An Introduction to Algorithmic Information Theory: Its History and Some Examples

The goal of this paper is to provide a simple introduction to Algorithmic Information Theory (AIT) that will highlight some of the main ideas without presenting too many details. More technical treatments of these ideas can be found in References [1], [2], [3] and [4], which are listed at the end of the paper. The main ideas of Algorithmic Information Theory will be presented using English as the underlying programming language. The presentation illustrates the fact that the same arguments can be expressed in any other reasonable language and that the main results have a robust universality across all reasonable languages. This paper grew out of a short course on AIT that Gregory Chaitin presented in June 1994, at the University of Maine. I helped with the course and observed some of the topics that proved most difficult for students. I presented a series of lectures based on these observations at the 1995 Summer School on Algorithmic Information Theory held in Mangalia Romania. The text of those lectures, and others from that workshop, can be found in The Journal of Universal Computer Science.[8] All the material presented here is based on the work of Gregory Chaitin

ANYWHERE, ANYTIME, ANYSIZE, ANY SIGNAL: Scalable Remote Information Sensing and Communication Systems

Several recent meetings have highlighted the growing interest in the biological, ecological, environmental, and other research communities in the development and deployment of large distributed systems for information collection, aggregation, analysis, simulation, predictive modeling and realtime analysis within their respective disciplines. Likewise, recent events have caused concern and raised interest in the need for similar systems in the context of homeland security. It seems apparent that a structured discussion of the needs for these systems could create opportunities for synergistic efficiencies between the various user communities. To date, however, no such discussions have been held among these differing user communities, nor among these communities and the groups providing and developing technologies to support their needs. It is with the possibility of identifying such potential synergies that the Multi-Sector Crisis Management Consortium (MSCMC) is organizing a series of workshops to discuss the design, development and deployment of such systems From Sensor to Supercomputer and Back: Systems for Information Collection, Aggregation, Analysis, Assessment and Realtime Simulation. To begin exploring these synergies, MSCMC is proposing the following workshop.The purpose of this workshop is to summarize the current and projected states of sensor, communication and power technologies for collection and communication of information from distributed sensor systems with large numbers of nodes, and to survey the present and expected needs for such systems in environmental, facility, medical, crisis management, public safety and national security arenas. A succinct summary of the current and projected technologies mapped to current and projected user requirements is envisioned to result from this workshop.This workshop will bring together experts in field sensor, processing, wireless, field power source technologies, to structure solutions for the common problem of collecting and communicating data, including from remote field locations, by cost-effective, scalable, integrated devices and networks.The workshop will examine the user needs and technologies involved in field deployable systems for information gathering including sensors, wireless communications and power supplies, up to the local aggregation point. While the integration of locally gathered information into larger infrastructures for purposes of analysis is also required, such integration is beyond the specific focus of this workshop.It is intended that this two day workshop will produce:(1) understanding by participants of the current state of the art and availability of technologies of sensors, power, integrated circuits, and wireless, and how they may be employed in our society.(2) determination of current and future needs for better capabilities(3) suggested courses of action to integrate available technologies into scalable, reliable, cost-effective devices and networks of value to meet those needs, including for both the general scientific and research community and to government agencies seeking better ways to protect the public from chemical and biological incidents(4) proposed design and production of devices not now available or suitable for the above purposes(5) recommendations for regulatory relief, especially for design, manufacture, and use of workshop-proposed wireless technologies for the above purposes(6) recommendation for further work in these ares, and identification of potential collaborations and partners

Subprojective lattices and projective geometry

AbstractThe class of lattices we are interested in (subprojective lattices), can be gotten by taking the MacNeille completions of the class of complemented, modular, atomic lattices. McLaughlin showed that subprojective lattices can be represented as the lattices of W-closed subspaces of a vector space U in duality with a vector space W. In this paper, we give a characterization of subprojective lattices in terms of atoms and dual atoms, by means of an incidence space satisfying self-dual axioms. In the finite-dimensional case, a subprojective lattice is projective, and hence our self-dual axioms characterize finite-dimensional projective spaces in terms of points and hyperplanes. No numerical parameters appear explicitly in these axioms. For each subprojective lattice L with at least three elements, we define a projective envelope P(L) for it. P(L) is a projective lattice and there is a natural inf-preserving injection of L into P(L). This injection has other important properties which we take as the definition of a geometric map. In the course of studying geometric maps, we obtain a lattice theoretic proof of Mackey's result that the join of a U-closed subspace of V and a finite-dimensional subspace is U-closed, where (U, V) form a dual pair of vector spaces over a division ring. Furthermore, we show that if L is a subprojective lattice, P a projective lattice, and ψ: L → P a geometric map, then P is isomorphic to the projective envelope P(L) of L. The paper presents many other properties of subprojective lattices. It concludes with a characterization of subprojective lattices which are also projective

University of Maine Connection to the vBNS

This award is made under the high performance connections portion of ANIR\u27s Connections to the Internet announcement, NSF 96-64. It provides partial support for two years for a DS-3 connection to the vBNS. Applications include projects in artificial intelligence and underwater vehicle research, wood science anf forest engineering, tribology, ceramic film characterization, insect population dynamics, digital libraries, conflict and violence, and oceanography. Collaborating institutions include the Naval Postgraduate School; Pennsylvania State University; University of New Hampshire; Brookhaven, Argonne and Oak Ridge National Labs; Naval Research Lab; University of Illinois; Naval Undersea Weapons Center; University of California - Santa Barbara; Woods Hole; Dartmouth; Bedford Institute of Oceanography; several European institutions; Oregon State University; University of Rhode Island; and Goddard Space Flight Center. For additional information: http://homeland.maine.edu

Is Performance Fairness Achievable In Presence Of Attackers Under Federated Learning?

In the last few years, Federated Learning (FL) has received extensive attention from the research community because of its capability for privacy-preserving, collaborative learning from heterogeneous data sources. Most FL studies focus on either average performance improvement or the robustness to attacks, while some attempt to solve both jointly. However, the performance disparities across clients in the presence of attackers have largely been unexplored. In this work, we propose a novel Fair Federated Learning scheme with Attacker Detection capability (abbreviated as FFL+AD) to minimize performance discrepancies across benign participants. FFL+AD enables the server to identify attackers and learn their malign intent (e.g., targeted label) by investigating suspected models via top performers. This two-step detection method helps reduce false positives. Later, we introduce fairness by regularizing the benign clients\u27 local objectives with a variable boosting parameter that gives more emphasis on low performers in optimization. Under standard assumptions, FFL+AD exhibits a convergence rate similar to FedAvg. Experimental results show that our scheme builds a more fair and more robust model, under label-flipping and backdoor attackers, compared to prior schemes. FFL+AD achieves competitive accuracy even when 40% of the clients are attackers

The Benefits of Hosting the NECCDC at Your Institution

The Northeast Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (NECCDC) [2] is a regional competition that feeds the National Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (CCDC)[1]. Since RIT organized the first NECCDC in 2008, the NECCDC has selected a representative to compete in the CCDC. It has been relatively successful and has produced the national champion twice and the runner up three times during its eight years of existence. The NECCDC has been hosted on a rotating basis by one of the universities in the northeast and has become a popular event for both the hosting schools and for the students. We feel that the NECCDC has continued to be an exciting event in part because it has been hosted by different universities which have all made important contributions to the event. This paper describes some of the benefits that come from hosting. Our hope is to convince other universities to host the NECCDC and similar competitions

Crowdsourcing Computer Security Attack Trees

This paper describes an open-source project called RATCHET whose goal is to create software that can be used by large groups of people to construct attack trees. The value of an attack tree increases when the attack tree explores more scenarios. Crowdsourcing an attack tree reduces the possibility that some options might be overlooked. RATCHET has been tested in classroom settings with positive results. This paper gives an overview of RATCHET and describes some of the features that we plan to add

The Agent Institute: Develop an Infrastructure for Agent-Based Research and Development for the State of Maine

This award provides support to establish The Agent Institute (AI), an organization anticipated to become self-sustaining and generally enhance research and development for the State of Maine. The AI will promote interactions between industry and foster computer-technology research, specifically in software development and software-hardware relationships in the area of robotics. Industrial applications in extreme or hazardous environments will be emphasized because agent-based systems are designed to read/sense environmental information, make decisions, and take actions based on the information sensed and processed. The award provides an initial two years of salary support to hire an executive director and an administrative assistant. These individuals will be responsible for developing a series of workshops designed to bring researchers and developers with interests and expertise in agent-based systems together in collaborative projects. Education and outreach efforts will also be part of the AI\u27s mission to bring knowledge about this area to K-12 educators and schools with the goal of encouraging students toward careers in agent-based systems and high technology in general

Producing and Evaluating Crowdsourced Computer Security Attack Trees

We describe the recent developments of an opensource project called RATCHET that can be used by groups of users to collectively construct attack trees. We present the RATCHET framework as well as a model for testing and evaluation of the produced attack trees. RATCHET has been tested in classroom settings with positive results and this paper presents the plans for expanding its outreach to the community at large and building attack trees through crowdsourcing. This paper gives an overview of RATCHET and an introduction to its use

Computerized Adaptive Assessment of Infant-Toddler Language Development: Demonstration and Validation of an App for Screening

We have developed a computerized adaptive test (an app), based on the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI), that can rapidly gauge infant and toddler language development based on parent report. The app can be very useful in screening for developmental disabilities in IDEA Part C or Section 619. We will demonstrate the app and present validation data for toddlers.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ccids_posters/1005/thumbnail.jp