Skill-based Explanations for Serendipitous Course Recommendation

Academic choice is crucial in U.S. undergraduate education, allowing students significant freedom in course selection. However, navigating the complex academic environment is challenging due to limited information, guidance, and an overwhelming number of choices, compounded by time restrictions and the high demand for popular courses. Although career counselors exist, their numbers are insufficient, and course recommendation systems, though personalized, often lack insight into student perceptions and explanations to assess course relevance. In this paper, a deep learning-based concept extraction model is developed to efficiently extract relevant concepts from course descriptions to improve the recommendation process. Using this model, the study examines the effects of skill-based explanations within a serendipitous recommendation framework, tested through the AskOski system at the University of California, Berkeley. The findings indicate that these explanations not only increase user interest, particularly in courses with high unexpectedness, but also bolster decision-making confidence. This underscores the importance of integrating skill-related data and explanations into educational recommendation systems.

Graph-Based Feature Augmentation for Predictive Tasks on Relational Datasets

Data has become a foundational asset driving innovation across domains such as finance, healthcare, and e-commerce. In these areas, predictive modeling over relational tables is commonly employed, with increasing emphasis on reducing manual effort through automated machine learning (AutoML) techniques. This raises an interesting question: can feature augmentation itself be automated and identify and utilize task-related relational signals? To address this challenge, we propose an end-to-end automated feature augmentation framework, ReCoGNN, which enhances initial datasets using features extracted from multiple relational tables to support predictive tasks. ReCoGNN first captures semantic dependencies within each table by modeling intra-table attribute relationships, enabling it to partition tables into structured, semantically coherent segments. It then constructs a heterogeneous weighted graph that represents inter-row relationships across all segments. Finally, ReCoGNN leverages message-passing graph neural networks to propagate information through the graph, guiding feature selection and augmenting the original dataset. Extensive experiments conducted on ten real-life and synthetic datasets demonstrate that ReCoGNN consistently outperforms existing methods on both classification and regression tasks.

Revisiting Landmarks: Learning from Previous Plans to Generalize over Problem Instances

We propose a new framework for discovering landmarks that automatically generalize across a domain. These generalized landmarks are learned from a set of solved instances and describe intermediate goals for planning problems where traditional landmark extraction algorithms fall short. Our generalized landmarks extend beyond the predicates of a domain by using state functions that are independent of the objects of a specific problem and apply to all similar objects, thus capturing repetition. Based on these functions, we construct a directed generalized landmark graph that defines the landmark progression, including loop possibilities for repetitive subplans. We show how to use this graph in a heuristic to solve new problem instances of the same domain. Our results show that the generalized landmark graphs learned from a few small instances are also effective for larger instances in the same domain. If a loop that indicates repetition is identified, we see a significant improvement in heuristic performance over the baseline. Generalized landmarks capture domain information that is interpretable and useful to an automated planner. This information can be discovered from a small set of plans for the same domain.

Gentle Object Retraction in Dense Clutter Using Multimodal Force Sensing and Imitation Learning

Dense collections of movable objects are common in everyday spaces -- from cabinets in a home to shelves in a warehouse. Safely retracting objects from such collections is difficult for robots, yet people do it easily, using non-prehensile tactile sensing on the sides and backs of their hands and arms. We investigate the role of such sensing for training robots to gently reach into constrained clutter and extract objects. The available sensing modalities are (1) "eye-in-hand" vision, (2) proprioception, (3) non-prehensile triaxial tactile sensing, (4) contact wrenches estimated from joint torques, and (5) a measure of successful object acquisition obtained by monitoring the vacuum line of a suction cup. We use imitation learning to train policies from a set of demonstrations on randomly generated scenes, then conduct an ablation study of wrench and tactile information. We evaluate each policy's performance across 40 unseen environment configurations. Policies employing any force sensing show fewer excessive force failures, an increased overall success rate, and faster completion times. The best performance is achieved using both tactile and wrench information, producing an 80% improvement above the baseline without force information.

Unsupervised Video Continual Learning via Non-Parametric Deep Embedded Clustering

We propose a realistic scenario for the unsupervised video learning where neither task boundaries nor labels are provided when learning a succession of tasks. We also provide a non-parametric learning solution for the under-explored problem of unsupervised video continual learning. Videos represent a complex and rich spatio-temporal media information, widely used in many applications, but which have not been sufficiently explored in unsupervised continual learning. Prior studies have only focused on supervised continual learning, relying on the knowledge of labels and task boundaries, while having labeled data is costly and not practical. To address this gap, we study the unsupervised video continual learning (uVCL). uVCL raises more challenges due to the additional computational and memory requirements of processing videos when compared to images. We introduce a general benchmark experimental protocol for uVCL by considering the learning of unstructured video data categories during each task. We propose to use the Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) of deep embedded video features extracted by unsupervised video transformer networks as a non-parametric probabilistic representation of the data. We introduce a novelty detection criterion for the incoming new task data, dynamically enabling the expansion of memory clusters, aiming to capture new knowledge when learning a succession of tasks. We leverage the use of transfer learning from the previous tasks as an initial state for the knowledge transfer to the current learning task. We found that the proposed methodology substantially enhances the performance of the model when successively learning many tasks. We perform in-depth evaluations on three standard video action recognition datasets, including UCF101, HMDB51, and Something-to-Something V2, without using any labels or class boundaries.

M3HG: Multimodal, Multi-scale, and Multi-type Node Heterogeneous Graph for Emotion Cause Triplet Extraction in Conversations

Emotion Cause Triplet Extraction in Multimodal Conversations (MECTEC) has recently gained significant attention in social media analysis, aiming to extract emotion utterances, cause utterances, and emotion categories simultaneously. However, the scarcity of related datasets, with only one published dataset featuring highly uniform dialogue scenarios, hinders model development in this field. To address this, we introduce MECAD, the first multimodal, multi-scenario MECTEC dataset, comprising 989 conversations from 56 TV series spanning a wide range of dialogue contexts. In addition, existing MECTEC methods fail to explicitly model emotional and causal contexts and neglect the fusion of semantic information at different levels, leading to performance degradation. In this paper, we propose M3HG, a novel model that explicitly captures emotional and causal contexts and effectively fuses contextual information at both inter- and intra-utterance levels via a multimodal heterogeneous graph. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of M3HG compared with existing state-of-the-art methods. The codes and dataset are available at https://github.com/redifinition/M3HG.

GDLLM: A Global Distance-aware Modeling Approach Based on Large Language Models for Event Temporal Relation Extraction

In Natural Language Processing(NLP), Event Temporal Relation Extraction (ETRE) is to recognize the temporal relations of two events. Prior studies have noted the importance of language models for ETRE. However, the restricted pre-trained knowledge of Small Language Models(SLMs) limits their capability to handle minority class relations in imbalanced classification datasets. For Large Language Models(LLMs), researchers adopt manually designed prompts or instructions, which may introduce extra noise, leading to interference with the model's judgment of the long-distance dependencies between events. To address these issues, we propose GDLLM, a Global Distance-aware modeling approach based on LLMs. We first present a distance-aware graph structure utilizing Graph Attention Network(GAT) to assist the LLMs in capturing long-distance dependency features. Additionally, we design a temporal feature learning paradigm based on soft inference to augment the identification of relations with a short-distance proximity band, which supplements the probabilistic information generated by LLMs into the multi-head attention mechanism. Since the global feature can be captured effectively, our framework substantially enhances the performance of minority relation classes and improves the overall learning ability. Experiments on two publicly available datasets, TB-Dense and MATRES, demonstrate that our approach achieves state-of-the-art (SOTA) performance.

HyperTASR: Hypernetwork-Driven Task-Aware Scene Representations for Robust Manipulation

Effective policy learning for robotic manipulation requires scene representations that selectively capture task-relevant environmental features. Current approaches typically employ task-agnostic representation extraction, failing to emulate the dynamic perceptual adaptation observed in human cognition. We present HyperTASR, a hypernetwork-driven framework that modulates scene representations based on both task objectives and the execution phase. Our architecture dynamically generates representation transformation parameters conditioned on task specifications and progression state, enabling representations to evolve contextually throughout task execution. This approach maintains architectural compatibility with existing policy learning frameworks while fundamentally reconfiguring how visual features are processed. Unlike methods that simply concatenate or fuse task embeddings with task-agnostic representations, HyperTASR establishes computational separation between task-contextual and state-dependent processing paths, enhancing learning efficiency and representational quality. Comprehensive evaluations in both simulation and real-world environments demonstrate substantial performance improvements across different representation paradigms. Through ablation studies and attention visualization, we confirm that our approach selectively prioritizes task-relevant scene information, closely mirroring human adaptive perception during manipulation tasks. The project website is at \href{https://lisunphil.github.io/HyperTASR_projectpage/}{lisunphil.github.io/HyperTASR\_projectpage}.

Improving Interpretability in Alzheimer's Prediction via Joint Learning of ADAS-Cog Scores

Accurate prediction of clinical scores is critical for early detection and prognosis of Alzheimers disease (AD). While existing approaches primarily focus on forecasting the ADAS-Cog global score, they often overlook the predictive value of its sub-scores (13 items), which capture domain-specific cognitive decline. In this study, we propose a multi task learning (MTL) framework that jointly predicts the global ADAS-Cog score and its sub-scores (13 items) at Month 24 using baseline MRI and longitudinal clinical scores from baseline and Month 6. The main goal is to examine how each sub scores particularly those associated with MRI features contribute to the prediction of the global score, an aspect largely neglected in prior MTL studies. We employ Vision Transformer (ViT) and Swin Transformer architectures to extract imaging features, which are fused with longitudinal clinical inputs to model cognitive progression. Our results show that incorporating sub-score learning improves global score prediction. Subscore level analysis reveals that a small subset especially Q1 (Word Recall), Q4 (Delayed Recall), and Q8 (Word Recognition) consistently dominates the predicted global score. However, some of these influential sub-scores exhibit high prediction errors, pointing to model instability. Further analysis suggests that this is caused by clinical feature dominance, where the model prioritizes easily predictable clinical scores over more complex MRI derived features. These findings emphasize the need for improved multimodal fusion and adaptive loss weighting to achieve more balanced learning. Our study demonstrates the value of sub score informed modeling and provides insights into building more interpretable and clinically robust AD prediction frameworks. (Github repo provided)

Deep Pre-trained Time Series Features for Tree Species Classification in the Dutch Forest Inventory

National Forest Inventory (NFI)s serve as the primary source of forest information, providing crucial tree species distribution data. However, maintaining these inventories requires labor-intensive on-site campaigns. Remote sensing approaches, particularly when combined with machine learning, offer opportunities to update NFIs more frequently and at larger scales. While the use of Satellite Image Time Series has proven effective for distinguishing tree species through seasonal canopy reflectance patterns, current approaches rely primarily on Random Forest classifiers with hand-designed features and phenology-based metrics. Using deep features from an available pre-trained remote sensing foundation models offers a complementary strategy. These pre-trained models leverage unannotated global data and are meant to used for general-purpose applications and can then be efficiently fine-tuned with smaller labeled datasets for specific classification tasks. This work systematically investigates how deep features improve tree species classification accuracy in the Netherlands with few annotated data. Data-wise, we extracted time-series data from Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 and ERA5 satellites data and SRTM data using Google Earth Engine. Our results demonstrate that fine-tuning a publicly available remote sensing time series foundation model outperforms the current state-of-the-art in NFI classification in the Netherlands by a large margin of up to 10% across all datasets. This demonstrates that classic hand-defined harmonic features are too simple for this task and highlights the potential of using deep AI features for data-limited application like NFI classification. By leveraging openly available satellite data and pre-trained models, this approach significantly improves classification accuracy compared to traditional methods and can effectively complement existing forest inventory processes.