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Fast and stable deep-learning predictions of material properties for solid solution alloys

We present a novel deep learning (DL) approach to produce highly accurate predictions of macroscopic physical properties of solid solution binary alloys and magnetic systems. The major idea is to make use of the correlations between different physical properties in alloy systems to improve the prediction accuracy of neural network (NN) models. We use multitasking NN models to simultaneously predict the total energy, charge density and magnetic moment. These physical properties mutually serve as constraints during the training of the multitasking NN, resulting in more reliable DL models because multiple physics properties are correctly learned by a single model. Two binary alloys, copper–gold (CuAu) and iron–platinum (FePt), were studied. Our results show that once the multitasking NN's are trained, they can estimate the material properties for a specific configuration hundreds of times faster than first-principles density functional theory calculations while retaining comparable accuracy. We used a simple measure based on the root-mean-squared errors to quantify the quality of the NN models, and found that the inclusion of charge density and magnetic moment as physical constraints leads to more stable models that exhibit improved accuracy and reduced uncertainty for the energy predictions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Deep Learning Experiments for Tropical Cyclone Intensity Forecasts

Reducing tropical cyclone (TC) intensity forecast errors is a challenging task that has interested the operational forecasting and research community for decades. To address this, we developed a deep learning (DL)-based multilayer perceptron (MLP) TC intensity prediction model. The model was trained using the global Statistical Hurricane Intensity Prediction Scheme (SHIPS) predictors to forecast the change in TC maximum wind speed for the Atlantic basin. In the first experiment, a 24-h forecast period was considered. To overcome sample size limitations, we adopted a leave one year out (LOYO) testing scheme, where a model is trained using data from all years except one and then evaluated on the year that is left out. When tested on 2010–18 operational data using the LOYO scheme, the MLP outperformed other statistical–dynamical models by 9%–20%. Additional independent tests in 2019 and 2020 were conducted to simulate real-time operational forecasts, where the MLP model again outperformed the statistical–dynamical models by 5%–22% and achieved comparable results as HWFI. The MLP model also correctly predicted more rapid intensification events than all the four operational TC intensity models compared. In the second experiment, we developed a lightweight MLP for 6-h intensity predictions. When coupled with a synthetic TC track model, the lightweight MLP generated realistic TC intensity distribution in the Atlantic basin. Therefore, the MLP-based approach has the potential to improve operational TC intensity forecasts, and will also be a viable option for generating synthetic TCs for climate studies.

58 GEOSCIENCES↗

Multiscale Characterization of Additive Manufacturing Components with Computed Tomography, 3D X-ray Microscopy, and Deep Learning

Additive manufacturing (AM) facilitates the creation of complex-geometry parts, driving advancements in lightweight aerospace components, high-efficiency engine cooling channels, and customized medical implants. However, ensuring the quality and reliability of AM parts remains challenging due to internal defects, surface irregularities, porosity, and residual trapped powder, which are often inaccessible to traditional inspection methods. Recent developments in X-ray computed tomography (XCT) and 3D X-ray microscopy (XRM), particularly systems equipped with resolution-at-a-distance (RaaD™) capabilities, enable high-resolution, non-destructive evaluation of AM components across multiple scales, from sub-micrometer to macroscopic levels. This paper explores modern XCT and XRM techniques for multiscale characterization of AM parts, focusing on their ability to detect and analyze defects such as porosity, cracks, inclusions, and surface roughness, while offering insights into defect formation mechanisms, material properties, and process-induced variations. The integration of deep learning (DL) frameworks, including Simurgh, DeepRecon, and DeepScout, enhances XCT/XRM workflows by reducing scan times, improving resolution recovery, and enabling accurate defect detection even with limited projection data. These DL-based methods overcome limitations of traditional reconstruction techniques, enabling faster, more reliable characterization of dense materials like Inconel 718 and novel alloys such as AlCe. Applications include process parameter optimization, high-throughput quality control, and multistage AM process evaluation, with DL-enhanced workflows accelerating analysis times from weeks to days. Correlative imaging approaches further validate XCT and XRM data against scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images of physically sectioned samples, confirming the accuracy of DL-based reconstructions and enabling comprehensive defect analysis. While challenges remain in generalizing DL models to diverse materials and imaging conditions, improvements in resolution, noise reduction, and defect detection highlight the transformative potential of these methods. This multiscale and correlative approach enables precise identification and correlation of microstructural features with the overall performance of AM components. By integrating advanced XCT, XRM, and DL techniques, this paper demonstrates a significant leap forward in AM characterization, offering valuable insights into the relationships between processing parameters, microstructure, and part performance, and driving innovations that enhance the quality and reliability of AM products for demanding industrial applications.

Additive manufacturing↗

Probabilistic Diffusion Models Advance Extreme Flood Forecasting

Extreme floods pose escalating risks in a changing climate, yet forecasting remains challenging due to peak flow underestimation and high uncertainty. We introduce diffusion-based runoff model (DRUM), a probabilistic deep learning (DL) approach that advances extreme flood forecasting across representative basins in the contiguous United States. DRUM outperforms state-of-the-art benchmarks, enhancing nowcasting skill for the top 1‰ of flows in 72.3% of studied basins. Under operational scenarios, DRUM extends reliable lead times by nearly a full day for 20- and 50-year floods. When evaluated with measured precipitation, an ideal condition, recall improves by 0.3–0.4 and the early warning window extends by 2.3 days for 50-year floods. The enhancement potential varies regionally, with precipitation-driven flood zones in the eastern and northwestern US benefiting most, gaining 3–7 days in lead time. These findings highlight the transformative potential of diffusion models as a cutting-edge generative AI technique for advancing hydrology and broader Earth system sciences.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Deep-learning-based workflow for boundary and small target segmentation in digital rock images using UNet++ and IK-EBM

We report three-dimensional (3D) X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT) has been widely used in petroleum engineering because it can provide detailed pore structural information for a reservoir rock, which can be imported into a pore-scale numerical model to simulate the transport and distribution of multiple fluids in the pore space. The partial volume blurring (PVB) problem is a major challenge in segmenting raw μCT images of rock samples, which impacts boundaries and small targets near the resolution limit. We developed a deep-learning (DL)-based workflow for accurate and fast partial volume segmentation. The DL model's performance depends primarily on the training data quality and model architecture. This study employed the entropy-based-masking indicator kriging (IK-EBM) to segment 3D Berea sandstone images as training datasets. The comparison between IK-EBM and manual segmentation using a 3D synthetic sphere pack, which had a known ground truth, showed that IK-EBM had higher accuracy on partial volume segmentation. We then trained and tested the UNet++ model, a state-of-the-art supervised encoder-decoder model, for binary (i.e., void and solid) and four-class segmentation. We compared the UNet++ with the commonly used U-Net and wide U-Net models and showed that the UNet++ had the best performance in terms of pixel-wise and physics-based evaluation metrics. Specifically, boundary-scaled accuracy demonstrated that the UNet++ architecture outperformed the regular U-Net architecture in the segmentation of pixels near boundaries and small targets, which were subjected to the PVB effect. Feature map visualization illustrated that the UNet++ bridged the semantic gaps between the feature maps extracted at different depths of the network, thereby enabling faster convergence and more accurate extraction of fine-scale features. The developed workflow significantly enhances the performance of supervised encoder-decoder models in partial volume segmentation, which has extensive applications in fundamental studies of subsurface energy, water, and environmental systems.

02 PETROLEUM↗

Semi-supervised Bayesian Low-shot Learning

Deep neural networks (NNs) typically outperform traditional machine learning (ML) approaches for complicated, non-linear tasks. It is expected that deep learning (DL) should offer superior performance for the important non-proliferation task of predicting explosive device configuration based upon observed optical signature, a task which human experts struggle with. However, supervised machine learning is difficult to apply in this mission space because most recorded signatures are not associated with the corresponding device description, or “truth labels.” This is challenging for NNs, which traditionally require many samples for strong performance. Semi-supervised learning (SSL), low-shot learning (LSL), and uncertainty quantification (UQ) for NNs are emerging approaches that could bridge the mission gaps of few labels and rare samples of importance. NN explainability techniques are important in gaining insight into the inferential feature importance of such a complex model. In this work, SSL, LSL, and UQ are merged into a single framework, a significant technical hurdle not previously demonstrated. Exponential Average Adversarial Training (EAAT) and Pairwise Neural Networks (PNNs) are chosen as the SSL and LSL methods of choice. Permutation feature importance (PFI) for functional data is used to provide explainability via the Variable importance Explainable Elastic Shape Analysis (VEESA) pipeline. A variety of uncertainty quantification approaches are explored: Bayesian Neural Networks (BNNs), ensemble methods, concrete dropout, and evidential deep learning. Two final approaches, one utilizing ensemble methods and one utilizing evidential learning, are constructed and compared using a well-quantified synthetic 2D dataset along with the DIRSIG Megascene.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Advancing the Frontiers of Deep Learning for Low-Dose 3D Cone-Beam CT Reconstruction

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important noninvasive medical imaging modality for studying the structural details of internal organs. Image reconstruction in CT is an inverse problem of recovering an object's internal structure from the absorption profile of X-ray beams (sinogram) measured using a detector. The classical variational approach for CT reconstruction minimizes an energy functional using an appropriate iterative algorithm. Motivated by the success of deep learning (DL), researchers have begun to leverage training data and enhanced computing capabilities in recent years to produce high-fidelity reconstructed images. Nonetheless, much of the academic research in DL algorithms for CT has focused primarily on the two-dimensional setting (with simplified forward operators and noise model) for proofs-of-concept, and a comprehensive benchmarking of various classical and data-driven CT reconstruction approaches has not beenundertaken. The key objective of our CT reconstruction grand challenge was to promote methodological advancements for both classical and DL-based approaches for clinical CT with a reasonably accurately simulated 3D CT forward operator and noise model. We have utilized the publicly available LIDC-IDRI dataset and simulated sinograms and FDK images corresponding to two dose levels (clinical- and low-dose, constituting two tracks of the challenge) starting from the normal-dose images as the ground truth. In this paper, we summarize the motivation, context, and results of our challenge, and highlight the future research directions in DL for clinical CT.

X-ray tomography↗

Applications of explainable artificial intelligence in renewable energy research

Researchers in renewable energy are applying deep learning (DL) to a variety of problems from diverse renewable energy domains, such as biofuels, wind, solar, power systems, buildings, vehicles, and transportation systems. Improvements in accuracy may be demonstrated using DL in laboratory settings. However, the lack of interpretability of DL models poses a practical limitation to their utility in advancing scientific knowledge and in the deployment of DL models in safety-critical energy systems. In this article, we discuss explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) as one pathway toward more interpretable DL models. We explore a brief timeline of U.S. national laboratory interest in XAI, an overview and taxonomy of methods in the field of XAI, and a selection of applications across renewable energy research domains. We conclude by highlighting pivotal areas where XAI can accelerate innovation in artificial intelligence for renewable energy research and other essential future directions.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Scalable deep learning for watershed model calibration

Watershed models such as the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) consist of high-dimensional physical and empirical parameters. These parameters often need to be estimated/calibrated through inverse modeling to produce reliable predictions on hydrological fluxes and states. Existing parameter estimation methods can be time consuming, inefficient, and computationally expensive for high-dimensional problems. In this paper, we present an accurate and robust method to calibrate the SWAT model (i.e., 20 parameters) using scalable deep learning (DL). We developed inverse models based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) to assimilate observed streamflow data and estimate the SWAT model parameters. Scalable hyperparameter tuning is performed using high-performance computing resources to identify the top 50 optimal neural network architectures. We used ensemble SWAT simulations to train, validate, and test the CNN models. We estimated the parameters of the SWAT model using observed streamflow data and assessed the impact of measurement errors on SWAT model calibration. We tested and validated the proposed scalable DL methodology on the American River Watershed, located in the Pacific Northwest-based Yakima River basin. Our results show that the CNN-based calibration is better than two popular parameter estimation methods (i.e., the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation [GLUE] and the dynamically dimensioned search [DDS], which is a global optimization algorithm). For the set of parameters that are sensitive to the observations, our proposed method yields narrower ranges than the GLUE method but broader ranges than values produced using the DDS method within the sampling range even under high relative observational errors. The SWAT model calibration performance using the CNNs, GLUE, and DDS methods are compared using R 2 and a set of efficiency metrics, including Nash-Sutcliffe, logarithmic Nash-Sutcliffe, Kling-Gupta, modified Kling-Gupta, and non-parametric Kling-Gupta scores, computed on the observed and simulated watershed responses. The best CNN-based calibrated set has scores of 0.71, 0.75, 0.85, 0.85, 0.86, and 0.91. The best DDS-based calibrated set has scores of 0.62, 0.69, 0.8, 0.77, 0.79, and 0.82. The best GLUE-based calibrated set has scores of 0.56, 0.58, 0.71, 0.7, 0.71, and 0.8. The scores above show that the CNN-based calibration leads to more accurate low and high streamflow predictions than the GLUE and DDS sets. Our research demonstrates that the proposed method has high potential to improve our current practice in calibrating large-scale integrated hydrologic models.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Deep learning closure models for large-eddy simulation of flows around bluff bodies

Near-wall flow simulation remains a central challenge in aerodynamics modelling: Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes predictions of separated flows are often inaccurate, and large-eddy simulation (LES) can require prohibitively small near-wall mesh sizes. A deep learning (DL) closure model for LES is developed by introducing untrained neural networks into the governing equations and training in situ for incompressible flows around rectangular prisms at moderate Reynolds numbers. The DL-LES models are trained using adjoint partial differential equation (PDE) optimization methods to match, as closely as possible, direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. They are then evaluated out-of-sample – for aspect ratios, Reynolds numbers and bluff-body geometries not included in the training data – and compared with standard LES models. The DL-LES models outperform these models and are able to achieve accurate LES predictions on a relatively coarse mesh (downsampled from the DNS mesh by factors of four or eight in each Cartesian direction). We study the accuracy of the DL-LES model for predicting the drag coefficient, near-wall and far-field mean flow, and resolved Reynolds stress. A crucial challenge is that the LES quantities of interest are the steady-state flow statistics; for example, a time-averaged velocity component $\langle {u}_i\rangle (x) = \lim _{t \rightarrow \infty } ({1}/{t}) \int _0^t u_i(s,x)\, {\rm d}s$ . Calculating the steady-state flow statistics therefore requires simulating the DL-LES equations over a large number of flow times through the domain. It is a non-trivial question whether an unsteady PDE model with a functional form defined by a deep neural network can remain stable and accurate on $t \in [0, \infty )$ , especially when trained over comparatively short time intervals. Our results demonstrate that the DL-LES models are accurate and stable over long time horizons, which enables the estimation of the steady-state mean velocity, fluctuations and drag coefficient of turbulent flows around bluff bodies relevant to aerodynamics applications.

Mechanics↗

IoT Intrusion Detection Taxonomy, Reference Architecture, and Analyses

This paper surveys the deep learning (DL) approaches for intrusion-detection systems (IDSs) in Internet of Things (IoT) and the associated datasets toward identifying gaps, weaknesses, and a neutral reference architecture. A comparative study of IDSs is provided, with a review of anomaly-based IDSs on DL approaches, which include supervised, unsupervised, and hybrid methods. All techniques in these three categories have essentially been used in IoT environments. To date, only a few have been used in the anomaly-based IDS for IoT. For each of these anomaly-based IDSs, the implementation of the four categories of feature(s) extraction, classification, prediction, and regression were evaluated. We studied important performance metrics and benchmark detection rates, including the requisite efficiency of the various methods. Four machine learning algorithms were evaluated for classification purposes: Logistic Regression (LR), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree (DT), and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN). Therefore, we compared each via the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. The study model exhibits promising outcomes for all classes of attacks. The scope of our analysis examines attacks targeting the IoT ecosystem using empirically based, simulation-generated datasets (namely the Bot-IoT and the IoTID20 datasets).

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗

Physics‐Informed Machine Learning for Inverse Design of Optical Metamaterials

Optical metamaterials manipulate light through various confinement and scattering processes, offering unique advantages like high performance, small form factor and easy integration with semiconductor devices. However, designing metasurfaces with suitable optical responses for complex metamaterial systems remains challenging due to the exponentially growing computation cost and the ill‐posed nature of inverse problems. To expedite the computation for the inverse design of metasurfaces, a physics‐informed deep learning (DL) framework is used. A tandem DL architecture with physics‐based learning is used to select designs that are scientifically consistent, have low error in design prediction, and accurate reconstruction of optical responses. The authors focus on the inverse design of a representative plasmonic device and consider the prediction of design for the optical response of a single wavelength incident or a spectrum of wavelength in the visible light range. The physics‐based constraint is derived from solving the electromagnetic wave equations for a simplified homogenized model. The model converges with an accuracy up to 97% for inverse design prediction with the optical response for the visible light spectrum as input, and up to 96% for optical response of single wavelength of light as input, with optical response reconstruction accuracy of 99%.

Sarkar, Sulagna↗

Fast and Accurate Predictions of Total Energy for Solid Solution Alloys with Graph Convolutional Neural Networks

We use graph convolutional neural networks (GCNNs) to produce fast and accurate predictions of the total energy of solid solution binary alloys. GCNNs allow us to abstract the lattice structure of a solid material as a graph, whereby atoms are modeled as nodes and metallic bonds as edges. This representation naturally incorporates information about the structure of the material, thereby eliminating the need for computationally expensive data pre-processing which would be required with standard neural network (NN) approaches. We train GCNNs on ab-initio density functional theory (DFT) for copper-gold (CuAu) and iron-platinum (FePt) data that has been generated by running the LSMS-3 code, which implements a locally self-consistent multiple scattering method, on OLCF supercomputers Titan and Summit. GCNN outperforms the ab-initio DFT simulation by orders of magnitude in terms of computational time to produce the estimate of the total energy for a given atomic configuration of the lattice structure. We compare the predictive performance of GCNN models against a standard NN such as dense feedforward multi-layer perceptron (MLP) by using the root-mean-squared errors to quantify the predictive quality of the deep learning (DL) models. We find that the attainable accuracy of GCNNs is at least an order of magnitude better than that of the MLP.

Lupo Pasini, Massimiliano↗

Secure Collaborative Environment for Seamless Sharing of Scientific Knowledge

In a secure collaborative environment, tera-bytes of data generated from powerful scientific instruments are used to train secure machine learning (ML) models on exascale computing systems, which are then securely shared with internal or external collaborators as cloud-based services. Devising such a secure platform is necessary for seamless scientific knowledge sharing without compromising individual, or institute-level, intellectual property and privacy details. By enabling new computing opportunities with sensitive data, we envision a secure collaborative environment that will play a significant role in accelerating scientific discovery. Several recent technological advancements have made it possible to realize these capabilities. In this paper, we present our efforts at ORNL toward developing a secure computation platform. We present a use case where scientific data generated from complex instruments, like those at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), are used to train a differential privacy enabled deep learning (DL) network on Summit, which is then hosted as a secure multi-party computation (MPC) service on ORNL’s Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) cloud computing platform for third-party inference. In this feasibility study, we discuss the challenges involved, elaborate on leveraged technologies, analyze relevant performance results and present the future vision of our work to establish secure collaboration capabilities within and outside of ORNL.

Yoginath, Srikanth↗

A Dataset of CFD Simulated Industrial Furnace Images for Conditional Automatic Generation with GANs

The steel industry is constantly looking for ways to automate processes and improve efficiency. A standard practice in industry is to simulate how complex systems will operate before they are actually used. Some complex systems, including steel industry processes such as blast furnaces, require complex physics-based simulations utilizing computational fluid dynamics (CFD). These CFD physics-based simulations are very accurate but can take significant time and computational resources to process, resulting in challenges for the implementation of the models in real-world operational environments. In recent years, deep learning (DL) has been considered as a substitute for these CFD models. DL models can be trained on validated CFD simulation data and then used for industrial process inference. Previous DL-based solutions have made great contributions for industrial automation but are currently missing the additional visualization component that CFD simulations also provide. In this paper, we propose a dataset for simple DL generative approaches that can help to address this issue. The dataset and methodology under development to approach this prediction are discussed in this work.

Calix, Ricardo↗

Testing CP properties of the Higgs boson coupling to τ leptons with heterogeneous graphs

In this paper we explore the possibility of utilizing Deep Learning in measuring the CP properties of the coupling of Higgs boson to τ leptons at the High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider. We employ three Deep Learning (DL) networks, Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Graph Convolution Network (GCN), and Graph Transformer Network (GTN) to enhance signal-to-background separation. The angle between τ lepton decay planes at the detector level is CP-sensitive observables, and we develop Heterogeneous Graphs that integrate diverse node and edge structures to incorporate the CP-sensitive observable efficiently. Using simplified detector simulations we estimate the reconstruction accuracy of the angle between τ lepton planes at the detector level, considering hadronic τ decay modes and standard model backgrounds. With $\sqrt{s}$ = 14 TeV and $\mathcal{L}$ = 100 fb -1 , MLP excludes CP mixing angles above 20° at 68% confidence level (CL), while GCN and GTN achieve exclusions at 90% CL and 95% CL, respectively. The networks also achieve a 3σ significance in excluding a pure CP-odd state.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

A Neural Network Approach to Predict Gibbs Free Energy of Ternary Solid Solutions

Here, we present a data-centric deep learning (DL) approach using neural networks (NNs) to predict the thermodynamics of ternary solid solutions. We explore how NNs can be trained with a dataset of Gibbs free energies computed from a CALPHAD database to predict ternary systems as a function of composition and temperature. We have chosen the energetics of the FCC solid solution phase in 226 binaries consisting of 23 elements at 11 different temperatures to demonstrate the feasibility. The number of binary data points included in the present study is 102,000. We select six ternaries to augment the binary dataset to investigate their influence on the NN prediction accuracy. We examine the sensitivity of data sampling on the prediction accuracy of NNs over selected ternary systems. It is anticipated that the current DL workflow can be further elevated by integrating advanced descriptors beyond the elemental composition and more curated training datasets to improve prediction accuracy and applicability.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Comparison of Machine Learning and Deep Learning for View Identification from Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Images

Background: Artificial intelligence is increasingly utilized to aid in the interpretation of cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) studies. One of the first steps is the identification of the imaging plane depicted, which can be achieved by both deep learning (DL) and classical machine learning (ML) techniques without user input. We aimed to compare the accuracy of ML and DL for CMR view classification and to identify potential pitfalls during training and testing of the algorithms. Methods: To train our DL and ML algorithms, we first established datasets by retrospectively selecting 200 CMR cases. The models were trained using two different cohorts (passively and actively curated) and applied data augmentation to enhance training. Once trained, the models were validated on an external dataset, consisting of 20 cases acquired at another center. We then compared accuracy metrics and applied class activation mapping (CAM) to visualize DL model performance. Results: The DL and ML models trained with the passively-curated CMR cohort were 99.1% and 99.3% accurate on the validation set, respectively. However, when tested on the CMR cases with complex anatomy, both models performed poorly. After training and testing our models again on all 200 cases (active cohort), validation on the external dataset resulted in 95% and 90% accuracy, respectively. The CAM analysis depicted heat maps that demonstrated the importance of carefully curating the datasets to be used for training. Conclusions: Both DL and ML models can accurately classify CMR images, but DL outperformed ML when classifying images with complex heart anatomy.

artificial intelligence↗