Guilin Qi
Publications
Large Language Model for Discrete Optimization Problems: Evaluation and Step-by-step Reasoning
This work investigated the capabilities of different models, including the Llama-3 series of models and CHATGPT, with different forms of expression in solving discrete optimization problems by testing natural language datasets. In contrast to formal datasets with a limited scope of parameters, our dataset included a variety of problem types in discrete optimization problems and featured a wide range of parameter magnitudes, including instances with large parameter sets, integrated with augmented data. It aimed to (1) provide an overview of LLMs' ability in large-scale problems, (2) offer suggestions to those who want to solve discrete optimization problems automatically, and (3) regard the performance as a benchmark for future research. These datasets included original, expanded and augmented datasets. Among these three datasets, the original and augmented ones aimed for evaluation while the expanded one may help finetune a new model. In the experiment, comparisons were made between strong and week models, CoT methods and No-CoT methods on various datasets. The result showed that stronger model performed better reasonably. Contrary to general agreement, it also showed that CoT technique was not always effective regarding the capability of models and disordered datasets improved performance of models on easy to-understand problems, even though they were sometimes with high variance, a manifestation of instability. Therefore, for those who seek to enhance the automatic resolution of discrete optimization problems, it is recommended to consult the results, including the line charts presented in the Appendix, as well as the conclusions drawn in this study for relevant suggestions.
Pandora: Leveraging Code-driven Knowledge Transfer for Unified Structured Knowledge Reasoning
Unified Structured Knowledge Reasoning (USKR) aims to answer natural language questions by using structured sources such as tables, databases, and knowledge graphs in a unified way. Existing USKR methods rely on task-specific strategies or bespoke representations, which hinder their ability to dismantle barriers between different SKR tasks, thereby constraining their overall performance in cross-task scenarios. In this paper, we introduce \textsc{Pandora}, a novel USKR framework that addresses the limitations of existing methods by leveraging two key innovations. First, we propose a code-based unified knowledge representation using \textsc{Python}'s \textsc{Pandas} API, which aligns seamlessly with the pre-training of LLMs. This representation facilitates a cohesive approach to handling different structured knowledge sources. Building on this foundation, we employ knowledge transfer to bolster the unified reasoning process of LLMs by automatically building cross-task memory. By adaptively correcting reasoning using feedback from code execution, \textsc{Pandora} showcases impressive unified reasoning capabilities. Extensive experiments on six widely used benchmarks across three SKR tasks demonstrate that \textsc{Pandora} outperforms existing unified reasoning frameworks and competes effectively with task-specific methods.