The abrupt outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was the most significant event in 2020, which had profound and lasting impacts across the world. Studies on energy markets observed a decline in energy demand and changes in energy consumption behaviors during COVID-19. However, as an essential part of system operation, how the load forecasting performs amid COVID-19 is not well understood. This paper aims to bridge the research gap by systematically evaluating models and features that can be used to improve the load forecasting performance amid COVID-19. Using real-world data from the New York Independent System Operator, our analysis employs three deep learning models and adopts both novel COVID-related features as well as classical weather-related features. We also propose simulating the stay-at-home situation with pre-stay-at-home weekend data and demonstrate its effectiveness in improving load forecasting accuracy during COVID-19.
We address the problem of generating a high-resolution surface reconstruction from a single image. Our approach is to learn a Higher Order Function (HOF) which takes an image of an object as input and generates a mapping function. The mapping function takes samples from a canonical domain (e.g. the unit sphere) and maps each sample to a local tangent plane on the 3D reconstruction of the object. Each tangent plane is represented as an origin point and a normal vector at that point. By efficiently learning a continuous mapping function, the surface can be generated at arbitrary resolution in contrast to other methods which generate fixed resolution outputs. We present the Surface HOF in which both the higher order function and the mapping function are represented as neural networks, and train the networks to generate reconstructions of PointNet objects. Experiments show that Surface HOF is more accurate and uses more efficient representations than other state of the art methods for surface reconstruction. Surface HOF is also easier to train: it requires minimal input pre-processing and output post-processing and generates surface representations that are more parameter efficient. Its accuracy and convenience make Surface HOF an appealing method for single image reconstruction.
Event cameras provide a number of benefits over traditional cameras, such as the ability to track incredibly fast motions, high dynamic range, and low power consumption. However, their application into computer vision problems, many of which are primarily dominated by deep learning solutions, has been limited by the lack of labeled training data for events. In this work, we propose a method which leverages the existing labeled data for images by simulating events from a pair of temporal image frames, using a convolutional neural network. We train this network on pairs of images and events, using an adversarial discriminator loss and a pair of cycle consistency losses. The cycle consistency losses utilize a pair of pre-trained self-supervised networks which perform optical flow estimation and image reconstruction from events, and constrain our network to generate events which result in accurate outputs from both of these networks. Trained fully end to end, our network learns a generative model for events from images without the need for accurate modeling of the motion in the scene, exhibited by modeling based methods, while also implicitly modeling event noise. Using this simulator, we train a pair of downstream networks on object detection and 2D human pose estimation from events, using simulated data from large scale image datasets, and demonstrate the networks' abilities to generalize to datasets with real events.
Martin Hangaard Hansen, José A. Garrido Torres, Paul C. Jennings et al.
We present work flows and a software module for machine learning model building in surface science and heterogeneous catalysis. This includes fingerprinting atomic structures from 3D structure and/or connectivity information, it includes descriptor selection methods and benchmarks, and it includes active learning frameworks for atomic structure optimization, acceleration of screening studies and for exploration of the structure space of nano particles, which are all atomic structure problems relevant for surface science and heterogeneous catalysis. Our overall goal is to provide a repository to ease machine learning model building for catalysis, to advance the models beyond the chemical intuition of the user and to increase autonomy for exploration of chemical space.