Italy

Machine Learning Techniques, properly combined with Data Structures, have resulted in Learned Static Indexes, innovative and powerful tools that speed-up Binary Search, with the use of additional space with respect to the table being searched into. Such space is devoted to the ML model. Although in their infancy, they are methodologically and practically important, due to the pervasiveness of Sorted Table Search procedures. In modern applications, model space is a key factor and, in fact, a major open question concerning this area is to assess to what extent one can enjoy the speed-up of Learned Indexes while using constant or nearly constant space models. We address it here by (a) introducing two new models, i.e., denoted {\bf KO-BFS} and {\bf SY-RMI}, respectively; (b) by systematically exploring, for the first time, the time-space trade-offs of a hierarchy of existing models, i.e., the ones in {\bf SOSD}, together with the new ones. We document a novel and rather complex time-space trade-off picture, which is very informative for users. We experimentally show that the {\bf KO-BFS }can speed up Interpolation Search and Uniform Binary Search in constant space. For other versions of Binary Search, our second model, together with the bi-criteria {\bf PGM} index, can achieve a speed-up with a model space of 0.05% more than the one taken by the table, being competitive in terms of time-space trade-off with existing proposals. The {\bf SY-RMI} and the bi-criteria {\bf PGM} complement each other quite well across the various levels of the internal memory hierarchy. Finally, our findings are of interest to designers, since they highlight the need for further studies regarding the time-space relation in Learned Indexes.

AIxIA 2021

Learned Sorted Table Search and Static Indexes in Small Model Space

AAMAS is the largest and most influential conference in the area of agents and multiagent systems, bringing together researchers and practitioners in all areas of agent technology and providing and internationally renowned high-profile forum for publishing and finding out about the latest developments in the field. AAMAS is the flagship conference of the non-profit International Foundation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (IFAAMAS).  

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AAMAS 2021

technical paper

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The 20th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (**AIxIA 2021**) is organized by AIxIA (Associazione Italiana per l’Intelligenza Artificiale), which is a non-profit scientific society founded in 1988 and devoted to the promotion of Artificial Intelligence. The society aims to increase the public awareness of AI, encourage the teaching of it and promote research in the field.

 
 



**General Chair**

Stefania Bandini, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italyand RCAST - The University of Tokyo, Japan


**Program Chairs**

Viviana Mascardi, University of Genova, Italy; Matteo Palmonari, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; Giuseppe Vizzari, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

**Organizing Committee**

Francesca Gasparini, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy (**Chair**); Stefano Ferilli, University of Bari, Italy; Marta Giltri, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy; Daniela Briola, University of Insubria, Italy


**Publicity and Communication Committee**

Elisabetta Fersini, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy (**Chair**); Angelo Ferrando, University of Genova, Italy; Francesca Alessandra Lisi, University of Bari, Italy; Giovanni Stilo, University of L'Aquila, Italy; Marco Viviani, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy


**Workshop Chairs**

Gabriella Cortellessa, ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy; Silvia Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Fabio Stella, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy


**PC Members**

Fulvio Mastrogiovanni, University of Genova, Italy; Roberto Basili, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy; Nicola Gatti, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy; Stefano Bistarelli, University of Perugia, Italy; Piero Poccianti, Consorzio Operativo Gruppo MPS, Italy; Francesco Scarcello, University of Calabria, Italy; Flavio S. Correa Da Silva, University of São Paulo, Brazil; Elena Cabrio, Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS, Inria, I3S, France; Antonio Lieto, University of Turin, Italy; Diego Calvanese, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy; Alessio Micheli, University of Pisa, Italy; Francesca A. Lisi University of Bari Aldo Moro, Italy; Mauro Vallati, University of Huddersfield, United Kingdom; Bernardo Magnini, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy; Luigia C. Aiello, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Rafael H. Bordini, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Chiara Ghidini, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy; Federico Bergenti, University of Parma, Italy; Francesco Ricca, University of Calabria, Italy; Andrea Burattin, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark; Angelo Oddi, ISTC-CNR, Italian National Research Council, Italy; Farshad Badie, Aalborg University, Denmark; Emanuel Sallinger, University of Oxford, United Kingdom; Marin Lujak, University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain; Giancarlo Fortino, University of Calabria, Italy; Salvatore Gaglio, University of Palermo, Italy; Johannes K. Fichte, TU Dresden, Germany; Matteo Baldoni, University of Turin, Italy; Fabrizio Riguzzi, Univeristy of Ferrara, Italy; Ivana Dusparic, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland; Serena Villata, CNRS - Laboratoire d'Informatique, Signaux et Systèmes de Sophia-Antipolis, France; Paolo Rosso, Technical University of Valencia, Spain; Ana L. C. Bazzan, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; Gianluigi Greco, University of Calabria, Italy; Stefano Cagnoni, University of Parma, Italy; Gian Luca Pozzato, University of Turin, Italy; Salvatore Ruggieri, University of Turin, Italy; Claudio Di Ciccio, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy; Eloisa Vargiu, Cetaqua, Water Technology Center, Spain; Marco Maratea, University of Genova, Italy; Andrea Roli, University of Bologna, Italy; Viviana Patti, University of Turin, Italy; Stefania Costantini, University of L'Aquila, Italy; Antonius Weinzierl, Vienna University of Technology, Austria; Silvia Rossi, University of Naples Federico II, Italy; Giovanni Semeraro, University of Bari, Italy; Luciano Serafini, Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy; Laura Giordano, University of Eastern Piedmont, Italy; Ernesto Jimenez-Ruiz, City, University of London, United Kingdom; Marco Gavanelli, University of Ferrara, Italy; Federico Chesani, University of Bologna, Italy

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The 20th International Conference of the Italian Association for Artificial Intelligence (AIxIA 2021) is organized by AIxIA (Associazione Italiana per l’Intelligenza Artificiale), which is a non-profit scientific society founded in 1988 and devoted to the promotion of Artificial Intelligence. The society aims to increase the public awareness of AI, encourage the teaching of it and promote research in the field.

Sparse-reward environments are famously challenging for deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms. Yet, the prospect of solving intrinsically sparse tasks in an end-to-end fashion without any extra reward engineering is highly appealing. Such aspiration has recently led to the development of numerous DRL algorithms able to handle sparse-reward environments to some extent. Some methods have even gone one step further and have tackled sparse tasks involving different kinds of distractors (e.g. broken TV, self-moving phantom objects and many more). In this work, we put forward two motivating new sparse-reward environments containing the so-far largely overlooked class of exploration-intensive distractors. Furthermore, we conduct a benchmarking which reveals that state-of-the-art algorithms are not yet all-around suitable for solving the proposed environments.

Exploration-Intensive Distractors: Two Environment Proposals and a Benchmarking

The broad availability of machine learning (ML) libraries and frameworks makes the rapid prototyping of ML models a relatively easy task to achieve. However, the quality of prototypes is challenged by their reproducibility. Reproducing an ML experiment typically entails repeating the whole process, from data collection to model building, other than multiple optimization steps that must be carefully tracked. In this paper, we define a comprehensive taxonomy to characterize tools for ML experiment tracking and review some of the most popular solutions under the lens of the taxonomy. The taxonomy and related recommendations may help data scientists to more easily orient themselves and make an informed choice when selecting appropriate tools to shape the workflow of their ML experiments.

A Taxonomy of Tools for Reproducible Machine Learning Experiments

Siamese Networks with Transfer Learning for Change Detection in Sentinel-2 Images

Virtual Power Plants (VPP) are one of the main components of future smart electrical grids, connecting and integrating several types of energy sources, loads and storage devices. A typical VPP is a large industrial plant with high (partially shiftable) electric and thermal loads, renewable energy generators and electric and thermal storages. Optimizing the use and the cost of energy could lead to a significant economic impact. This work proposes a VPP Energy Management System (EMS), based on a two-step optimization model that decides the minimum-cost energy balance at each point in time considering the following data: electrical load, photovoltaic production, electricity costs, upper and lower limits for generating units and storage units. The first (day-ahead) step models the prediction uncertainty using a robust approach defining scenarios to optimize the load demand shift and to estimate the cost. The second step is an online optimization algorithm, implemented within a simulator, that uses the optimal shifts produced by the previous step to minimize, for each timestamp, the real cost while fully covering the optimally shifted energy demand. The system is implemented and tested using real data and we provide analysis of results and comparison between real and estimated optimal costs.

Robust optimization models for local flexibility characterization of Virtual Power Plants

Knowledge-based neural pre-training for Intelligent Document Management

Artificial Intelligence solutions are empowering many fields of knowledge, including art. Indeed, the growing availability of large collections of digitized artworks, coupled with recent advances in Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision, offer new opportunities for researchers in these fields to help the art community with automatic and intelligent support tools. In this discussion paper, we outline some research directions that we are exploring to contribute to the challenge of understanding art with AI. Specifically, our current research is primarily concerned with visual link retrieval, artwork clustering, integrating new features based on contextual information encoded in a knowledge graph, and implementing these methods on social robots to provide new engaging user interfaces. The application of Information Technology to fine arts has countless applications, the most important of which concerns the preservation and fruition of our cultural heritage, which has been severely penalized, along with other sectors, by the ongoing COVID pandemic. On the other hand, the artistic domain poses entirely new challenges to the traditional ones, which, if addressed, can push the limits of current methods to achieve better semantic scene understanding.

Understanding Art with AI: Our Research Experience

Respecting and caring for the environment is an aspect that is becoming more important with each passing year. The damage caused by human beings to the planet has triggered a global climate change, favoring the creation of major weather phenomena, increasing the temperatures, and changing the rainfall cycles, which in turn make access to water more complicated. The effects mentioned above are only a part of the true impact of Climate Change, and taking this into account, the European Union has established the European Directive 20-20-20 in an attempt to try to slow it down and mitigate its impact on the planet. In this regard, Italy suffers greatly from water wastage due to leaks in the supply system and a practically non-existent culture of saving water. To address this problem, in this paper, we propose a system based on the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor water consumption in real-time, as well as to detect and prevent possible failures in the water supply system, allowing to save water and economic resources due to maintenance. We evaluate the potential of our system by testing it in a real environment in the province of Catanzaro.

Hydrocontrol IT: an attempt to mitigate water losses in Italy towns

Scientific research implies the production of data describing phenomena still not studied and well understood. Sometimes the amount and rate of generation of produced data can be overwhelming, and anyway tools supporting a computer assisted analysis of scientific data can support systematic forms of data driven analysis. Machine learning can be an instrument in an overall flow including domain experts and computer scientists. Adopted machine learning approaches need to be unsupervised, employing just the input data as a teacher. We propose a two-step workflow: (i) achieving a compact representation of elements of the dataset by means of representation learning techniques, shifting the analysis from cumbersome representations to compact vectors in a latent space, and (ii) clustering points associated to instances to suggest patterns to the domain experts that will evaluate their potential meaning within the domain. The paper presents the rationale of the approach within a cloud based setting, and first experiments on an image dataset from the literature.

Unsupervised Data Pattern Discovery on the Cloud

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have become commonplace in addressing major challenges in computer vision. Researchers are not only coming up with new CNN architectures but are also researching different techniques to improve the performance of existing architectures. However, there is a tendency to over-emphasize performance improvement while neglecting certain important variables such as simplicity, versatility, the fairness of comparisons, and energy efficiency. Overlooking these variables in architectural design and evaluation has led to research bias and a significantly negative environmental impact. Furthermore, this can undermine the positive impact of research in using deep learning models to tackle climate change. Here, we perform an extensive and fair empirical study of a number of proposed techniques to gauge the utility of each technique for segmentation and classification. Our findings restate the importance of favoring simplicity over complexity in model design (Occam's Razor). Furthermore, our results indicate that simple standardized practices can lead to a significant reduction in environmental impact with little drop in performance. We highlight that there is a need to rethink the design and evaluation of CNNs to alleviate the issue of research bias and carbon emissions.

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Exploration-Intensive Distractors: Two Environment Proposals and a Benchmarking

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