, as a learning task becomes more complex, the relative difference in training efficiency between different architectures becomes more pronounced.

Safety-Driven Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for Cobots: A Sim2Real Approach

This study presents a novel methodology incorporating safety constraints into a robotic simulation during the training of deep reinforcement learning (DRL). The framework integrates specific parts of the safety requirements, such as velocity constraints, as specified by ISO 10218, directly within the DRL model that becomes a part of the robot's learning algorithm. The study then evaluated the efficiency of these safety constraints by subjecting the DRL model to various scenarios, including grasping tasks with and without obstacle avoidance. The validation process involved comprehensive simulation-based testing of the DRL model's responses to potential hazards and its compliance. Also, the performance of the system is carried out by the functional safety standards IEC 61508 to determine the safety integrity level. The study indicated a significant improvement in the safety performance of the robotic system. The proposed DRL model anticipates and mitigates hazards while maintaining operational efficiency. This study was validated in a testbed with a collaborative robotic arm with safety sensors and assessed with metrics such as the average number of safety violations, obstacle avoidance, and the number of successful grasps. The proposed approach outperforms the conventional method by a 16.5% average success rate on the tested scenarios in the simulations and 2.5% in the testbed without safety violations. The project repository is available at https://github.com/ammar-n-abbas/sim2real-ur-gym-gazebo.

CoBT: Collaborative Programming of Behaviour Trees from One Demonstration for Robot Manipulation

Mass customization and shorter manufacturing cycles are becoming more important among small and medium-sized companies. However, classical industrial robots struggle to cope with product variation and dynamic environments. In this paper, we present CoBT, a collaborative programming by demonstration framework for generating reactive and modular behavior trees. CoBT relies on a single demonstration and a combination of data-driven machine learning methods with logic-based declarative learning to learn a task, thus eliminating the need for programming expertise or long development times. The proposed framework is experimentally validated on 7 manipulation tasks and we show that CoBT achieves approx. 93% success rate overall with an average of 7.5s programming time. We conduct a pilot study with non-expert users to provide feedback regarding the usability of CoBT.

Topic Aware Probing: From Sentence Length Prediction to Idiom Identification how reliant are Neural Language Models on Topic?

Transformer-based Neural Language Models achieve state-of-the-art performance on various natural language processing tasks. However, an open question is the extent to which these models rely on word-order/syntactic or word co-occurrence/topic-based information when processing natural language. This work contributes to this debate by addressing the question of whether these models primarily use topic as a signal, by exploring the relationship between Transformer-based models' (BERT and RoBERTa's) performance on a range of probing tasks in English, from simple lexical tasks such as sentence length prediction to complex semantic tasks such as idiom token identification, and the sensitivity of these tasks to the topic information. To this end, we propose a novel probing method which we call topic-aware probing. Our initial results indicate that Transformer-based models encode both topic and non-topic information in their intermediate layers, but also that the facility of these models to distinguish idiomatic usage is primarily based on their ability to identify and encode topic. Furthermore, our analysis of these models' performance on other standard probing tasks suggests that tasks that are relatively insensitive to the topic information are also tasks that are relatively difficult for these models.

Analyzing Operator States and the Impact of AI-Enhanced Decision Support in Control Rooms: A Human-in-the-Loop Specialized Reinforcement Learning Framework for Intervention Strategies

In complex industrial and chemical process control rooms, effective decision-making is crucial for safety and efficiency. The experiments in this paper evaluate the impact and applications of an AI-based decision support system integrated into an improved human-machine interface, using dynamic influence diagrams, a hidden Markov model, and deep reinforcement learning. The enhanced support system aims to reduce operator workload, improve situational awareness, and provide different intervention strategies to the operator adapted to the current state of both the system and human performance. Such a system can be particularly useful in cases of information overload when many alarms and inputs are presented all within the same time window, or for junior operators during training. A comprehensive cross-data analysis was conducted, involving 47 participants and a diverse range of data sources such as smartwatch metrics, eye-tracking data, process logs, and responses from questionnaires. The results indicate interesting insights regarding the effectiveness of the approach in aiding decision-making, decreasing perceived workload, and increasing situational awareness for the scenarios considered. Additionally, the results provide valuable insights to compare differences between styles of information gathering when using the system by individual participants. These findings are particularly relevant when predicting the overall performance of the individual participant and their capacity to successfully handle a plant upset and the alarms connected to it using process and human-machine interaction logs in real-time. These predictions enable the development of more effective intervention strategies.