Papers | Parallel Computing
2024
Miruna Bețianu, Abele Mălan, Marco Aldinucci, Robert Birke, Lydia Chen
DALLMi: Domain Adaption for LLM-based Multi-label Classifier Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 28th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Taipei, Taiwan, 2024.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: ai, eupilot, icsc
@inproceedings{24:betianu:llm,
title = {DALLMi: Domain Adaption for LLM-based Multi-label Classifier},
author = {Miruna Bețianu and Abele Mălan and Marco Aldinucci and Robert Birke and Lydia Chen},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-05-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 28th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining},
address = {Taipei, Taiwan},
abstract = {Large language models (LLMs) increasingly serve as the backbone for classifying text associated with distinct domains and simultaneously several labels (classes). When encountering domain shifts, e.g., classifier of movie reviews from IMDb to Rotten Tomatoes, adapting such an LLM-based multi-label classifier is challenging due to incomplete label sets at the target domain and daunting training overhead. The existing domain adaptation methods address either image multi-label classifiers or text binary classifiers. In this paper, we design DALLMi, Domain Adaptation Large Language Model interpolator, a first-of-its-kind semi-supervised domain adaptation method for text data models based on LLMs, specifically BERT. The core of DALLMi is the novel variation loss and MixUp regularization, which jointly leverage the limited positively labeled and large quantity of unlabeled text and, importantly, their interpolation from the BERT word embeddings. DALLMi also introduces a label-balanced sampling strategy to overcome the imbalance between labeled and unlabeled data. We evaluate DALLMi against the partial-supervised and unsupervised approach on three datasets under different scenarios of label availability for the target domain. Our results show that DALLMi achieves higher mAP than unsupervised and partially-supervised approaches by 19.9% and 52.2%, respectively.},
keywords = {ai, eupilot, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Large language models (LLMs) increasingly serve as the backbone for classifying text associated with distinct domains and simultaneously several labels (classes). When encountering domain shifts, e.g., classifier of movie reviews from IMDb to Rotten Tomatoes, adapting such an LLM-based multi-label classifier is challenging due to incomplete label sets at the target domain and daunting training overhead. The existing domain adaptation methods address either image multi-label classifiers or text binary classifiers. In this paper, we design DALLMi, Domain Adaptation Large Language Model interpolator, a first-of-its-kind semi-supervised domain adaptation method for text data models based on LLMs, specifically BERT. The core of DALLMi is the novel variation loss and MixUp regularization, which jointly leverage the limited positively labeled and large quantity of unlabeled text and, importantly, their interpolation from the BERT word embeddings. DALLMi also introduces a label-balanced sampling strategy to overcome the imbalance between labeled and unlabeled data. We evaluate DALLMi against the partial-supervised and unsupervised approach on three datasets under different scenarios of label availability for the target domain. Our results show that DALLMi achieves higher mAP than unsupervised and partially-supervised approaches by 19.9% and 52.2%, respectively.
Chi Hong, Robert Birke, Pin-Yu Chen, Lydia Chen
On Dark Knowledge for Distilling Generators Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 28th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, Taipei, Taiwan, 2024.
Abstract | BibTeX | Tags: ai, epi, icsc
@inproceedings{24:chen:llm,
title = {On Dark Knowledge for Distilling Generators},
author = {Chi Hong and Robert Birke and Pin-Yu Chen and Lydia Chen},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-05-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 28th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining},
address = {Taipei, Taiwan},
abstract = {Knowledge distillation has been applied on generative models, such as Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). To distill the knowledge, the synthetic outputs of a teacher generator are used to train a student model. While the dark knowledge, i.e., the probabilistic output, is well explored in distilling classifiers, little is known about the existence of an equivalent dark knowledge for generative models and its extractability. In this paper, we derive the first kind of empirical risk bound for distilling generative models from a Bayesian perspective. Through our analysis, we show the existence of the dark knowledge for generative models, i.e., Bayes probability distribution of a synthetic output from a given input, which achieves lower empirical risk bound than merely using the synthetic output of the generators. Furthermore, we propose a Dark Knowledge based Distillation , DKtill, which trains the student generator based on the (approximate) dark knowledge. Our extensive evaluation on distilling VAE, conditional GANs, and translation GANs on Facades and CelebA datasets show that the FID of student generators trained by DKtill combining dark knowledge are lower than student generators trained only by the synthetic outputs by up to 42.66%, and 78.99%, respectively.},
keywords = {ai, epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Knowledge distillation has been applied on generative models, such as Variational Autoencoder (VAE) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). To distill the knowledge, the synthetic outputs of a teacher generator are used to train a student model. While the dark knowledge, i.e., the probabilistic output, is well explored in distilling classifiers, little is known about the existence of an equivalent dark knowledge for generative models and its extractability. In this paper, we derive the first kind of empirical risk bound for distilling generative models from a Bayesian perspective. Through our analysis, we show the existence of the dark knowledge for generative models, i.e., Bayes probability distribution of a synthetic output from a given input, which achieves lower empirical risk bound than merely using the synthetic output of the generators. Furthermore, we propose a Dark Knowledge based Distillation , DKtill, which trains the student generator based on the (approximate) dark knowledge. Our extensive evaluation on distilling VAE, conditional GANs, and translation GANs on Facades and CelebA datasets show that the FID of student generators trained by DKtill combining dark knowledge are lower than student generators trained only by the synthetic outputs by up to 42.66%, and 78.99%, respectively.
Bruno Casella, Iacopo Colonnelli, Gianluca Mittone, Robert Birke, Walter Riviera, Antonio Sciarappa, Carlo Cavazzoni, Marco Aldinucci
A Performance Model for Confidential Federated Learning Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2024 Deep Learning Security and Privacy Workshop, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2024, San Francisco, CA, 2024.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, epi, icsc
@inproceedings{24:casella:sgx,
title = {A Performance Model for Confidential Federated Learning},
author = {Bruno Casella and Iacopo Colonnelli and Gianluca Mittone and Robert Birke and Walter Riviera and Antonio Sciarappa and Carlo Cavazzoni and Marco Aldinucci},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/b5877a97-2d8d-4e95-8791-0aa4a1b953b3/DLSP___CONFIDENTIAL_FL.pdf},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-05-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2024 Deep Learning Security and Privacy Workshop, IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy 2024},
address = {San Francisco, CA},
abstract = {Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a solution to preserve data privacy by keeping the data locally on each participant's device. However, FL alone is still vulnerable to attacks that can cause privacy leaks. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take additional security measures at the cost of increasing runtimes. The Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) approach promises to offer the highest degree of security during execution. However, TEEs suffer from memory limits which prevent safe end-to-end FL training of modern deep models. State-of- the-art approaches limit secure training to selected layers, failing to avert the full spectrum of attacks or adopt layer-wise training affecting model performance. We benchmark the usage of a library OS (LibOS) to run the full, unmodified end-to-end FL training inside the TEE. We extensively evaluate and model the overhead of the different security mechanisms needed to protect the data and model during computation (TEE), communication (TLS), and storage (disk encryption). The obtained results across three datasets and two models demonstrate that LibOSes are a viable way to seamlessly inject security into FL with limited overhead (at most 2x), offering valuable guidance for researchers and developers aiming to apply FL in data-security-focused contexts.},
keywords = {confidential, epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a solution to preserve data privacy by keeping the data locally on each participant's device. However, FL alone is still vulnerable to attacks that can cause privacy leaks. Therefore, it becomes necessary to take additional security measures at the cost of increasing runtimes. The Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) approach promises to offer the highest degree of security during execution. However, TEEs suffer from memory limits which prevent safe end-to-end FL training of modern deep models. State-of- the-art approaches limit secure training to selected layers, failing to avert the full spectrum of attacks or adopt layer-wise training affecting model performance. We benchmark the usage of a library OS (LibOS) to run the full, unmodified end-to-end FL training inside the TEE. We extensively evaluate and model the overhead of the different security mechanisms needed to protect the data and model during computation (TEE), communication (TLS), and storage (disk encryption). The obtained results across three datasets and two models demonstrate that LibOSes are a viable way to seamlessly inject security into FL with limited overhead (at most 2x), offering valuable guidance for researchers and developers aiming to apply FL in data-security-focused contexts.
Giulio Malenza, Valentina Cesare, Marco Aldinucci, Ugo Becciani, Alberto Vecchiato
Toward HPC application portability via C++ PSTL: the Gaia AVU-GSR code assessment Journal Article
In: The Journal of Supercomputing, 2024, ISSN: 09208542.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eupex, HPC, icsc
@article{24:jsupe:Gaia,
title = {Toward HPC application portability via C++ PSTL: the Gaia AVU-GSR code assessment},
author = {Giulio Malenza and Valentina Cesare and Marco Aldinucci and Ugo Becciani and Alberto Vecchiato},
doi = {10.1007/s11227-024-06011-1},
issn = {09208542},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-03-01},
journal = {The Journal of Supercomputing},
publisher = {Springer},
abstract = {The computing capacity needed to process the data generated in modern scientific experiments is approaching ExaFLOPs. Currently, achieving such performances is only feasible through GPU-accelerated supercomputers. Different languages were developed to program GPUs at different levels of abstraction. Typically, the more abstract the languages, the more portable they are across different GPUs. However, the less abstract and co-designed with the hardware, the more room for code optimization and, eventually, the more performance. In the HPC context, portability and performance are a fairly traditional dichotomy. The current C++ Parallel Standard Template Library (PSTL) has the potential to go beyond this dichotomy. In this work, we analyze the main performance benefits and limitations of PSTL using as a use-case the Gaia Astrometric Verification Unit-Global Sphere Reconstruction parallel solver developed by the European Space Agency Gaia mission. The code aims to find the astrometric parameters of $$sim10^8$$stars in the Milky Way by iteratively solving a linear system of equations with the LSQR algorithm, originally GPU-ported with the CUDA language. We show that the performance obtained with the PSTL version, which is intrinsically more portable than CUDA, is comparable to the CUDA one on NVIDIA GPU architecture.},
keywords = {eupex, HPC, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
The computing capacity needed to process the data generated in modern scientific experiments is approaching ExaFLOPs. Currently, achieving such performances is only feasible through GPU-accelerated supercomputers. Different languages were developed to program GPUs at different levels of abstraction. Typically, the more abstract the languages, the more portable they are across different GPUs. However, the less abstract and co-designed with the hardware, the more room for code optimization and, eventually, the more performance. In the HPC context, portability and performance are a fairly traditional dichotomy. The current C++ Parallel Standard Template Library (PSTL) has the potential to go beyond this dichotomy. In this work, we analyze the main performance benefits and limitations of PSTL using as a use-case the Gaia Astrometric Verification Unit-Global Sphere Reconstruction parallel solver developed by the European Space Agency Gaia mission. The code aims to find the astrometric parameters of $$sim10^8$$stars in the Milky Way by iteratively solving a linear system of equations with the LSQR algorithm, originally GPU-ported with the CUDA language. We show that the performance obtained with the PSTL version, which is intrinsically more portable than CUDA, is comparable to the CUDA one on NVIDIA GPU architecture.
Bruno Casella, Walter Riviera, Marco Aldinucci, Gloria Menegaz
Protocol for training MERGE: A federated multi-input neural network for COVID-19 prognosis Journal Article
In: STAR Protocols, 2024, (https://prod-shared-star-protocols.s3.amazonaws.com/protocols/3225.pdf).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, epi, icsc
@article{24:casella:starprotocol,
title = {Protocol for training MERGE: A federated multi-input neural network for COVID-19 prognosis},
author = {Bruno Casella and Walter Riviera and Marco Aldinucci and Gloria Menegaz},
url = {https://prod-shared-star-protocols.s3.amazonaws.com/protocols/3225.pdf},
doi = {10.1016/j.xpro.2023.102812},
year = {2024},
date = {2024-01-01},
journal = {STAR Protocols},
institution = {Computer Science Department, University of Torino},
abstract = {Federated learning is a cooperative learning approach that has emerged as an effective way to address privacy concerns. Here, we present a protocol for training MERGE: a federated multi-input neural network (NN) for COVID-19 prognosis. We describe steps for collecting and preprocessing datasets. We then detail the process of training a multi-input NN. This protocol can be adapted for use with datasets containing both image- and table-based input sources.},
note = {https://prod-shared-star-protocols.s3.amazonaws.com/protocols/3225.pdf},
keywords = {confidential, epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Federated learning is a cooperative learning approach that has emerged as an effective way to address privacy concerns. Here, we present a protocol for training MERGE: a federated multi-input neural network (NN) for COVID-19 prognosis. We describe steps for collecting and preprocessing datasets. We then detail the process of training a multi-input NN. This protocol can be adapted for use with datasets containing both image- and table-based input sources.
2023
Alberto Riccardo Martinelli, Massimo Torquati, Marco Aldinucci, Iacopo Colonnelli, Barbara Cantalupo
CAPIO: a Middleware for Transparent I/O Streaming in Data-Intensive Workflows Proceedings Article
In: 2023 IEEE 30th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HiPC), IEEE, Goa, India, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: admire, capio, eupex, icsc
@inproceedings{23:hipc:capio,
title = {CAPIO: a Middleware for Transparent I/O Streaming in Data-Intensive Workflows},
author = {Alberto Riccardo Martinelli and Massimo Torquati and Marco Aldinucci and Iacopo Colonnelli and Barbara Cantalupo},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/27380f37-0978-409e-a9d8-2b5e95a4bb85/CAPIO-HiPC23-preprint.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/HiPC58850.2023.00031},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-12-01},
booktitle = {2023 IEEE 30th International Conference on High Performance Computing, Data, and Analytics (HiPC)},
publisher = {IEEE},
address = {Goa, India},
abstract = {With the increasing amount of digital data available for analysis and simulation, the class of I/O-intensive HPC workflows is fated to quickly expand, further exacerbating the performance gap between computing, memory, and storage technologies. This paper introduces CAPIO (Cross-Application Programmable I/O), a middleware capable of injecting I/O streaming capabilities into file-based workflows, improving the computation-I/O overlap without the need to change the application code. The contribution is twofold: 1) at design time, a new I/O coordination language allows users to annotate workflow data dependencies with synchronization semantics; 2) at run time, a user-space middleware automatically and transparently to the user turns a workflow batch execution into a streaming execution according to the semantics expressed in the configuration file. CAPIO has been tested on synthetic benchmarks simulating typical workflow I/O patterns and two real-world workflows. Experiments show that CAPIO reduces the execution time by 10% to 66% for data-intensive workflows that use the file system as a communication medium.},
keywords = {admire, capio, eupex, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
With the increasing amount of digital data available for analysis and simulation, the class of I/O-intensive HPC workflows is fated to quickly expand, further exacerbating the performance gap between computing, memory, and storage technologies. This paper introduces CAPIO (Cross-Application Programmable I/O), a middleware capable of injecting I/O streaming capabilities into file-based workflows, improving the computation-I/O overlap without the need to change the application code. The contribution is twofold: 1) at design time, a new I/O coordination language allows users to annotate workflow data dependencies with synchronization semantics; 2) at run time, a user-space middleware automatically and transparently to the user turns a workflow batch execution into a streaming execution according to the semantics expressed in the configuration file. CAPIO has been tested on synthetic benchmarks simulating typical workflow I/O patterns and two real-world workflows. Experiments show that CAPIO reduces the execution time by 10% to 66% for data-intensive workflows that use the file system as a communication medium.
Marco Aldinucci, Elena Maria Baralis, Valeria Cardellini, Iacopo Colonnelli, Marco Danelutto, Sergio Decherchi, Giuseppe Di Modica, Luca Ferrucci, Marco Gribaudo, Francesco Iannone, Marco Lapegna, Doriana Medic, Giuseppa Muscianisi, Francesca Righetti, Eva Sciacca, Nicola Tonellotto, Mauro Tortonesi, Paolo Trunfio, Tullio Vardanega
A Systematic Mapping Study of Italian Research on Workflows Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the SC '23 Workshops of The International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis, SC-W 2023, pp. 2065–2076, ACM, Denver, CO, USA, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: icsc, jupyter-workflow, streamflow
@inproceedings{WORKS2023,
title = {A Systematic Mapping Study of Italian Research on Workflows},
author = {Marco Aldinucci and Elena Maria Baralis and Valeria Cardellini and Iacopo Colonnelli and Marco Danelutto and Sergio Decherchi and Giuseppe Di Modica and Luca Ferrucci and Marco Gribaudo and Francesco Iannone and Marco Lapegna and Doriana Medic and Giuseppa Muscianisi and Francesca Righetti and Eva Sciacca and Nicola Tonellotto and Mauro Tortonesi and Paolo Trunfio and Tullio Vardanega},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3624062.3624285},
doi = {10.1145/3624062.3624285},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-11-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the SC '23 Workshops of The International Conference on High Performance Computing, Network, Storage, and Analysis, SC-W 2023},
pages = {2065–2076},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Denver, CO, USA},
abstract = {An entire ecosystem of methodologies and tools revolves around scientific workflow management. They cover crucial non-functional requirements that standard workflow models fail to target, such as interactive execution, energy efficiency, performance portability, Big Data management, and intelligent orchestration in the Computing Continuum. Characterizing and monitoring this ecosystem is crucial to develop an informed view of current and future research directions. This work conducts a systematic mapping study of the Italian workflow research community, collecting and analyzing 25 tools and 10 applications from several scientific domains in the context of the ``National Research Centre for HPC, Big Data, and Quantum Computing'' (ICSC). The study aims to outline the main current research directions and determine how they address the critical needs of modern scientific applications. The findings highlight a variegated research ecosystem of tools, with a prominent interest in advanced workflow orchestration and still immature but promising efforts toward energy efficiency.},
keywords = {icsc, jupyter-workflow, streamflow},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
An entire ecosystem of methodologies and tools revolves around scientific workflow management. They cover crucial non-functional requirements that standard workflow models fail to target, such as interactive execution, energy efficiency, performance portability, Big Data management, and intelligent orchestration in the Computing Continuum. Characterizing and monitoring this ecosystem is crucial to develop an informed view of current and future research directions. This work conducts a systematic mapping study of the Italian workflow research community, collecting and analyzing 25 tools and 10 applications from several scientific domains in the context of the ``National Research Centre for HPC, Big Data, and Quantum Computing'' (ICSC). The study aims to outline the main current research directions and determine how they address the critical needs of modern scientific applications. The findings highlight a variegated research ecosystem of tools, with a prominent interest in advanced workflow orchestration and still immature but promising efforts toward energy efficiency.
Zilong Zhao, Robert Birke, Lydia Y. Chen
FCT-GAN: Enhancing Global Correlation of Table Synthesis via Fourier Transform Proceedings Article
In: 32nd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '23), ACM, Birmingham, United Kingdom, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: icsc
@inproceedings{23:zhao:fctgan,
title = {FCT-GAN: Enhancing Global Correlation of Table Synthesis via Fourier Transform},
author = {Zilong Zhao and Robert Birke and Lydia Y. Chen},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/966ba767-dbbd-41e1-b4e3-7ab7ba09303f/FCT-GAN.pdf},
doi = {10.1145/3583780.3615202},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-01},
booktitle = {32nd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM '23)},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Birmingham, United Kingdom},
abstract = {An alternative method for sharing knowledge while complying with strict data access regulations, such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is the emergence of synthetic tabular data. Mainstream table synthesizers utilize methodologies derived from Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). Although several state-of-the-art (SOTA) tabular GAN algorithms inherit Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based architectures, which have proven effective for images, they tend to overlook two critical properties of tabular data: (i) the global correlation across columns, and (ii) the semantic invariance to the column order. Permuting columns in a table does not alter the semantic meaning of the data, but features extracted by CNNs can change significantly due to their limited convolution filter kernel size. To address the above problems, we propose FCT-GAN– the first conditional tabular GAN to adopt Fourier networks into table synthesis. FCT-GAN enhances permutation invariant GAN training by strengthening the learning of global correlations via Fourier layers. Extensive evaluation on benchmarks and real-world datasets show that FCT-GAN can synthesize tabular data with better (up to 27.8%) machine learning utility (i.e. a proxy of global correlations) and higher (up to 26.5%) statistical similarity to real data. FCT-GAN also has the least variation on synthetic data quality among 7 SOTA baselines on 3 different training-data column orders.},
keywords = {icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
An alternative method for sharing knowledge while complying with strict data access regulations, such as the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is the emergence of synthetic tabular data. Mainstream table synthesizers utilize methodologies derived from Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN). Although several state-of-the-art (SOTA) tabular GAN algorithms inherit Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based architectures, which have proven effective for images, they tend to overlook two critical properties of tabular data: (i) the global correlation across columns, and (ii) the semantic invariance to the column order. Permuting columns in a table does not alter the semantic meaning of the data, but features extracted by CNNs can change significantly due to their limited convolution filter kernel size. To address the above problems, we propose FCT-GAN– the first conditional tabular GAN to adopt Fourier networks into table synthesis. FCT-GAN enhances permutation invariant GAN training by strengthening the learning of global correlations via Fourier layers. Extensive evaluation on benchmarks and real-world datasets show that FCT-GAN can synthesize tabular data with better (up to 27.8%) machine learning utility (i.e. a proxy of global correlations) and higher (up to 26.5%) statistical similarity to real data. FCT-GAN also has the least variation on synthetic data quality among 7 SOTA baselines on 3 different training-data column orders.
Samuele Fonio, Lorenzo Paletto, Mattia Cerrato, Dino Ienco, Roberto Esposito
Hierarchical priors for Hyperspherical Prototypical Networks Proceedings Article
In: 31th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning, ESANN, Bruges, Belgium, 2023, (In print).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ai, icsc
@inproceedings{23:esann:fonio,
title = {Hierarchical priors for Hyperspherical Prototypical Networks},
author = {Samuele Fonio and Lorenzo Paletto and Mattia Cerrato and Dino Ienco and Roberto Esposito},
url = {https://www.esann.org/sites/default/files/proceedings/2023/ES2023-65.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-10-01},
booktitle = {31th European Symposium on Artificial Neural Networks, Computational Intelligence and Machine Learning, ESANN},
address = {Bruges, Belgium},
abstract = {In this paper, we explore the usage of hierarchical priors to improve learning in contexts where the number of available examples is extremely low. Specifically, we consider a Prototype Learning setting where deep neural networks are used to embed data in hyperspherical geometries.In this scenario, we propose an innovative way to learn the prototypes by combining class separation and hierarchical information. In addition, we introduce a contrastive loss function capable of balancing the exploitation of prototypes through a prototype pruning mechanism. We compare the proposed method with state-of-the-art approaches on two public datasets.},
note = {In print},
keywords = {ai, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
In this paper, we explore the usage of hierarchical priors to improve learning in contexts where the number of available examples is extremely low. Specifically, we consider a Prototype Learning setting where deep neural networks are used to embed data in hyperspherical geometries.In this scenario, we propose an innovative way to learn the prototypes by combining class separation and hierarchical information. In addition, we introduce a contrastive loss function capable of balancing the exploitation of prototypes through a prototype pruning mechanism. We compare the proposed method with state-of-the-art approaches on two public datasets.
Samuele Fonio
Benchmarking Federated Learning Frameworks for Medical Imaging Tasks Proceedings Article
In: Image Analysis and Processing - ICIAP 2023 - 22th International Conference - FedMed, Springer LNCS, Udine, Italy, 2023, (In print).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ai, confidential, eupilot, icsc
@inproceedings{23:iciap:fedmed:ws:fonio,
title = {Benchmarking Federated Learning Frameworks for Medical Imaging Tasks},
author = {Samuele Fonio},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/c6be8be7-3980-4c4c-874e-68b6fd855ebc/FedMed23-3.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-09-01},
booktitle = {Image Analysis and Processing - ICIAP 2023 - 22th International Conference - FedMed},
publisher = {Springer LNCS},
address = {Udine, Italy},
abstract = {This paper presents a comprehensive benchmarking study of various Federated Learning (FL) frameworks applied to the task of Medical Image Classification. The research specifically addresses the often neglected and complex aspects of scalability and usability in off-the-shelf FL frameworks. Through experimental validation using real case deployments, we provide empirical evidence of the performance and practical relevance of open source FL frameworks. Our findings contribute valuable insights for anyone interested in deploying a FL system, with a particular focus on the healthcare domain—an increasingly attractive field for FL applications.},
note = {In print},
keywords = {ai, confidential, eupilot, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This paper presents a comprehensive benchmarking study of various Federated Learning (FL) frameworks applied to the task of Medical Image Classification. The research specifically addresses the often neglected and complex aspects of scalability and usability in off-the-shelf FL frameworks. Through experimental validation using real case deployments, we provide empirical evidence of the performance and practical relevance of open source FL frameworks. Our findings contribute valuable insights for anyone interested in deploying a FL system, with a particular focus on the healthcare domain—an increasingly attractive field for FL applications.
Gianluca Mittone, Samuele Fonio
Benchmarking Federated Learning Scalability Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science, ITADATA 2023, September 11-13, 2023, CEUR, Naples, Italy, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, eupilot, HPC, icsc
@inproceedings{23:itadata:extabstract:mittone:fonio,
title = {Benchmarking Federated Learning Scalability},
author = {Gianluca Mittone and Samuele Fonio},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1933852},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-09-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science, ITADATA 2023, September 11-13, 2023},
publisher = {CEUR},
address = {Naples, Italy},
abstract = {Federated Learning (FL) is a widespread Machine Learning paradigm handling distributed Big Data. In this work, we demonstrate that different FL frameworks expose different scaling performances despite adopting the same technologies, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive study on the topic.},
keywords = {confidential, eupilot, HPC, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Federated Learning (FL) is a widespread Machine Learning paradigm handling distributed Big Data. In this work, we demonstrate that different FL frameworks expose different scaling performances despite adopting the same technologies, highlighting the need for a more comprehensive study on the topic.
Chi Hong, Jiyue Huang, Robert Birke, Lydia Y. Chen
Exploring and Exploiting Data-Free Model Stealing Proceedings Article
In: European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD), Turin, Italy, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eupilot, icsc
@inproceedings{23:hong:datafree,
title = {Exploring and Exploiting Data-Free Model Stealing},
author = {Chi Hong and Jiyue Huang and Robert Birke and Lydia Y. Chen},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/ce44dec6-12c9-443d-99e7-f1141e50aa3a/Data-free%20Model%20Stealing.pdf},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-43424-2_2},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-09-01},
booktitle = {European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases (ECML PKDD)},
address = {Turin, Italy},
abstract = {Deep machine learning models, e.g., image classifier, are increasingly deployed in the wild to provide services to users. Adversaries are shown capable of stealing the knowledge of these models by sending inference queries and then training substitute models based on query results. The availability and quality of adversarial query inputs are undoubtedly crucial in the stealing process. The recent prior art demonstrates the feasibility of replacing real data by exploring the synthetic adversarial queries, so called data-free attacks, under strong adversarial assumptions, i.e., the deployed classier returns not only class labels but also class probabilities. In this paper, we consider a general adversarial model and propose an effective data-free stealing algorithm, Tandem-GAN, which not only explores synthetic queries but also explicitly exploits the high quality ones. The core of TandemGAN is composed of (i) substitute model which imitates the target model through synthetic queries and their inferred labels; and (ii) a tandem generator consisting of two networks, Gx and Ge, which first explores the synthetic data space via Gx and then exploits high-quality examples via Ge to maximize the knowledge transfer from the target to the substitute model. Our results on four datasets show that the accuracy of our trained substitute model ranges between 96-67% of the target model and outperforms the existing state-of-the-art data-free model stealing approach by up to 2.5X.},
keywords = {eupilot, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Deep machine learning models, e.g., image classifier, are increasingly deployed in the wild to provide services to users. Adversaries are shown capable of stealing the knowledge of these models by sending inference queries and then training substitute models based on query results. The availability and quality of adversarial query inputs are undoubtedly crucial in the stealing process. The recent prior art demonstrates the feasibility of replacing real data by exploring the synthetic adversarial queries, so called data-free attacks, under strong adversarial assumptions, i.e., the deployed classier returns not only class labels but also class probabilities. In this paper, we consider a general adversarial model and propose an effective data-free stealing algorithm, Tandem-GAN, which not only explores synthetic queries but also explicitly exploits the high quality ones. The core of TandemGAN is composed of (i) substitute model which imitates the target model through synthetic queries and their inferred labels; and (ii) a tandem generator consisting of two networks, Gx and Ge, which first explores the synthetic data space via Gx and then exploits high-quality examples via Ge to maximize the knowledge transfer from the target to the substitute model. Our results on four datasets show that the accuracy of our trained substitute model ranges between 96-67% of the target model and outperforms the existing state-of-the-art data-free model stealing approach by up to 2.5X.
Gianluca Mittone, Walter Riviera, Iacopo Colonnelli, Robert Birke, Marco Aldinucci
Model-Agnostic Federated Learning Proceedings Article
In: Euro-Par 2023: Parallel Processing, pp. 383–396, Springer, Limassol, Cyprus, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, eupilot, icsc, riscv
@inproceedings{23:mittone:mafl,
title = {Model-Agnostic Federated Learning},
author = {Gianluca Mittone and Walter Riviera and Iacopo Colonnelli and Robert Birke and Marco Aldinucci},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39698-4_26},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-39698-4_26},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-08-01},
booktitle = {Euro-Par 2023: Parallel Processing},
volume = {14100},
pages = {383–396},
publisher = {Springer},
address = {Limassol, Cyprus},
institution = {Computer Science Department, University of Torino},
abstract = {Since its debut in 2016, Federated Learning (FL) has been tied to the inner workings of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). On the one hand, this allowed its development and widespread use as DNNs proliferated. On the other hand, it neglected all those scenarios in which using DNNs is not possible or advantageous. The fact that most current FL frameworks only allow training DNNs reinforces this problem. To address the lack of FL solutions for non-DNN-based use cases, we propose MAFL (Model-Agnostic Federated Learning). MAFL marries a model-agnostic FL algorithm, AdaBoost.F, with an open industry-grade FL framework: Intel OpenFL. MAFL is the first FL system not tied to any specific type of machine learning model, allowing exploration of FL scenarios beyond DNNs and trees. We test MAFL from multiple points of view, assessing its correctness, flexibility and scaling properties up to 64 nodes. We optimised the base software achieving a 5.5x speedup on a standard FL scenario. MAFL is compatible with x86-64, ARM-v8, Power and RISC-V.},
keywords = {confidential, eupilot, icsc, riscv},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Since its debut in 2016, Federated Learning (FL) has been tied to the inner workings of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). On the one hand, this allowed its development and widespread use as DNNs proliferated. On the other hand, it neglected all those scenarios in which using DNNs is not possible or advantageous. The fact that most current FL frameworks only allow training DNNs reinforces this problem. To address the lack of FL solutions for non-DNN-based use cases, we propose MAFL (Model-Agnostic Federated Learning). MAFL marries a model-agnostic FL algorithm, AdaBoost.F, with an open industry-grade FL framework: Intel OpenFL. MAFL is the first FL system not tied to any specific type of machine learning model, allowing exploration of FL scenarios beyond DNNs and trees. We test MAFL from multiple points of view, assessing its correctness, flexibility and scaling properties up to 64 nodes. We optimised the base software achieving a 5.5x speedup on a standard FL scenario. MAFL is compatible with x86-64, ARM-v8, Power and RISC-V.
Iacopo Colonnelli, Robert Birke, Marco Aldinucci
Experimenting with PyTorch on RISC-V Proceedings Article
In: RISC-V Summit Europe 2023, Barcelona, Spain, 2023, (Poster).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eupilot, icsc, riscv
@inproceedings{23:risc-v-summit,
title = {Experimenting with PyTorch on RISC-V},
author = {Iacopo Colonnelli and Robert Birke and Marco Aldinucci},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/429bf344-9090-42c3-809c-1b8ac320a930/2023-06-08-Iacopo-COLONNELLI-abstract.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-06-01},
booktitle = {RISC-V Summit Europe 2023},
address = {Barcelona, Spain},
abstract = {RISC-V is an emerging instruction set architecture. Its modular and extensible open-source royalty-free design is increasingly attracting interest from both research and industry. Nowadays, different RISC-V-based boards can be bought off the shelf. However, software availability is equivalently vital in guaranteeing the RISC-V ecosystem's success. Here we contribute with the first publicly available port of PyTorch. PyTorch is one of the most popular Deep Learning libraries available today. As such, it is a crucial enabler in running state-of-the-art AI applications on RISC-V-based systems and a first step towards a fully democratic end-to-end codesign process.},
note = {Poster},
keywords = {eupilot, icsc, riscv},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
RISC-V is an emerging instruction set architecture. Its modular and extensible open-source royalty-free design is increasingly attracting interest from both research and industry. Nowadays, different RISC-V-based boards can be bought off the shelf. However, software availability is equivalently vital in guaranteeing the RISC-V ecosystem's success. Here we contribute with the first publicly available port of PyTorch. PyTorch is one of the most popular Deep Learning libraries available today. As such, it is a crucial enabler in running state-of-the-art AI applications on RISC-V-based systems and a first step towards a fully democratic end-to-end codesign process.
Marco Aldinucci, Robert Birke, Antonio Brogi, Emanuele Carlini, Massimo Coppola, Marco Danelutto, Patrizio Dazzi, Luca Ferrucci, Forti Stefano, Hanna Kavalionak, Gabriele Mencagli, Matteo Mordacchin, Marcelo Pasin, Federica Paganelli, Massimo Torquati
A Proposal for a Continuum-aware Programming Model: From Workflows to Services Autonomously Interacting in the Compute Continuum Proceedings Article
In: 2023 IEEE 47th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), IEEE, Turin, Italy, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: icsc
@inproceedings{23:aldinucci:continuum,
title = {A Proposal for a Continuum-aware Programming Model: From Workflows to Services Autonomously Interacting in the Compute Continuum},
author = {Marco Aldinucci and Robert Birke and Antonio Brogi and Emanuele Carlini and Massimo Coppola and Marco Danelutto and Patrizio Dazzi and Luca Ferrucci and Forti Stefano and Hanna Kavalionak and Gabriele Mencagli and Matteo Mordacchin and Marcelo Pasin and Federica Paganelli and Massimo Torquati},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/2ae13a33-5814-43da-8ea6-2d3e8b122384/Continuum-aware-PM.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/COMPSAC57700.2023.00287},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-06-01},
booktitle = {2023 IEEE 47th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC)},
publisher = {IEEE},
address = {Turin, Italy},
abstract = {This paper proposes a continuum-aware programming model enabling the execution of application workflows across the compute continuum: cloud, fog and edge resources. It simplifies the management of heterogeneous nodes while alleviating the burden of programmers and unleashing innovation. This model optimizes the continuum through advanced development experiences by transforming workflows into autonomous service collaborations. It reduces complexity in positioning/interconnecting services across the continuum. A meta-model introduces high-level workflow descriptions as service networks with defined contracts and quality of service, thus enabling the deployment/management of workflows as first-class entities. It also provides automation based on policies, monitoring and heuristics. Tailored mechanisms orchestrate/manage services across the continuum, optimizing performance, cost, data protection and sustainability while managing risks. This model facilitates incremental development with visibility of design impacts and seamless evolution of applications and infrastructures. In this work, we explore this new computing paradigm showing how it can trigger the development of a new generation of tools to support the compute continuum progress.},
keywords = {icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This paper proposes a continuum-aware programming model enabling the execution of application workflows across the compute continuum: cloud, fog and edge resources. It simplifies the management of heterogeneous nodes while alleviating the burden of programmers and unleashing innovation. This model optimizes the continuum through advanced development experiences by transforming workflows into autonomous service collaborations. It reduces complexity in positioning/interconnecting services across the continuum. A meta-model introduces high-level workflow descriptions as service networks with defined contracts and quality of service, thus enabling the deployment/management of workflows as first-class entities. It also provides automation based on policies, monitoring and heuristics. Tailored mechanisms orchestrate/manage services across the continuum, optimizing performance, cost, data protection and sustainability while managing risks. This model facilitates incremental development with visibility of design impacts and seamless evolution of applications and infrastructures. In this work, we explore this new computing paradigm showing how it can trigger the development of a new generation of tools to support the compute continuum progress.
Gianluca Mittone, Nicolò Tonci, Robert Birke, Iacopo Colonnelli, Doriana Medić, Andrea Bartolini, Roberto Esposito, Emanuele Parisi, Francesco Beneventi, Mirko Polato, Massimo Torquati, Luca Benini, Marco Aldinucci
Experimenting with Emerging RISC-V Systems for Decentralised Machine Learning Proceedings Article
In: 20th ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers (CF '23), ACM, Bologna, Italy, 2023, ISBN: 979-8-4007-0140-5/23/05, (https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07946).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, eupilot, HPC, icsc, riscv
@inproceedings{23:mittone:fl-riscv,
title = {Experimenting with Emerging RISC-V Systems for Decentralised Machine Learning},
author = {Gianluca Mittone and Nicolò Tonci and Robert Birke and Iacopo Colonnelli and Doriana Medić and Andrea Bartolini and Roberto Esposito and Emanuele Parisi and Francesco Beneventi and Mirko Polato and Massimo Torquati and Luca Benini and Marco Aldinucci},
url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3587135.3592211},
doi = {10.1145/3587135.3592211},
isbn = {979-8-4007-0140-5/23/05},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-05-01},
booktitle = {20th ACM International Conference on Computing Frontiers (CF '23)},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Bologna, Italy},
institution = {Computer Science Department, University of Torino},
abstract = {Decentralised Machine Learning (DML) enables collaborative machine learning without centralised input data. Federated Learning (FL) and Edge Inference are examples of DML. While tools for DML (especially FL) are starting to flourish, many are not flexible and portable enough to experiment with novel systems (e.g., RISC-V), non-fully connected topologies, and asynchronous collaboration schemes. We overcome these limitations via a domain-specific language allowing to map DML schemes to an underlying middleware, i.e. the FastFlow parallel programming library. We experiment with it by generating different working DML schemes on two emerging architectures (ARM-v8, RISC-V) and the x86-64 platform. We characterise the performance and energy efficiency of the presented schemes and systems. As a byproduct, we introduce a RISC-V porting of the PyTorch framework, the first publicly available to our knowledge.},
note = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07946},
keywords = {confidential, eupilot, HPC, icsc, riscv},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Decentralised Machine Learning (DML) enables collaborative machine learning without centralised input data. Federated Learning (FL) and Edge Inference are examples of DML. While tools for DML (especially FL) are starting to flourish, many are not flexible and portable enough to experiment with novel systems (e.g., RISC-V), non-fully connected topologies, and asynchronous collaboration schemes. We overcome these limitations via a domain-specific language allowing to map DML schemes to an underlying middleware, i.e. the FastFlow parallel programming library. We experiment with it by generating different working DML schemes on two emerging architectures (ARM-v8, RISC-V) and the x86-64 platform. We characterise the performance and energy efficiency of the presented schemes and systems. As a byproduct, we introduce a RISC-V porting of the PyTorch framework, the first publicly available to our knowledge.
Gianluca Mittone, Filip Svoboda, Marco Aldinucci, Nicholas D. Lane, Pietro Lio
A Federated Learning Benchmark for Drug-Target Interaction Proceedings Article
In: Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 (WWW '23 Companion), ACM, Austin, Texas, 2023, ISBN: 978-1-4503-9419-2/23/04, (https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07684).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, eupilot, icsc
@inproceedings{23:mittone:dti,
title = {A Federated Learning Benchmark for Drug-Target Interaction},
author = {Gianluca Mittone and Filip Svoboda and Marco Aldinucci and Nicholas D. Lane and Pietro Lio},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1898472},
doi = {10.1145/3543873.3587687},
isbn = {978-1-4503-9419-2/23/04},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-04-01},
booktitle = {Companion Proceedings of the ACM Web Conference 2023 (WWW '23 Companion)},
publisher = {ACM},
address = {Austin, Texas},
institution = {Computer Science Department, University of Torino},
abstract = {Aggregating pharmaceutical data in the drug-target interaction (DTI) domain has the potential to deliver life-saving breakthroughs. It is, however, notoriously difficult due to regulatory constraints and commercial interests. This work proposes the application of federated learning, which we argue to be reconcilable with the industry's constraints, as it does not require sharing of any information that would reveal the entities' data or any other high-level summary of it. When used on a representative GraphDTA model and the KIBA dataset it achieves up to 15 percent improved performance relative to the best available non-privacy preserving alternative. Our extensive battery of experiments shows that, unlike in other domains, the non-IID data distribution in the DTI datasets does not deteriorate FL performance. Additionally, we identify a material trade-off between the benefits of adding new data, and the cost of adding more clients.},
note = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2302.07684},
keywords = {confidential, eupilot, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Aggregating pharmaceutical data in the drug-target interaction (DTI) domain has the potential to deliver life-saving breakthroughs. It is, however, notoriously difficult due to regulatory constraints and commercial interests. This work proposes the application of federated learning, which we argue to be reconcilable with the industry's constraints, as it does not require sharing of any information that would reveal the entities' data or any other high-level summary of it. When used on a representative GraphDTA model and the KIBA dataset it achieves up to 15 percent improved performance relative to the best available non-privacy preserving alternative. Our extensive battery of experiments shows that, unlike in other domains, the non-IID data distribution in the DTI datasets does not deteriorate FL performance. Additionally, we identify a material trade-off between the benefits of adding new data, and the cost of adding more clients.
Alessia Antelmi, Luca La Cava, Arianna Pera
Tell Me Who You Are and I Will Predict Your Vulnerability to Political Persuasion Techniques Proceedings Article
In: The 12th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications-Book of Abstracts, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: analytics, icsc
@inproceedings{Antelmi_CNA1_2023,
title = {Tell Me Who You Are and I Will Predict Your Vulnerability to Political Persuasion Techniques},
author = {Alessia Antelmi and Luca La Cava and Arianna Pera},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1949370/1/_CNA__23__Personality_vs_propaganda.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {The 12th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications-Book of Abstracts},
abstract = {Given the evolving role of social media in political communication and the strategic use of these platforms by politicians to shape public opinion, research has commonly focused on investigating computational propaganda as a means for automated information diffusion. Focusing on a less explored yet promising line, we aim to assess political persuasion in digital contexts by introducing a computational framework that combines Natural Language Processing and Network Science methods to investigate the linkage between persuasion techniques on social media and personality traits of online political audiences. Our final goal is to enhance public awareness of political tactics and encourage critical thinking in response to the online spread of political information.},
keywords = {analytics, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Given the evolving role of social media in political communication and the strategic use of these platforms by politicians to shape public opinion, research has commonly focused on investigating computational propaganda as a means for automated information diffusion. Focusing on a less explored yet promising line, we aim to assess political persuasion in digital contexts by introducing a computational framework that combines Natural Language Processing and Network Science methods to investigate the linkage between persuasion techniques on social media and personality traits of online political audiences. Our final goal is to enhance public awareness of political tactics and encourage critical thinking in response to the online spread of political information.
Alessia Antelmi, Luca La Cava, Arianna Pera
Finding Hidden Swingers in the 2022 Italian Elections Twitter Discourse Proceedings Article
In: The 12th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications-Book of Abstracts, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: analytics, icsc
@inproceedings{Antelmi_CNA_2023,
title = {Finding Hidden Swingers in the 2022 Italian Elections Twitter Discourse},
author = {Alessia Antelmi and Luca La Cava and Arianna Pera},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1949354/1/_CNA__23__TweetYourMind.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {The 12th International Conference on Complex Networks and their Applications-Book of Abstracts},
abstract = {The volume of the Italian online political discourse on social media has recently increased, but the coverage level does not compare with other Countries such as the US. Nonetheless, researchers focused on studying polarization and homophily with respect to political debates or investigating the role of populism in online engagement. In this research landscape, the analysis of political preference shifts through social media remains to be explored. We aim to bridge this gap by examining the Twitter discourse during the 2022 Italian general elections, with a specific emphasis on political "swingers". In particular, our findings indicate a stable political discourse in Italy, yet they also uncover a growing presence of political swingers willing to shift their support to significantly different factions.},
keywords = {analytics, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The volume of the Italian online political discourse on social media has recently increased, but the coverage level does not compare with other Countries such as the US. Nonetheless, researchers focused on studying polarization and homophily with respect to political debates or investigating the role of populism in online engagement. In this research landscape, the analysis of political preference shifts through social media remains to be explored. We aim to bridge this gap by examining the Twitter discourse during the 2022 Italian general elections, with a specific emphasis on political "swingers". In particular, our findings indicate a stable political discourse in Italy, yet they also uncover a growing presence of political swingers willing to shift their support to significantly different factions.
Alessia Antelmi, Massimo Torquati, Daniele Gregori, Francesco Polzella, Gianmarco Spinatelli, Marco Aldinucci
The SWH-Analytics Framework Proceedings Article
In: Bena, Nicola, Martino, Beniamino Di, Maratea, Antonio, Sperduti, Alessandro, Nardo, Emanuel Di, Ciaramella, Angelo, Montella, Raffaele, Ardagna, Claudio A. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science (ITADATA 2023), Naples, Italy, September 11-13, 2023, CEUR-WS.org, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: admire, analytics, icsc
@inproceedings{Antelmi_ITADATA_2023,
title = {The SWH-Analytics Framework},
author = {Alessia Antelmi and Massimo Torquati and Daniele Gregori and Francesco Polzella and Gianmarco Spinatelli and Marco Aldinucci},
editor = {Nicola Bena and Beniamino Di Martino and Antonio Maratea and Alessandro Sperduti and Emanuel Di Nardo and Angelo Ciaramella and Raffaele Montella and Claudio A. Ardagna},
url = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3606/paper76.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science (ITADATA 2023), Naples, Italy, September 11-13, 2023},
volume = {3606},
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
series = {CEUR Workshop Proceedings},
abstract = {The Software Heritage (SWH) dataset serves as a vast repository for open-source code, with the ambitious goal of preserving all publicly available open-source projects. Despite being designed to effectively archive project files, its size of nearly 1 petabyte presents challenges in efficiently supporting Big Data MapReduce or AI systems. To address this disparity and enable seamless custom analytics on the SWH dataset, we present the SWH-Analytics (SWHA) architecture. This development environment quickly and transparently runs custom analytic applications on open-source software data preserved over time by SWH.},
keywords = {admire, analytics, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The Software Heritage (SWH) dataset serves as a vast repository for open-source code, with the ambitious goal of preserving all publicly available open-source projects. Despite being designed to effectively archive project files, its size of nearly 1 petabyte presents challenges in efficiently supporting Big Data MapReduce or AI systems. To address this disparity and enable seamless custom analytics on the SWH dataset, we present the SWH-Analytics (SWHA) architecture. This development environment quickly and transparently runs custom analytic applications on open-source software data preserved over time by SWH.
Iacopo Colonnelli
Workflow Models for Heterogeneous Distributed Systems Proceedings Article
In: Bena, Nicola, Martino, Beniamino Di, Maratea, Antonio, Sperduti, Alessandro, Nardo, Emanuel Di, Ciaramella, Angelo, Montella, Raffaele, Ardagna, Claudio A. (Ed.): Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science (ITADATA 2023), Naples, Italy, September 11-13, 2023, CEUR-WS.org, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: across, eupex, icsc, jupyter-workflow, streamflow
@inproceedings{23:colonnelli:itadata,
title = {Workflow Models for Heterogeneous Distributed Systems},
author = {Iacopo Colonnelli},
editor = {Nicola Bena and Beniamino Di Martino and Antonio Maratea and Alessandro Sperduti and Emanuel Di Nardo and Angelo Ciaramella and Raffaele Montella and Claudio A. Ardagna},
url = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3606/invited77.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd Italian Conference on Big Data and Data Science (ITADATA 2023), Naples, Italy, September 11-13, 2023},
volume = {3606},
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
series = {CEUR Workshop Proceedings},
abstract = {This article introduces a novel hybrid workflow abstraction that injects topology awareness directly into the definition of a distributed workflow model. In particular, the article briefly discusses the advantages brought by this approach to the design and orchestration of large-scale data-oriented workflows, the current level of support from state-of-the-art workflow systems, and some future research directions.},
keywords = {across, eupex, icsc, jupyter-workflow, streamflow},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This article introduces a novel hybrid workflow abstraction that injects topology awareness directly into the definition of a distributed workflow model. In particular, the article briefly discusses the advantages brought by this approach to the design and orchestration of large-scale data-oriented workflows, the current level of support from state-of-the-art workflow systems, and some future research directions.
Bruno Casella, Lorenzo Paletto
Predicting Cryptocurrencies Market Phases through On-Chain Data Long-Term Forecasting Proceedings Article
In: Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), 1-5 May 2023, Dubai, 2023, (https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10174989).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: epi, icsc
@inproceedings{23:casella:onchain,
title = {Predicting Cryptocurrencies Market Phases through On-Chain Data Long-Term Forecasting},
author = {Bruno Casella and Lorenzo Paletto},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/bitstream/2318/1902652/1/6.%20ICBC23%20-%20PREDICTING%20BTC.pdf},
doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/ICBC56567.2023.10174989},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2023 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), 1-5 May 2023, Dubai},
abstract = {Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, produces a massive amount of open-access data that can be analyzed, providing important information about the network's activity and its respective token. The on-chain data have extensively been used as input to Machine Learning algorithms for predicting cryptocurrencies' future prices; however, there is a lack of study in predicting the future behaviour of on-chain data. This study aims to show how on-chain data can be used to detect cryptocurrency market regimes, like minimum and maximum, bear and bull market phases, and how forecasting these data can provide an optimal asset allocation for long-term investors.},
note = {https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10174989},
keywords = {epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies, like Ethereum, produces a massive amount of open-access data that can be analyzed, providing important information about the network's activity and its respective token. The on-chain data have extensively been used as input to Machine Learning algorithms for predicting cryptocurrencies' future prices; however, there is a lack of study in predicting the future behaviour of on-chain data. This study aims to show how on-chain data can be used to detect cryptocurrency market regimes, like minimum and maximum, bear and bull market phases, and how forecasting these data can provide an optimal asset allocation for long-term investors.
Bruno Casella, Walter Riviera, Marco Aldinucci, Gloria Menegaz
MERGE: A model for multi-input biomedical federated learning Journal Article
In: Patterns, pp. 100856, 2023, ISSN: 2666-3899.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: ai, confidential, epi, icsc
@article{23:fl:patterns,
title = {MERGE: A model for multi-input biomedical federated learning},
author = {Bruno Casella and Walter Riviera and Marco Aldinucci and Gloria Menegaz},
url = {https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666389923002404},
doi = {10.1016/j.patter.2023.100856},
issn = {2666-3899},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
journal = {Patterns},
pages = {100856},
abstract = {Driven by the deep learning (DL) revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a fundamental tool for many biomedical tasks, including analyzing and classifying diagnostic images. Imaging, however, is not the only source of information. Tabular data, such as personal and genomic data and blood test results, are routinely collected but rarely considered in DL pipelines. Nevertheless, DL requires large datasets that often must be pooled from different institutions, raising non-trivial privacy concerns. Federated learning (FL) is a cooperative learning paradigm that aims to address these issues by moving models instead of data across different institutions. Here, we present a federated multi-input architecture using images and tabular data as a methodology to enhance model performance while preserving data privacy. We evaluated it on two showcases: the prognosis of COVID-19 and patients' stratification in Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence of enhanced accuracy and F1 scores against single-input models and improved generalizability against non-federated models.},
keywords = {ai, confidential, epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Driven by the deep learning (DL) revolution, artificial intelligence (AI) has become a fundamental tool for many biomedical tasks, including analyzing and classifying diagnostic images. Imaging, however, is not the only source of information. Tabular data, such as personal and genomic data and blood test results, are routinely collected but rarely considered in DL pipelines. Nevertheless, DL requires large datasets that often must be pooled from different institutions, raising non-trivial privacy concerns. Federated learning (FL) is a cooperative learning paradigm that aims to address these issues by moving models instead of data across different institutions. Here, we present a federated multi-input architecture using images and tabular data as a methodology to enhance model performance while preserving data privacy. We evaluated it on two showcases: the prognosis of COVID-19 and patients' stratification in Alzheimer's disease, providing evidence of enhanced accuracy and F1 scores against single-input models and improved generalizability against non-federated models.
Pedro Ângelo, Viviana Bono, Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini, Mário Florido
Gradual Guarantee for FJ with lambda-Expressions Proceedings Article
In: Tomb, Aaron (Ed.): Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Workshop on Formal Techniques for Java-like Programs, FTfJP 2023, Seattle, WA, USA, 18 July 2023, pp. 32–38, ACM, 2023.
Links | BibTeX | Tags: admire, icsc
@inproceedings{DBLP:conf/ftfjp/AngeloBDF23,
title = {Gradual Guarantee for FJ with lambda-Expressions},
author = {Pedro Ângelo and Viviana Bono and Mariangiola Dezani-Ciancaglini and Mário Florido},
editor = {Aaron Tomb},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3605156.3606453},
doi = {10.1145/3605156.3606453},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 25th ACM International Workshop on Formal Techniques for Java-like Programs, FTfJP 2023, Seattle, WA, USA, 18 July 2023},
pages = {32–38},
publisher = {ACM},
keywords = {admire, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
William Fornaciari, Federico Reghenzani, Federico Terraneo, Davide Baroffio, Cecilia Metra, Martin Omana, Josie E. Rodriguez Condia, Matteo Sonza Reorda, Robert Birke, Iacopo Colonnelli, Gianluca Mittone, Marco Aldinucci, Gabriele Mencagli, Francesco Iannone, Filippo Palombi, Giuseppe Zummo, Daniele Cesarini, Federico Tesser
RISC-V-based Platforms for HPC: Analyzing Non-functional Properties for Future HPC and Big-Data Clusters Proceedings Article
In: Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation - 23rd International Conference, SAMOS 2023, Samos, Greece, 2023, (icsc).
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: icsc, riscv
@inproceedings{23:SAMOS,
title = {RISC-V-based Platforms for HPC: Analyzing Non-functional Properties for Future HPC and Big-Data Clusters},
author = {William Fornaciari and Federico Reghenzani and Federico Terraneo and Davide Baroffio and Cecilia Metra and Martin Omana and Josie E. Rodriguez Condia and Matteo Sonza Reorda and Robert Birke and Iacopo Colonnelli and Gianluca Mittone and Marco Aldinucci and Gabriele Mencagli and Francesco Iannone and Filippo Palombi and Giuseppe Zummo and Daniele Cesarini and Federico Tesser},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/b627eab0-3aa1-4fd7-8685-f47c62c792b3/SAMOS_2023_CN_HPC_FL1.pdf},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-46077-7_26},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Embedded Computer Systems: Architectures, Modeling, and Simulation - 23rd International Conference, SAMOS 2023},
address = {Samos, Greece},
abstract = {High-PerformanceComputing(HPC)haveevolvedtobeused to perform simulations of systems where physical experimentation is pro- hibitively impractical, expensive, or dangerous. This paper provides a general overview and showcases the analysis of non-functional properties in RISC-V-based platforms for HPCs. In particular, our analyses target the evaluation of power and energy control, thermal management, and reliability assessment of promising systems, structures, and technologies devised for current and future generation of HPC machines. The main set of design methodologies and technologies developed within the activ- ities of the Future and HPC & Big Data spoke of the National Centre of HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing project are described along with the description of the testbed for experimenting two-phase cooling approaches.},
note = {icsc},
keywords = {icsc, riscv},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
High-PerformanceComputing(HPC)haveevolvedtobeused to perform simulations of systems where physical experimentation is pro- hibitively impractical, expensive, or dangerous. This paper provides a general overview and showcases the analysis of non-functional properties in RISC-V-based platforms for HPCs. In particular, our analyses target the evaluation of power and energy control, thermal management, and reliability assessment of promising systems, structures, and technologies devised for current and future generation of HPC machines. The main set of design methodologies and technologies developed within the activ- ities of the Future and HPC & Big Data spoke of the National Centre of HPC, Big Data and Quantum Computing project are described along with the description of the testbed for experimenting two-phase cooling approaches.
Alessia Antelmi, Daniele De Vinco, Gennaro Cordasco, Carmine Spagnuolo
Towards Unraveling Developers Communities in Stack Overflow and Reddit Proceedings Article
In: International Conference on Computational Social Science 2023, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: analytics, icsc
@inproceedings{Antelmi_IC2S2_2023,
title = {Towards Unraveling Developers Communities in Stack Overflow and Reddit},
author = {Alessia Antelmi and Daniele De Vinco and Gennaro Cordasco and Carmine Spagnuolo},
url = {https://openreview.net/forum?id=WP5ZaAFP19},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {International Conference on Computational Social Science 2023},
abstract = {This work investigates the developers' behavior and community formation around the twenty most popular programming languages. We examined two consecutive years of programming-related questions from Stack Overflow and Reddit, performing a longitudinal study on users' posting activity and their high-order interaction patterns abstracted via hypergraphs. Our analysis highlighted crucial differences in how these QA platforms are utilized by their users. In line with previous literature, it emphasized the constant decline of Stack Overflow in favor of more community-friendly platforms, such as Reddit, which has been growing rapidly lately.},
keywords = {analytics, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
This work investigates the developers' behavior and community formation around the twenty most popular programming languages. We examined two consecutive years of programming-related questions from Stack Overflow and Reddit, performing a longitudinal study on users' posting activity and their high-order interaction patterns abstracted via hypergraphs. Our analysis highlighted crucial differences in how these QA platforms are utilized by their users. In line with previous literature, it emphasized the constant decline of Stack Overflow in favor of more community-friendly platforms, such as Reddit, which has been growing rapidly lately.
Alessia Antelmi
Engagement in Open Data Workshops: The dark side of remote settings Proceedings Article
In: Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 12th International Conference, Springer International Publishing, Cham, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: analytics, icsc
@inproceedings{Antelmi_TEL4FC_2023,
title = {Engagement in Open Data Workshops: The dark side of remote settings},
author = {Alessia Antelmi},
url = {https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-42134-1_33},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {Methodologies and Intelligent Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning, 12th International Conference},
publisher = {Springer International Publishing},
address = {Cham},
abstract = {The increasing availability of Open Data gives birth to a fertile field for interested stakeholders to create value out of them; however, limited technical expertise and poor awareness are crucial barriers to their exploitation. Because of these reasons, there is an urge for learners to acquire data and information literacy competencies, which are essential for 21st-century skills, and become familiar with available Open Data sources and their potential uses. To promote the dialogue around activities to boost recognition of Open Data and improve users' skills to work with them, we proposed a series of workshops to introduce Italian high school learners to searching for, authoring, and building effective communication based on Open Data. This article describes an ongoing activity and details its organization, reports preliminary results on learners' engagement, and discusses both challenges of the remote setting as well as promising learning outcomes.},
keywords = {analytics, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
The increasing availability of Open Data gives birth to a fertile field for interested stakeholders to create value out of them; however, limited technical expertise and poor awareness are crucial barriers to their exploitation. Because of these reasons, there is an urge for learners to acquire data and information literacy competencies, which are essential for 21st-century skills, and become familiar with available Open Data sources and their potential uses. To promote the dialogue around activities to boost recognition of Open Data and improve users' skills to work with them, we proposed a series of workshops to introduce Italian high school learners to searching for, authoring, and building effective communication based on Open Data. This article describes an ongoing activity and details its organization, reports preliminary results on learners' engagement, and discusses both challenges of the remote setting as well as promising learning outcomes.
Doriana Medić, Marco Aldinucci
Towards formal model for location aware workflows Proceedings Article
In: Shahriar, Hossain, Teranishi, Yuuichi, Cuzzocrea, Alfredo, Sharmin, Moushumi, Towey, Dave, Majumder, A. K. M. Jahangir Alam, Kashiwazaki, Hiroki, Yang, Ji-Jiang, Takemoto, Michiharu, Sakib, Nazmus, Banno, Ryohei, Ahamed, Sheikh Iqbal (Ed.): 47th IEEE Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2023, pp. 1864–1869, IEEE, Torino, Italy, 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: eupex, icsc, semantics
@inproceedings{23:medic:formal-model,
title = {Towards formal model for location aware workflows},
author = {Doriana Medić and Marco Aldinucci},
editor = {Hossain Shahriar and Yuuichi Teranishi and Alfredo Cuzzocrea and Moushumi Sharmin and Dave Towey and A. K. M. Jahangir Alam Majumder and Hiroki Kashiwazaki and Ji-Jiang Yang and Michiharu Takemoto and Nazmus Sakib and Ryohei Banno and Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed},
url = {https://iris.unito.it/retrieve/1f9f959c-cd88-4d9c-90ea-54f1c86a15bc/6210-medic.pdf},
doi = {10.1109/COMPSAC57700.2023.00289},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
booktitle = {47th IEEE Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference, COMPSAC 2023},
pages = {1864–1869},
publisher = {IEEE},
address = {Torino, Italy},
abstract = {Designing complex applications and executing them on large-scale topologies of heterogeneous architectures is becoming increasingly crucial in many scientific domains. As a result, diverse workflow modelling paradigms are developed, most of them with no formalisation provided. In these circumstances, comparing two different models or switching from one system to the other becomes a hard nut to crack. This paper investigates the capability of process algebra to model a location aware workflow system. Distributed π-calculus is considered as the base of the formal model due to its ability to describe the communicating components that change their structure as an outcome of the communication. Later, it is discussed how the base model could be extended or modified to capture different features of location aware workflow system. The intention of this paper is to highlight the fact that due to its flexibility, π-calculus, could be a good candidate to represent the behavioural perspective of the workflow system.},
keywords = {eupex, icsc, semantics},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Designing complex applications and executing them on large-scale topologies of heterogeneous architectures is becoming increasingly crucial in many scientific domains. As a result, diverse workflow modelling paradigms are developed, most of them with no formalisation provided. In these circumstances, comparing two different models or switching from one system to the other becomes a hard nut to crack. This paper investigates the capability of process algebra to model a location aware workflow system. Distributed π-calculus is considered as the base of the formal model due to its ability to describe the communicating components that change their structure as an outcome of the communication. Later, it is discussed how the base model could be extended or modified to capture different features of location aware workflow system. The intention of this paper is to highlight the fact that due to its flexibility, π-calculus, could be a good candidate to represent the behavioural perspective of the workflow system.
Bruno Casella, Roberto Esposito, Antonio Sciarappa, Carlo Cavazzoni, Marco Aldinucci
Experimenting with Normalization Layers in Federated Learning on non-IID scenarios Technical Report
Computer Science Department, University of Torino 2023.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: confidential, epi, icsc
@techreport{23:casella:normalization,
title = {Experimenting with Normalization Layers in Federated Learning on non-IID scenarios},
author = {Bruno Casella and Roberto Esposito and Antonio Sciarappa and Carlo Cavazzoni and Marco Aldinucci},
url = {https://arxiv.org/pdf/2303.10630.pdf},
year = {2023},
date = {2023-01-01},
institution = {Computer Science Department, University of Torino},
abstract = {Training Deep Learning (DL) models require large, high-quality datasets, often assembled with data from different institutions. Federated Learning (FL) has been emerging as a method for privacy-preserving pooling of datasets employing collaborative training from different institutions by iteratively globally aggregating locally trained models. One critical performance challenge of FL is operating on datasets not independently and identically distributed (non-IID) among the federation participants. Even though this fragility cannot be eliminated, it can be debunked by a suitable optimization of two hyperparameters: layer normalization methods and collaboration frequency selection. In this work, we benchmark five different normalization layers for training Neural Networks (NNs), two families of non-IID data skew, and two datasets. Results show that Batch Normalization, widely employed for centralized DL, is not the best choice for FL, whereas Group and Layer Normalization consistently outperform Batch Normalization. Similarly, frequent model aggregation decreases convergence speed and mode quality.},
keywords = {confidential, epi, icsc},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {techreport}
}
Training Deep Learning (DL) models require large, high-quality datasets, often assembled with data from different institutions. Federated Learning (FL) has been emerging as a method for privacy-preserving pooling of datasets employing collaborative training from different institutions by iteratively globally aggregating locally trained models. One critical performance challenge of FL is operating on datasets not independently and identically distributed (non-IID) among the federation participants. Even though this fragility cannot be eliminated, it can be debunked by a suitable optimization of two hyperparameters: layer normalization methods and collaboration frequency selection. In this work, we benchmark five different normalization layers for training Neural Networks (NNs), two families of non-IID data skew, and two datasets. Results show that Batch Normalization, widely employed for centralized DL, is not the best choice for FL, whereas Group and Layer Normalization consistently outperform Batch Normalization. Similarly, frequent model aggregation decreases convergence speed and mode quality.