A domain-agnostic approach for characterization of lifelong learning systems.

Despite the advancement of machine learning techniques in recent years, state-of-the-art systems lack robustness to "real world" events, where the input distributions and tasks encountered by the deployed systems will not be limited to the original training context, and systems will instead need to adapt to novel distributions and tasks while deployed. This critical gap may be addressed through the development of "Lifelong Learning" systems that are capable of (1) Continuous Learning, (2) Transfer and Adaptation, and (3) Scalability. Unfortunately, efforts to improve these capabilities are typically treated as distinct areas of research that are assessed independently, without regard to the impact of each separate capability on other aspects of the system. We instead propose a holistic approach, using a suite of metrics and an evaluation framework to assess Lifelong Learning in a principled way that is agnostic to specific domains or system techniques. Through five case studies, we show that this suite of metrics can inform the development of varied and complex Lifelong Learning systems. We highlight how the proposed suite of metrics quantifies performance trade-offs present during Lifelong Learning system development - both the widely discussed Stability-Plasticity dilemma and the newly proposed relationship between Sample Efficient and Robust Learning. Further, we make recommendations for the formulation and use of metrics to guide the continuing development of Lifelong Learning systems and assess their progress in the future.

Calibration of hyperelastic constitutive models: the role of boundary conditions, search algorithms, and experimental variability.

The calibration of hyperelastic constitutive models of soft tissue and tissue surrogates is often treated as an exercise in curve-fitting to the average experimental response, and many of the complicating factors such as experimental boundary conditions and data variability are ignored. In this work, we focus on three questions that arise in this area: the ramifications of ignoring the experimental boundary conditions, the use of local optimizers, and the role of data variability. Using data from a uniaxial extension experiment on a tissue surrogate, we study how these three factors affect the calibration of isotropic hyperelastic constitutive models. Our results show that even with the simplest of constitutive models, it is necessary to look beyond a "good fit" to the average.

Phase Segmentation in Atom-Probe Tomography Using Deep Learning-Based Edge Detection.

Atom-probe tomography (APT) facilitates nano- and atomic-scale characterization and analysis of microstructural features. Specifically, APT is well suited to study the interfacial properties of granular or heterophase systems. Traditionally, the identification of the interface between, for precipitate and matrix phases, in APT data has been obtained either by extracting iso-concentration surfaces based on a user-supplied concentration value or by manually perturbing the concentration value until the iso-concentration surface qualitatively matches the interface. These approaches are subjective, not scalable, and may lead to inconsistencies due to local composition inhomogeneities. We introduce a digital image segmentation approach based on deep neural networks that transfer learned knowledge from natural images to automatically segment the data obtained from APT into different phases. This approach not only provides an efficient way to segment the data and extract interfacial properties but does so without the need for expensive interface labeling for training the segmentation model. We consider here a system with a precipitate phase in a matrix and with three different interface modalities-layered, isolated, and interconnected-that are obtained for different relative geometries of the precipitate phase. We demonstrate the accuracy of our segmentation approach through qualitative visualization of the interfaces, as well as through quantitative comparisons with proximity histograms obtained by using more traditional approaches.

Bayesian calibration of hyperelastic constitutive models of soft tissue.

There is inherent variability in the experimental response used to characterize the hyperelastic mechanical response of soft tissues. This has to be accounted for while estimating the parameters in the constitutive models to obtain reliable estimates of the quantities of interest. The traditional least squares method of parameter estimation does not give due importance to this variability. We use a Bayesian calibration framework based on nested Monte Carlo sampling to account for the variability in the experimental data and its effect on the estimated parameters through a systematic probability-based treatment. We consider three different constitutive models to represent the hyperelastic nature of soft tissue: Mooney-Rivlin model, exponential model, and Ogden model. Three stress-strain data sets corresponding to the deformation of agarose gel, bovine liver tissue, and porcine brain tissue are considered. Bayesian fits and parameter estimates are compared with the corresponding least squares values. Finally, we propagate the uncertainty in the parameters to a quantity of interest (QoI), namely the force-indentation response, to study the effect of model form on the values of the QoI. Our results show that the quality of the fit alone is insufficient to determine the adequacy of the model, and due importance has to be given to the maximum likelihood value, the landscape of the likelihood distribution, and model complexity.