Invisible Saboteurs in Networked Control Systems In our increasingly connected world, many critical systems—from power grids to manufacturing plants—rely on networked communication between controllers and the machines they manage. These systems, known as discrete event systems (DES), operate by responding to sequences of events, like switches flipping or sensors triggering. But what happens when the…
In the ever-evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, the latest breakthrough comes not from teaching machines new tricks, but from empowering them to rethink how they solve problems. Researchers from Tsinghua University, StepFun, University of Toronto, Peking University, and other institutions have unveiled SE-Agent, a novel AI framework that lets language-model-powered agents self-evolve their reasoning strategies…
From Scribbles to Structures Picture a child drawing the Eiffel Tower with a few rough lines and then asking a robot to build it. For humans, this leap from a simple 2D sketch to a towering 3D structure is almost intuitive. But for robots, it’s a puzzle wrapped in ambiguity. They need exact 3D coordinates…
The subtle art of algebraic centralizers In the world of abstract algebra, where structures twist and turn in ways that defy everyday intuition, mathematicians often seek patterns that simplify complexity. One such pattern involves centralizers—special maps that commute with multiplication in a controlled way. But what happens when we relax the rules slightly and consider…
In the intricate dance of quantum information theory, completely positive operators play a starring role. These mathematical objects, which can be thought of as the quantum equivalent of certain matrix transformations, underpin much of how we understand quantum systems and their evolution. At the heart of recent advances lies a mysterious quantity called the capacity…
Listening to the Heart Without Touching It What if your heart could be monitored without a single electrode stuck to your skin or a smartwatch strapped to your wrist? Researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and their collaborators have been exploring a fascinating frontier: using radar waves to eavesdrop on the subtle vibrations of your heartbeat…
Why Crowdsourcing Needs a Smarter Truth Detector In a world awash with data, crowdsourcing has become a go-to method for gathering information, from labeling images to fact-checking news. But here’s the catch: not all contributors are equally reliable. Some annotators might be experts, others novices, and many simply inconsistent. When dozens or hundreds of people…
Why Do Stories Move Us So Deeply? There’s a reason why tales from ancient myths to blockbuster movies often feel familiar, no matter where or when they were told. Beneath the surface of every story lies a pattern of emotional highs and lows—a rhythm of hope, despair, triumph, and setback that resonates with our shared…
Seeing the Unseen Currents That Shape Our World Fluid dynamics—the study of how liquids and gases move—often feels like a hidden art. It’s the invisible choreography behind everything from the way birds soar to how smoke curls from a chimney. Yet, for many students, the swirling eddies and invisible forces remain abstract concepts, trapped in…
Tracing the Invisible with Cosmic Tidal Streams Galaxies are not isolated islands but dynamic cities shaped by cosmic collisions and mergers. When a small galaxy ventures too close to a larger one, gravity tears it apart, leaving behind delicate stellar streams—ghostly rivers of stars arcing through space. These streams are more than just beautiful remnants;…
Why Does It Matter Where Things Are and How They’re Oriented? Picture a robot in a kitchen trying to grab a mug. It’s not enough for the robot to just spot the mug in a photo; it needs to understand exactly how the mug is positioned in three-dimensional space. Is it upright or tilted? How…
Why Real-Time Resource Allocation Feels Like a High-Stakes Game In the sprawling digital ecosystems of today—think smart factories humming with robotic arms, power grids balancing supply and demand, or fleets of autonomous drones coordinating in the sky—resources are precious and must be divvied up with surgical precision. But unlike a leisurely game of chess, these…
When Silicon Hits Its Limits, Molecules Step In Silicon photonics has been the backbone of modern optical communication, enabling data to zip through fiber networks at blistering speeds. But silicon itself has a stubborn blind spot: it doesn’t exhibit the electro-optic (EO) effect known as the Pockels effect, which is crucial for ultrafast, energy-efficient modulation…
Blending Art and Identity Without Training In the world of AI-generated images, the magic often lies in how well a model can blend a subject—say, a beloved pet or a favorite object—with a particular artistic style, like watercolor or 3D rendering. This fusion is more than just slapping a filter over a photo; it’s about…
Why Lighting Tricks Our Cameras and Computers We live in a world painted by light. The colors we see, the shadows that dance across surfaces, and the subtle textures that define objects all depend on how light interacts with the environment. But this seemingly simple relationship between light and what we see is anything but…
Unveiling the Invisible Web Behind Market Movements Financial markets often feel like a vast, chaotic ocean—billions of dollars ebbing and flowing, prices rising and falling in a dizzying dance. Yet beneath this apparent chaos lies a hidden architecture: a network of relationships connecting assets, sectors, and economic forces. Understanding this invisible web is crucial for…
Why Feeling Matters More Than Seeing for Robots Robots opening doors, pulling drawers, or twisting knobs might sound like a mundane chore, but it’s a surprisingly complex dance of touch, prediction, and adaptation. At the heart of this challenge is the robot’s ability to understand and manipulate objects that aren’t rigid or fixed — things…
Building the Future One Layer at a Time 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, has revolutionized how we create objects—from intricate aerospace parts to custom medical implants. But beneath the surface of this seemingly magical layering process lies a complex dance of physics and mathematics. How do you design a structure that not only performs well…
Why Measuring Speech Quality Is More Than Just Numbers When you’re on a call and the audio sounds muffled or robotic, you instinctively know something’s wrong. But how do machines figure out if speech sounds good or bad? For decades, engineers have relied on metrics that compare a noisy or enhanced audio clip to a…
Beyond One-Size-Fits-All in Robot Decision-Making In the world of artificial intelligence, teaching machines to make decisions often feels like training a dog to fetch a ball: you reward the behavior you want, and over time, the dog learns to repeat it. But what if the dog had to fetch the ball quickly and gently, without…