Hamid Asgari

Abanoub Ghobrial, Darryl Hond, Hamid Asgari et al.

Due to the black box nature of deep neural networks (DNN), the continuous validation of DNN during operation is challenging with the absence of a human monitor. As a result this makes it difficult for developers and regulators to gain confidence in the deployment of autonomous systems employing DNN. It is critical for safety during operation to know when DNN's predictions are trustworthy or suspicious. With the absence of a human monitor, the basic approach is to use the model's output confidence score to assess if predictions are trustworthy or suspicious. However, the model's confidence score is a result of computations coming from a black box, therefore lacks transparency and makes it challenging to automatedly credit trustworthiness to predictions. We introduce the trustworthiness score (TS), a simple metric that provides a more transparent and effective way of providing confidence in DNN predictions compared to model's confidence score. The metric quantifies the trustworthiness in a prediction by checking for the existence of certain features in the predictions made by the DNN. We also use the underlying idea of the TS metric, to provide a suspiciousness score (SS) in the overall input frame to help in the detection of suspicious frames where false negatives exist. We conduct a case study using YOLOv5 on persons detection to demonstrate our method and usage of TS and SS. The case study shows that using our method consistently improves the precision of predictions compared to relying on model confidence score alone, for both 1) approving of trustworthy predictions (~20% improvement) and 2) detecting suspicious frames (~5% improvement).

Abanoub Ghobrial, Xuan Zheng, Darryl Hond et al.

Autonomous systems (AS) often use Deep Neural Network (DNN) classifiers to allow them to operate in complex, high-dimensional, non-linear, and dynamically changing environments. Due to the complexity of these environments, DNN classifiers may output misclassifications during operation when they face domains not identified during development. Removing a system from operation for retraining becomes impractical as the number of such AS increases. To increase AS reliability and overcome this limitation, DNN classifiers need to have the ability to adapt during operation when faced with different operational domains using a few samples (e.g. 2 to 100 samples). However, retraining DNNs on a few samples is known to cause catastrophic forgetting and poor generalisation. In this paper, we introduce Dynamic Incremental Regularised Adaptation (DIRA), an approach for dynamic operational domain adaption of DNNs using regularisation techniques. We show that DIRA improves on the problem of forgetting and achieves strong gains in performance when retraining using a few samples from the target domain. Our approach shows improvements on different image classification benchmarks aimed at evaluating robustness to distribution shifts (e.g.CIFAR-10C/100C, ImageNet-C), and produces state-of-the-art performance in comparison with other methods from the literature.

Konstantinos Katsaros, Ioannis Mavromatis, Kostantinos Antonakoglou et al.

The development of the sixth generation of communication networks (6G) has been gaining momentum over the past years, with a target of being introduced by 2030. Several initiatives worldwide are developing innovative solutions and setting the direction for the key features of these networks. Some common emerging themes are the tight integration of AI, the convergence of multiple access technologies and sustainable operation, aiming to meet stringent performance and societal requirements. To that end, we are introducing REASON - Realising Enabling Architectures and Solutions for Open Networks. The REASON project aims to address technical challenges in future network deployments, such as E2E service orchestration, sustainability, security and trust management, and policy management, utilising AI-native principles, considering multiple access technologies and cloud-native solutions. This paper presents REASON's architecture and the identified requirements for future networks. The architecture is meticulously designed for modularity, interoperability, scalability, simplified troubleshooting, flexibility, and enhanced security, taking into consideration current and future standardisation efforts, and the ease of implementation and training. It is structured into four horizontal layers: Physical Infrastructure, Network Service, Knowledge, and End-User Application, complemented by two vertical layers: Management and Orchestration, and E2E Security. This layered approach ensures a robust, adaptable framework to support the diverse and evolving requirements of 6G networks, fostering innovation and facilitating seamless integration of advanced technologies.

Abanoub Ghobrial, Samuel Budgett, Dieter Balemans et al.

There is a lot of ongoing research effort into developing different techniques for neural networks compression. However, the community lacks standardised evaluation metrics, which are key to identifying the most suitable compression technique for different applications. This paper reviews existing neural network compression evaluation metrics and implements them into a standardisation framework called NetZIP. We introduce two novel metrics to cover existing gaps of evaluation in the literature: 1) Compression and Hardware Agnostic Theoretical Speed (CHATS) and 2) Overall Compression Success (OCS). We demonstrate the use of NetZIP using two case studies on two different hardware platforms (a PC and a Raspberry Pi 4) focusing on object classification and object detection.