Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.
This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.
Latest News Releases
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Dec-2025 08:11 ET (30-Dec-2025 13:11 GMT/UTC)
Discovery of a new magnetic sensor material using a high-throughput experimental method
National Institute for Materials Science, JapanPeer-Reviewed Publication
A NIMS research team has developed a new experimental method capable of rapidly evaluating numerous material compositions by measuring anomalous Hall resistivity 30 times faster than conventional methods. By analyzing the vast amount of data obtained using machine learning and experimentally validating the predictions, the team succeeded in developing a new magnetic sensor material capable of detecting magnetism with much higher sensitivity. This research was published in npj Computational Materials on September 3, 2025.
- Journal
- npj Computational Materials
- Funder
- Japan Science and Technology Agency, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
Frontiers in Science Deep Dive series: Plastic pollution is worsened by warming climate and must be stemmed, researchers warn
FrontiersMeeting Announcement
ResNet-Based system offers new tool for power grid icing risk assessment
Maximum Academic PressA research team has developed a deep learning-based model that can accurately identify wire icing risk levels from image data, providing a powerful alternative to conventional observation methods.
- Journal
- Emergency Management Science and Technology
Can generative AI improve vehicle trajectory prediction in car-following scenarios?
Tsinghua University PressPeer-Reviewed Publication
To answer this question: Can generative AI improve vehicle trajectory prediction in car-following scenarios? Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Tongji University, and collaborators developed FollowGen, a conditional diffusion model that integrates historical motion features and inter-vehicle interactions to generate safer and more reliable trajectory predictions for autonomous driving.
- Journal
- Communications in Transportation Research
Comprehensive review reveals how cities can learn from each other to build smarter, more sustainable urban systems
Tsinghua University PressPeer-Reviewed Publication
Cross-city transfer learning (CCTL) has emerged as a crucial approach for managing the growing complexity of urban data and addressing the challenges posed by rapid urbanization. This paper provides a comprehensive review of recent advances in CCTL, with a focus on its applications in urban computing tasks, including prediction, detection, and deployment. We examine the role of CCTL in facilitating policy adaptation and influencing behavioral change. Specifically, we provide a systematic overview of widely used datasets, including traffic sensor data, GPS trajectory data, online social network data, and map data. Furthermore, we conduct an in-depth analysis of methods and evaluation metrics employed across different CCTL-based urban computing tasks. Finally, we emphasize the potential of cross-city policy transfer in promoting low-carbon and sustainable urban development. This review aims to serve as a reference for future urban development research and promote the practical implementation of CCTL.
- Journal
- Communications in Transportation Research
KIDL: A knowledge-informed deep learning paradigm for generalizable and stability-optimized car-following models
Tsinghua University PressPeer-Reviewed Publication
In this study, we proposed a novel Knowledge-Informed Deep Learning (KIDL) paradigm that, to the best of our knowledge, is the first to unify behavioral generalization and traffic flow stability by systematically integrating high-level knowledge distillation from LLMs with physically grounded stability constraints in car-following modeling. Generalization is enhanced by distilling car-following knowledge from LLMs into a lightweight and efficient neural network, while local and string stability are achieved by embedding physically grounded constraints into the distillation process. Experimental results on real-world traffic datasets validate the effectiveness of the KIDL paradigm, showing its ability to replicate and even surpass the LLM's generalization performance. It also outperforms traditional physics-based, data-driven, and hybrid CFMs by at least 10.18% in terms of trajectory simulation error RMSE. Furthermore, the resulting KIDL model is proven through theoretical and numerical analysis to ensure local and string stability at all equilibrium states, offering a strong foundation for advancing AV technologies.
Practically, KIDL offers a deployable solution for AV control, serving as a high-level motion reference that ensures realistic and stable car-following in mixed traffic environments. Moreover, this framework provides a promising pathway for integrating LLM-derived knowledge into traffic modeling by distilling it into a lightweight model with embedded physical constraints, balancing generalization with real-world feasibility.- Journal
- Communications in Transportation Research