mHC-HSI: Clustering-Guided Hyper-Connection Mamba for Hyperspectral Image Classification

Recently, DeepSeek has invented the manifold-constrained hyper-connection (mHC) approach which has demonstrated significant improvements over the traditional residual connection in deep learning models \cite{xie2026mhc}. Nevertheless, this approach has not been tailor-designed for improving hyperspectral image (HSI) classification. This paper presents a clustering-guided mHC Mamba model (mHC-HSI) for enhanced HSI classification, with the following contributions. First, to improve spatial-spectral feature learning, we design a novel clustering-guided Mamba module, based on the mHC framework, that explicitly learns both spatial and spectral information in HSI. Second, to decompose the complex and heterogeneous HSI into smaller clusters, we design a new implementation of the residual matrix in mHC, which can be treated as soft cluster membership maps, leading to improved explainability of the mHC approach. Third, to leverage the physical spectral knowledge, we divide the spectral bands into physically-meaningful groups and use them as the "parallel streams" in mHC, leading to a physically-meaningful approach with enhanced interpretability. The proposed approach is tested on benchmark datasets in comparison with the state-of-the-art methods, and the results suggest that the proposed model not only improves the accuracy but also enhances the model explainability. Code is available here: https://github.com/GSIL-UCalgary/mHC_HyperSpectral

White-Box mHC: Electromagnetic Spectrum-Aware and Interpretable Stream Interactions for Hyperspectral Image Classification

In hyperspectral image classification (HSIC), most deep learning models rely on opaque spectral-spatial feature mixing, limiting their interpretability and hindering understanding of internal decision mechanisms. We present physical spectrum-aware white-box mHC, named ES-mHC, a hyper-connection framework that explicitly models interactions among different electromagnetic spectrum groupings (residual stream in mHC) interactions using structured, directional matrices. By separating feature representation from interaction structure, ES-mHC promotes electromagnetic spectrum grouping specialization, reduces redundancy, and exposes internal information flow that can be directly visualized and spatially analyzed. Using hyperspectral image classification as a representative testbed, we demonstrate that the learned hyper-connection matrices exhibit coherent spatial patterns and asymmetric interaction behaviors, providing mechanistic insight into the model internal dynamics. Furthermore, we find that increasing the expansion rate accelerates the emergence of structured interaction patterns. These results suggest that ES-mHC transforms HSIC from a purely black-box prediction task into a structurally transparent, partially white-box learning process.

Trustworthy Data-Driven Wildfire Risk Prediction and Understanding in Western Canada

In recent decades, the intensification of wildfire activity in western Canada has resulted in substantial socio-economic and environmental losses. Accurate wildfire risk prediction is hindered by the intrinsic stochasticity of ignition and spread and by nonlinear interactions among fuel conditions, meteorology, climate variability, topography, and human activities, challenging the reliability and interpretability of purely data-driven models. We propose a trustworthy data-driven wildfire risk prediction framework based on long-sequence, multi-scale temporal modeling, which integrates heterogeneous drivers while explicitly quantifying predictive uncertainty and enabling process-level interpretation. Evaluated over western Canada during the record-breaking 2023 and 2024 fire seasons, the proposed model outperforms existing time-series approaches, achieving an F1 score of 0.90 and a PR-AUC of 0.98 with low computational cost. Uncertainty-aware analysis reveals structured spatial and seasonal patterns in predictive confidence, highlighting increased uncertainty associated with ambiguous predictions and spatiotemporal decision boundaries. SHAP-based interpretation provides mechanistic understanding of wildfire controls, showing that temperature-related drivers dominate wildfire risk in both years, while moisture-related constraints play a stronger role in shaping spatial and land-cover-specific contrasts in 2024 compared to the widespread hot and dry conditions of 2023. Data and code are available at https://github.com/SynUW/mmFire.