Abstract

This paper presents a meticulous and well structured approach to annotating a corpus of Hindi spoken data. We deployed 4 annotators to augment the spoken section of the EMILLE Hindi corpus by marking the various linguistic phenomena observed in spoken data. Then we analyzed various phonological (sound deletion), morphological (code-mixing and reduplication) and syntactic phenomena (case markers and ambiguity), not attested in written data. Code mixing and switching constitute the majority of the phenomena we annotated, followed by orthographic errors related to symbols in the Devanagiri script. In terms of divergences from written form of Hindi, case marker usage, missing auxiliary verbs and agreement patterns are markedly distinct for spoken Hindi. The annotators also assigned a quality rating to each sentence in the corpus. Our analysis of the quality ratings revealed that most of the sentences in the spoken data corpus are of moderate to high quality. Female speakers produced a greater percentage of high quality sentences compared to their male counterparts. While previous efforts in corpus annotation have been largely focused on creating resources for engineering applications, we illustrate the utility of our dataset for scientific hypothesis testing. Inspired from the Surprisal Theory of language comprehension (Hale, 2001; Levy, 2008), we validate the hypothesis that sentences with high values of lexical surprisal are rated low in terms of quality by native speakers, even when controlling for sentence length and word frequencies in a sentence.

Abstract

Stuttering constitutes a pervasive speech disorder with a global impact on individuals. Detecting stuttering in speech would aid speech pathologists in monitoring fluency over time and enhance the quality of life for those with atypical speech patterns. Presently, the available public datasets tailored for stuttering identification are confined to the utterance level, with labels ascribed to individual utterances. However, in real-time situations, a considerable proportion of individuals grappling with stuttering manifest dysfluency at the syllable level. This limitation markedly constrains the effectiveness and applicability of dysfluency detection systems. In an effort to address this lacuna in knowledge, this study introduces a novel dataset comprising audio recordings directly obtained from native Kannada-speaking individuals afflicted with the stuttering disorder at the syllable level and also provides detailed information on the dataset's creation, including patient selection criteria and clip labelling. Additionally, benchmark models trained on this distinctive dataset are presented as part of this research endeavor.

Abstract

A method and system based on machine learning to create self-adapting analog circuits adapted to change their internal components on-the-fly in response to changes in process, voltage, and temperature to re-tune the electrical characteristics back to nominal specified values is disclose. The method and system herein comprise of designing the analog circuit, generating simulation data for machine learning, creating a full query database, creating and training, using simulation results, a machine learning (ML) model of the circuit and applying the ML model to infer the required changes to internal components of the analog circuit in response to changes in P, V, and T conditions. With this method and system, evaluation of the adverse effects of PVT changes, decision on internal circuit changes, and realization of requisite design changes are performed by the computer system solely within a ML data domain

Abstract

In this article, we propose a new practical synchronization protocol for multiple Euler–Lagrange systems without structural linear-in-the-parameters (LIP) knowledge of the uncertainty and where the agents can be interconnected before control design by unknown state-dependent interconnection terms. This setting is meant to overcome two standard a priori assumptions in the literature concerning uncertainty with LIP structure and absence of interaction among agents before designing the synchronization protocol. To overcome these assumptions, we propose an adaptive distributed control mechanism having the purpose of estimating the coefficients of the resulting state-dependent uncertainty structure.

Abstract

Particulate matter (PM) is a critical air pollutant with severe health implications, yet existing stationary monitoring networks often fail to capture its complete spatial and temporal variability in urban environments. This paper presents a novel approach to city-wide air quality monitoring using low-cost sensors mounted on mobile platforms. To validate this method, a six-month field study was conducted in Hyderabad, India, deploying IoT-enabled devices on four college buses. These mobile devices capture PM concentrations, temperature, relative humidity, GPS coordinates, and vehicle speed twice daily across different parts of the city. The primary objective was to demonstrate the necessity of mobile air pollution monitoring to identify PM variability across diverse urban areas. The data revealed significant variations in PM concentrations across different parts of the city and seasons, highlighting the impact of local activities on air quality. The study examines seasonal trends, area-specific variations, and temporal patterns of PM concentrations, identifying pollution hotspots within the city. It shows how important it is to provide up-to-date, location-specific air quality information to people with pollution-related health issues.

Abstract

This report documents the program and outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 23302, "Software Architecture and Machine Learning". We summarize the goals and format of the seminar, results from the breakout groups, key definitions relevant to machine learning-enabled systems that were discussed, and the research roadmap that emerged from the discussions during the seminar. The report also includes the abstracts of the talks presented at the seminar and summaries of open discussions.

Abstract

Microservice architectures have gained enormous popularity due to their ability to be dynamically added/removed, replicated, and updated according to run-time needs. However, the dynamic nature of microservices introduces uncertainty, which in turn can affect the provided Quality of Service (QoS). This calls for novel service discovery mechanisms able to adapt to the variability of the QoS attributes and further perform effective service discovery and selection. To this end, this paper combines machine learning and self-adaptation techniques to perform service discovery and selection by trading off different QoS attributes. The results of our validation on a state-of-the-art microservices exemplar show that our ML-enabled approach can perform service discovery with 35% higher effectiveness with respect to existing baselines.

Abstract

This paper presents the design and development of heater control for a flexible embedded microheater (7000 um x 9000 um) for a lab-on-a-chip system. Our work focuses on advancing the PWM-based control system with the goal of reducing the system time constant. We also present the fabrication of an embedded flexible microheater in a PDMS substrate. We validate the efficacy of the flexible microheater and its control system by using it for glucose detection. A steady state temperature in the range of 40$^o$C to 120 degree C is achieved in approximately 40 s, with the heater's power consumption ranging from 0.4 W to 2 W. The novelty of the work lies in that we have made a small, flexible, low-cost chip without the use of sophisticated equipment or conventional fabrication techniques.

Abstract

Chart question answering (CQA) is a crucial area of Visual Language Understanding. However, the robustness and consistency of current Visual Language Models (VLMs) in this field remain under-explored. This paper evaluates state-of-the-art VLMs on comprehensive datasets, developed specifically for this study, encompassing diverse question categories and chart formats. We investigate two key aspects: 1) the models' ability to handle varying levels of chart and question complexity, and 2) their robustness across different visual representations of the same underlying data. Our analysis reveals significant performance variations based on question and chart types, highlighting both strengths and weaknesses of current models. Additionally, we identify areas for improvement and propose future research directions to build more robust and reliable CQA systems. This study sheds light on the limitations of current models and paves the way for future advancements in the field.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for low cost, scalable approaches to measuring contactless vital signs, either during initial triage at a healthcare facility or virtual telemedicine visits. Remote photoplethysmography (rPPG) can accurately estimate heart rate (HR) when applied to closeup videos of healthy volunteers in well-lit laboratory settings. However, results from such highly optimized laboratory studies may not be readily translated to healthcare settings. One significant barrier to practical application of rPPG in healthcare is accurate localization of region of interest (ROI). Clinical or telemedicine visits may involve sub-optimal lighting, movement artifacts, variable camera angle, and subject distance. This paper presents an rPPG ROI selection method based on 3D facial landmarks and patient head yaw angle. We then demonstrate robustness of this ROI selection method when coupled to Plane-Orthogonal-to-Skin (POS) rPPG method when applied to videos of patients presenting to an Emergency Department for respiratory complaints. Our primary contributions are twofold: (1) a robust ROI selection framework that adapts to real-world clinical scenarios, and (2) first unrestricted rPPG dataset collected from emergency ward settings, addressing critical gaps between controlled laboratory conditions and real-world clinical environments. Our results demonstrate effectiveness of our proposed approach in improving accuracy and robustness of rPPG in a challenging clinical environment.