Empiricism without Magic: Transformational Abstraction in Deep Convolutional Neural Networks

In artificial intelligence, recent research has demonstrated the remarkable potential of Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs), which seem to exceed state-of-the-art performance in new domains weekly, especially on the sorts of very difficult perceptual discrimination tasks that skeptics thought would remain beyond the reach of artificial intelligence. However, it has proven difficult to explain why DCNNs perform so well. In philosophy of mind, empiricists have long suggested that complex cognition is based on information derived from sensory experience, often appealing to a faculty of abstraction. Rationalists have frequently complained, however, that empiricists never adequately explained how this faculty of abstraction actually works. In this paper, I tie these two questions together, to the mutual benefit of both disciplines. I argue that the architectural features that distinguish DCNNs from earlier neural networks allow them to implement a form of hierarchical processing that I call “transformational abstraction”. Transformational abstraction iteratively converts sensory-based representations of category exemplars into new formats that are increasingly tolerant to “nuisance variation” in input. Reflecting upon the way that DCNNs leverage a combination of linear and non-linear processing to efficiently accomplish this feat allows us to understand how the brain is capable of bi-directional travel between exemplars and abstractions, addressing longstanding problems in empiricist philosophy of mind. I end by considering the prospects for future research on DCNNs, arguing that rather than simply implementing 80s connectionism with more brute-force computation, transformational abstraction counts as a qualitatively distinct form of processing ripe with philosophical and psychological significance, because it is significantly better suited to depict the generic mechanism responsible for this important kind of psychological processing in the brain

Process Mining Workshops

This open access book constitutes revised selected papers from the International Workshops held at the Third International Conference on Process Mining, ICPM 2021, which took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, during October 31–November 4, 2021. The conference focuses on the area of process mining research and practice, including theory, algorithmic challenges, and applications. The co-located workshops provided a forum for novel research ideas. The 28 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 2nd International Workshop on Event Data and Behavioral Analytics (EDBA) 2nd International Workshop on Leveraging Machine Learning in Process Mining (ML4PM) 2nd International Workshop on Streaming Analytics for Process Mining (SA4PM) 6th International Workshop on Process Querying, Manipulation, and Intelligence (PQMI) 4th International Workshop on Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare (PODS4H) 2nd International Workshop on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Process Analytics (TPSA) One survey paper on the results of the XES 2.0 Workshop is included

Process Mining Workshops

This open access book constitutes revised selected papers from the International Workshops held at the Third International Conference on Process Mining, ICPM 2021, which took place in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, during October 31–November 4, 2021. The conference focuses on the area of process mining research and practice, including theory, algorithmic challenges, and applications. The co-located workshops provided a forum for novel research ideas. The 28 papers included in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 65 submissions. They stem from the following workshops: 2nd International Workshop on Event Data and Behavioral Analytics (EDBA) 2nd International Workshop on Leveraging Machine Learning in Process Mining (ML4PM) 2nd International Workshop on Streaming Analytics for Process Mining (SA4PM) 6th International Workshop on Process Querying, Manipulation, and Intelligence (PQMI) 4th International Workshop on Process-Oriented Data Science for Healthcare (PODS4H) 2nd International Workshop on Trust, Privacy, and Security in Process Analytics (TPSA) One survey paper on the results of the XES 2.0 Workshop is included

A systematic mapping of the advancing use of machine learning techniques for predictive maintenance in the manufacturing sector

The increasing availability of data, gathered by sensors and intelligent machines, is chang-ing the way decisions are made in the manufacturing sector. In particular, based on predictive approach and facilitated by the nowadays growing capabilities of hardware, cloud-based solutions, and new learning approaches, maintenance can be scheduled—over cell engagement and resource monitoring—when required, for minimizing (or managing) unexpected equipment failures, improving uptime through less aggressive maintenance schedules, shortening unplanned downtime, reducing excess (direct and indirect) cost, reducing long-term damage to machines and processes, and improve safety plans. With access to increased levels of data (and over learning mechanisms), companies have the capability to conduct statistical tests using machine learning algorithms, in order to uncover root causes of problems previously unknown. This study analyses the maturity level and contributions of machine learning methods for predictive maintenance. An upward trend in publications for predictive maintenance using machine learning techniques was identified with the USA and China leading. A mapping study—steady set until early 2019 data—was employed as a formal and well-structured method to synthesize material and to report on pervasive areas of research. Type of equipment, sensors, and data are mapped to properly assist new researchers in positioning new research activities in the domain of smart maintenance. Hence, in this paper, we focus on data-driven methods for predictive maintenance (PdM) with a comprehensive survey on applications and methods until, for the sake of commenting on stable proposal, 2019 (early included). An equal repartition between evaluation and validation studies was identified, this being a symptom of an immature but growing research area. In addition, the type of contribution is mainly in the form of models and methodologies. Vibrational signal was marked as the most used data set for diagnosis in manufacturing machinery monitoring; furthermore, supervised learning is reported as the most used predictive approach (ensemble learning is growing fast). Neural networks, followed by random forests and support vector machines, were identified as the most applied methods encompassing 40% of publications, of which 67% related to deep neural network with long short-term memory predominance. Notwithstanding, there is no robust approach (no one reported optimal performance over different case tests) that works best for every problem. We finally conclude the research in this area is moving fast to gather a separate focused analysis over the last two years (whenever stable implementations will appear)

AI Applications to Power Systems

Today, the flow of electricity is bidirectional, and not all electricity is centrally produced in large power plants. With the growing emergence of prosumers and microgrids, the amount of electricity produced by sources other than large, traditional power plants is ever-increasing. These alternative sources include photovoltaic (PV), wind turbine (WT), geothermal, and biomass renewable generation plants. Some renewable energy resources (solar PV and wind turbine generation) are highly dependent on natural processes and parameters (wind speed, wind direction, temperature, solar irradiation, humidity, etc.). Thus, the outputs are so stochastic in nature. New data-science-inspired real-time solutions are needed in order to co-develop digital twins of large intermittent renewable plants whose services can be globally delivered

Predicting non-linear dynamics by stable local learning in a recurrent spiking neural network

The brain needs to predict how the body reacts to motor commands, but how a network of spiking neurons can learn non-linear body dynamics using local, online and stable learning rules is unclear. Here, we present a supervised learning scheme for the feedforward and recurrent connections in a network of heterogeneous spiking neurons. The error in the output is fed back through fixed random connections with a negative gain, causing the network to follow the desired dynamics. The rule for Feedback-based Online Local Learning Of Weights (FOLLOW) is local in the sense that weight changes depend on the presynaptic activity and the error signal projected onto the postsynaptic neuron. We provide examples of learning linear, non-linear and chaotic dynamics, as well as the dynamics of a two-link arm. Under reasonable approximations, we show, using the Lyapunov method, that FOLLOW learning is uniformly stable, with the error going to zero asymptotically