Abstract: Current Chain-of-Thought (CoT) verification methods predict reasoning correctness based on outputs (black-box) or activations (gray-box), but offer limited insight into \textit{why} a computation fails. We introduce a white-box method: \textbf{Circuit-based Reasoning Verification (CRV)}. We hypothesize that attribution graphs of correct CoT steps, viewed as \textit{execution traces} of the model's latent reasoning circuits, possess distinct structural fingerprints from those of incorrect steps. By training a classifier on structural features of these graphs, we show that these traces contain a powerful signal of reasoning errors. Our white-box approach yields novel scientific insights unattainable by other methods. (1) We demonstrate that structural signatures of error are highly predictive, establishing the viability of verifying reasoning directly via its computational graph. (2) We find these signatures to be highly domain-specific, revealing that failures in different reasoning tasks manifest as distinct computational patterns. (3) We provide evidence that these signatures are not merely correlational; by using our analysis to guide targeted interventions on individual transcoder features, we successfully correct the model's faulty reasoning. Our work shows that, by scrutinizing a model's computational process, we can move from simple error detection to a deeper, causal understanding of LLM reasoning.

Speaker: Xianjun Yang

Location: Old Computer Science Building - CS2311
IACS Research Theme: Human Centered Computing Seminar

Abstract: The AI art platform Artbreeder hosts daily remix parties where users build on each other's work, creating transparent evolutionary chains of images from a single seed. This study analyzes 130,882 images from 368 remix parties to identify the drivers of novelty, complexity, and competitive success. The results reveal an interesting tension: while more novel parent images produce more novel and complex children and attract more likes, users paradoxically prefer to remix images that are less novel and complex. At the group level, larger remix parties produce more novelty at the cost of lower complexity. Additionally, images tend to converge towards common thematic attractors (e.g., steampunk scenes, alien architecture, furries) over the course of remix parties. These results provide quantitative insights into collective creativity--the production of novelty by groups of people--a typically opaque aspect of human cultural evolution.

Speaker: Dr. Mason Youngblood

Location: Institute for Advanced Computational Science, Seminar Room

Abstract:

Conventional approaches to scientific discovery often prioritize building larger sensors, gathering more data, and scaling up computational power. In this talk, I will present a complementary perspective: extracting insights hidden in the data we already have. The key lies in using AI not as a black-box predictor, but as a tool for interpreting data through its underlying physical process.

I will demonstrate how AI, when integrated with the physics of light propagation, can serve as a computational lens to overcome fundamental limitations in fields ranging from biomedicine to astrophysics. Specifically, I will showcase two compelling applications: non-invasive imaging through scattering biological tissues, and detecting faint exoplanets against the overwhelming brightness of their host stars.

These methods represent a departure from traditional learning-based approaches that rely on fitting models to training labels and hoping for generalization. Instead, with physics-informed strategies that decode how light propagates, we can transform raw measurements into scientifically meaningful insights--without requiring costly hardware upgrades or human-annotated datasets. Finally, I will outline future directions for combining AI with physical principles, enabling us to unlock more phenomena once considered hidden and accelerating discoveries in healthcare, astronomy, and beyond.

Short Bio:

Brandon Y. Feng is a Postdoctoral Associate at MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and a Visiting Scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. His research bridges artificial intelligence and physics to expand the limits of human and machine vision. He develops AI-driven methods that reveal hidden patterns in complex visual data, driving breakthroughs in areas such as exoplanet detection and imaging through scattering tissues. His work has been published in top venues, including Science Advances, CVPR, ICCV, ECCV, and NeurIPS, and has been featured in Science.org, New Scientist, and Phys.org. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, along with a B.A. in Computer Science and Statistics and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Virginia.

Location: NCS 220
Please join us on Zoom for our next event in the Fall 2025 Stony Brook School of Nursing Research Seminar Series presented by our Office of Research and Innovation.

Topic: Responsible Artificial Intelligence: Promoting Health Equity for All

Speaker: Michael P. Cary, Jr., PhD, RN, FAAN.

Dr. Cary is a tenured Associate Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing. Dually trained as a health services researcher and applied health data scientist, Dr. Cary utilizes AI to investigate health disparities in aging populations, thereby promoting health equity and improving healthcare delivery. He co-directs HUMAINE™, an initiative dedicated to equipping nurses and healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary for the responsible use of AI in clinical practice.

Register: https://web.cvent.com/event/057978a5-a770-4de5-aca5-ad00287e4902/summary
The overall purpose of this seminar is to bring together people with interests in Computer Vision theory and techniques and to examine current research issues. This course will be appropriate for people who already took a Computer Vision graduate course or already had research experience in Computer Vision. To enroll in this course, you must either: (1) be in the PhD program or (2) receive permission from the instructors. Each seminar will consist of multiple short talks (around 15 minutes) by multiple students. Students can register for 1 credit for CSE656. Registered students must attend and present a minimum of 2 talks. Everyone else is welcome to attend. Fill in https://forms.gle/q6UG9ygauLp2a8Po8 to subscribe to our mailing list for further announcement.
Postmortem Program Analysis from a Conventional Program Analysis Method to an AI-assisted Approach

Abstract: Despite the best efforts of developers, software inevitably contains flaws that may be leveraged as security vulnerabilities. Modern operating systems integrate various security mechanisms to prevent software faults from being exploited. To bypass these defenses and hijack program execution, an attacker needs to constantly mutate an exploit and make many attempts. While in their attempts, the exploit triggers a security vulnerability and makes the running process abnormally terminate.

After a program has crashed and abnormally terminated, it typically leaves behind a snapshot of its crashing state in the form of a core dump. While a core dump carries a large amount of information, which has long been used for software debugging, it barely serves as informative debugging aids in locating software faults, particularly memory corruption vulnerabilities. As such, previous research mainly seeks fully reproducible execution tracing to identify software vulnerabilities in crashes. However, such techniques are usually impractical for complex programs. Even for simple programs, the overhead of fully reproducible tracing may only be acceptable at the time of in-house testing.

In this talk, I will discuss how we tackle this issue by bridging program analysis with artificial intelligence (AI). More specifically, I will first talk about the history of postmortem program analysis, characterizing and disclosing their limitations. Second, I will introduce how we design a new reverse-execution approach for postmortem program analysis. Third, I will discuss how we integrate AI into our reverse-execution method to escalate its analysis efficiency and accuracy. Last but not least, as part of this talk, I will demonstrate the effectiveness of this AI-assisted postmortem program analysis framework by using massive amounts of real-world programs.

Bio: Dr. Xinyu Xing is an Assistant Professor at Pennsylvania State University. His research interests include exploring, designing and developing new program analysis and AI techniques to automate vulnerability discovery, failure reproduction, vulnerability diagnosis (and triage), exploit and security patch generation. His past research has been featured by many mainstream media and received the best paper awards from ACM CCS and ACSAC. Going beyond academic research, he also actively participates and hosts many world-class cybersecurity competitions (such as HITB and XCTF). As the founder of JD-OMEGA, his team has been selected for DEFCON/GeekPwn AI challenge grand final at Las Vegas. Currently, his research is mainly supported by NSF, ONR, NSA and industry partners.

You are cordially invited to attend the biweekly Brookhaven AI Mixer (BAM). BAM includes one short talk on AI research happening at BNL, followed by an open mixer over coffee and snacks for everyone to network and discuss all things AI. The first half hour will consist of presentations that will be available via ZOOM, and the second half hour will be for in person only networking.

Join us every other Tuesday at noon in CDSD's Training Room (building 725, 2nd floor) to learn about interesting AI methods and applications, engage with potential collaborators, prepare for pending FASST funding calls, and build a community of AI for Science at BNL.

Experiencing Machine Learning in Collider-Accelerator Control System

Abstract: The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) of BNL provides the world's only high-energy polarized proton beam. It is in the unique position to study where nuclei obtain their spin. During 25 years of operation at RHIC, the C-AD controls group has developed its own control system to tune the accelerator performance, which contains millions of control points. The successful operation of this system will highly affect the machine performance. RHIC's successor, the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC), will be one of the most complex scientific instruments ever built, with the capability of colliding polarized proton and electron beams. The increasing complexity of instruments will require new, sophisticated control methods/tools to tune and optimize the accelerator performance. In this talk, I will summarize some projects developed in recent years that utilize machine learning in the C-AD controls group.

Biography: Dr. Yuan Gao is an assistant scientist at the Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) at Brookhaven, primarily working on developing new machine learning schemes in the control group to enhance system performance. His research interests include game theory, algorithm design, anomaly detection, and simulation modeling.

Location: CDS, Bldg. 725, Training Room

Join ZoomGov Meeting: https://bnl.zoomgov.com/j/1604302440?pwd=0x2I95PIvbkkzIi6rA0MNnon5k2sux.1

Meeting ID: 160 430 2440
Passcode: 478223

Research challenges in using computer vision in robotics systems Abstract The past decade has seen a remarkable increase in the level of performance of computer vision techniques, including with the introduction of effective deep learning techniques. Much of this progress is in the form of rapidly increasing performance on standard, curated datasets. However, translating these results into operational vision systems for robotics applications remains a formidable challenge. This talk with explore some of the fundamental questions at the boundary between computer vision and robotics that need to be addressed. This includes introspection/self-awareness of performance, anytime algorithms for computer vision, multi-hypothesis generation, rapid learning and adaptation. The discussion will be illustrated by examples from autonomous air and ground robots.