Zhiyi Li

Zhiyi Li, Douglas Orr, Valeriu Ohan et al.

Reducing the computational cost of running large scale neural networks using sparsity has attracted great attention in the deep learning community. While much success has been achieved in reducing FLOP and parameter counts while maintaining acceptable task performance, achieving actual speed improvements has typically been much more difficult, particularly on general purpose accelerators (GPAs) such as NVIDIA GPUs using low precision number formats. In this work we introduce PopSparse, a library that enables fast sparse operations on Graphcore IPUs by leveraging both the unique hardware characteristics of IPUs as well as any block structure defined in the data. We target two different types of sparsity: static, where the sparsity pattern is fixed at compile-time; and dynamic, where it can change each time the model is run. We present benchmark results for matrix multiplication for both of these modes on IPU with a range of block sizes, matrix sizes and densities. Results indicate that the PopSparse implementations are faster than dense matrix multiplications on IPU at a range of sparsity levels with large matrix size and block size. Furthermore, static sparsity in general outperforms dynamic sparsity. While previous work on GPAs has shown speedups only for very high sparsity (typically 99\% and above), the present work demonstrates that our static sparse implementation outperforms equivalent dense calculations in FP16 at lower sparsity (around 90%). IPU code is available to view and run at ipu.dev/sparsity-benchmarks, GPU code will be made available shortly.

Pengcheng Hou, Tao Wang, Daniel Cerkoney et al.

Quantum field theory (QFT) for interacting many-electron systems is fundamental to condensed matter physics, yet achieving accurate solutions confronts computational challenges in managing the combinatorial complexity of Feynman diagrams, implementing systematic renormalization, and evaluating high-dimensional integrals. We present a unifying framework that integrates QFT computational workflows with an AI-powered technology stack. A cornerstone of this framework is representing Feynman diagrams as computational graphs, which structures the inherent mathematical complexity and facilitates the application of optimized algorithms developed for machine learning and high-performance computing. Consequently, automatic differentiation, native to these graph representations, delivers efficient, fully automated, high-order field-theoretic renormalization procedures. This graph-centric approach also enables sophisticated numerical integration; our neural-network-enhanced Monte Carlo method, accelerated via massively parallel GPU implementation, efficiently evaluates challenging high-dimensional diagrammatic integrals. Applying this framework to the uniform electron gas, we determine the quasiparticle effective mass to a precision significantly surpassing current state-of-the-art simulations. Our work demonstrates the transformative potential of integrating AI-driven computational advances with QFT, opening systematic pathways for solving complex quantum many-body problems across disciplines.

Yichen Li, Zhiyi Li, Brandon Feng et al.

Digital twin worlds with realistic interactive dynamics presents a new opportunity to develop generalist embodied agents in scannable environments with complex physical behaviors. To this end, we present GDGen (Generalized Representation for Generalized Dynamics Generation), a framework that takes a potential energy perspective to seamlessly integrate rigid body, articulated body, and soft body dynamics into a unified, geometry-agnostic system. GDGen operates from the governing principle that the potential energy for any stable physical system should be low. This fresh perspective allows us to treat the world as one holistic entity and infer underlying physical properties from simple motion observations. We extend classic elastodynamics by introducing directional stiffness to capture a broad spectrum of physical behaviors, covering soft elastic, articulated, and rigid body systems. We propose a specialized network to model the extended material property and employ a neural field to represent deformation in a geometry-agnostic manner. Extensive experiments demonstrate that GDGen robustly unifies diverse simulation paradigms, offering a versatile foundation for creating interactive virtual environments and training robotic agents in complex, dynamically rich scenarios.

Xuan Liu, Zhiyi Li, Zuyi Li

Power systems become more prone to cyber-attacks due to the high integration of information technologies. In this paper, we demonstrate that the outages of some lines can be masked by injecting false data into a set of measurements. The success of the topology attack can be guaranteed by making that: 1)the injected false data obeys KCL and KVL to avoid being detected by the bad data detection program in the state estimation; 2)the residual is increased such that the line outage cannot be detected by PMU data. A quadratic programming problem is set up to determine the optimal attack vector that can maximize the residual of the outaged line. The IEEE 39-bus system is used to demonstrate the masking scheme.