M. Amin Hariri-Ardebili

M. Amin Hariri-Ardebili
National Institute of Standards and Technology | NIST · Engineering Laboratory

Ph.D.

About

261
Publications
85,044
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4,018
Citations
Introduction
Dr. Hariri-Ardebili is a Researcher at National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and affiliated faculty with the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Colorado Boulder. His main research interests are performance-based earthquake assessment of infrastructures (dams, nuclear structures, and towers), coupled systems mechanics, uncertainty quantification, risk and resilience, alkali-silica reaction, uncertainty quantification, and scientific machine learning.
Additional affiliations
January 2020 - present
University of Maryland, College Park
Position
  • Researcher
January 2016 - May 2023
University of Colorado Boulder
Position
  • Lecturer
NIST
Position
  • Associate Researcher
Description
  • Uncertainty quantification of engineering problems with a specific focus on seismic assessment of reinforced concrete structures, modeling uncertainty quantification, fragility, and resilience assessment.
Education
January 2012 - May 2015
University of Colorado Boulder
Field of study
  • Earthquake Engineering
January 2012 - December 2014
University of Colorado Boulder
Field of study
  • Structural Mechanics

Publications

Publications (261)
Article
Applied soft computing has been widely used to predict material properties, optimal mixture, and failure modes. This is challenging, especially for the highly nonlinear behavior of brittle materials such as concrete. This paper proposes three surrogate modeling techniques (i.e., polynomial chaos expansion, Kriging, and canonical low-rank approximat...
Article
Advances in nonlinear dynamic analysis of dams have not completely resolved concerns over modeling confidence and analysis accuracy. Verification and validation offer accuracy assessment, but uncertainties persist during performance evaluation due to both epistemic (modeling) and aleatory (parametric) sources. Epistemic uncertainties arise from sim...
Article
Earthquake reconnaissance trips often serve as the “tip of the spear” for assessing the real-world performance of buildings and infrastructure. Earthquakes are nature’s laboratory experiments, exposing weaknesses and flaws by testing the structural integrity of each building. Traditional data collection approaches typically include documenting dama...
Article
The alkali-silica reaction (ASR) is a major contributor to the aging and degradation of infrastructure. Understanding ASR-induced expansion in concrete structures and accurately predicting its future progression are critical components of effective risk assessment frameworks. This paper presents a study focused on developing and interpreting an adv...
Article
This paper provides a synthesis and an overview of existing research and presents a generic framework for evaluating the credibility of advanced structural analysis methods for concrete dams, with a focus on their limitations and associated uncertainties. The methodology includes a comprehensive process for structural analysis, verification, valida...
Article
Post-earthquake reconnaissance stands as a vital endeavor, encompassing a systematic survey and data collection to gain insights into the aftermath of seismic events. Grappling with a multitude of multidimensional data poses inherent challenges in the proper interpretation and extraction of hidden information. This paper unfolds in two parts. Initi...
Cover Page
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Abstract submission due: December 31, 2024 ***************** Optional conference papers due: April 15, 2025
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Concrete structures, due to their inherently heterogeneous and multiphase nature, exhibit significant variability in mechanical, chemical, and physical properties. Understanding and accounting for this variability is essential for accurate reliability assessments and the development of robust design codes. This mini-symposium will focus on state-of...
Article
This paper explores the fragility of pile-supported wharves to environmental hazards, notably climate change and corrosion, and underscores the critical need to understand the interplay between these factors when assessing structural safety. The research advocates for comprehensive methodologies that encompass climate change effects, aging, and tim...
Book
Dams and levees play a crucial role in ensuring water security, providing essential resources for irrigation, drinking water, and hydropower generation. However, the potential consequences of dam failure are severe, posing significant risks to downstream communities, properties, and ecosystems. The engineering, maintenance, and monitoring of these...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Despite the significant advances in nonlinear dynamic analysis of engineering structures, concerns still exist regarding the level of confidence in modeling and the accuracy of analysis outcomes. While verification and validation of computational processes are primary tools used to quantify the accuracy of solutions and to build confidence in the a...
Conference Paper
On February 6, 2023, Kahramanmaraş, situated in the inner Mediterranean Region of Turkey, experienced two significant earthquakes. The initial event, registering a magnitude of 7.8, took place at a depth of 8.6 km, while the subsequent earthquake, measuring 7.5 in magnitude, occurred at a depth of 7 km. The epicenters of these earthquakes were appr...
Conference Paper
Assessing the progressive failure of concrete dams under seismic activity is crucial for evaluating the dam safety. However, traditional approaches, which involve probabilistic seismic hazard analysis, ground motion selection, and scaling techniques, are complex and time-consuming. An alternative method for seismic assessment of concrete dams is to...
Conference Paper
This paper examines the impact of the deconvolution process on the dynamic response of concrete gravity dams built on rock foundations, considering both actual ground motions and intensified artificial accelerations (IAAs) in soil-structure interaction (SSI) analysis. In SSI analysis, deconvolution is a common process used to compute effective eart...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper presents some monitoring results and preliminary analysis of the seismic behavior of typical dams in response to the February 2023 Turkey earthquake sequence, which commenced with a major earthquake measuring an Mw of 7.8. The seismic sequence encompassed a significant number of recorded earthquakes, including subsequent Mw 6.7, 7.5, and...
Conference Paper
Seismic analysis of concrete dams involves numerous parameters and assumptions that can significantly impact both the local and damage responses. One such parameter is structural damping, which is challenging to quantify accurately in large-scale structures and is typically assumed in dynamic analyses. The damping model, including its formulation a...
Conference Paper
The seismic performance of engineered structures is influenced by material randomness, modeling uncertainty, and ground motion record-to-record (RTR) variability. Previous studies have attempted to quantify the impact of each source individually. However, a comprehensive investigation of the interaction among all three sources and their effect on f...
Conference Paper
Earthquake reconnaissance missions have become the norm following major seismic events. Traditional approaches to data collection involve gathering photographs, structural measurements, and notes on observable damage. While these traditional activities remain essential, the focus on assessment of functionality during reconnaissance has been limited...
Conference Paper
This study presents an optimized approach for retrofitting reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures to enhance their seismic resilience. The proposed method involves wrapping the columns with fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) layers at their plastic hinges, thereby improving their ductility and overall structural resiliency. Two meta-heuristic algori...
Conference Paper
This paper presents a kernel extreme learning machine (KELM)-based nonlinear data-driven model for the dam behavior (i.e., radial displacement and seepage) prediction, where the model hyperparameters are determined using particle swarm algorithm (PSO) and internal cross-validation to overcome overfitting. The model inputs are composed of the reserv...
Article
Full-text available
In the context of soil–structure interaction analysis, the deconvolution process for computing effective earthquake loads within rock profiles holds significant importance. This study explores the implications of this process on structures founded on rock with linear response and high shear wave velocity. The structures are subjected to both real g...
Article
The southeastern region of Türkiye faced two significant earthquakes on February 6, 2023, causing widespread destruction and substantial damage to various infrastructures. Over forty large dams in the region were affected, leading to potential new earthquake-prone areas due to energy accumulation in neighboring regions. This study focuses on the se...
Article
On February 6, 2023, Türkiye experienced a significant earthquake with a magnitude of 𝑀𝑤 7.8, followed by four additional earthquakes throughout the day, measuring 𝑀𝑤 5.8 and above, including one with a 𝑀𝑤 7.5. As a result, over 100 dams in the region experienced low to high seismic loads. The impact of these seismic events resulted in a range of d...
Article
Full-text available
It is well established that various sources of uncertainties play a critical role in the safety assessment of engineering structures. Some widely used frameworks, such as performance-based earthquake engineering (PBEE), explicitly consider the ground motion record-to-record randomness, while the material and modeling uncertainty remain to be primar...
Article
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Machine learning often lacks transparent performance indicators, especially in generating point predictions. This paper addresses this limitation through conformal prediction, a non-parametric forecasting technique seamlessly integrating with regression algorithms to produce prediction intervals at specified confidence levels. A crucial element in...
Article
Uncertainty quantification plays a crucial role in the design, monitoring, and risk assessment of earth dams. To reduce the computational burden, we employ a combination of finite difference method and soft computing techniques to investigate material uncertainties in earth dams during the initial impoundment stage. The findings of sensitivity anal...
Article
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This discussion is based on the paper by Chen et al. in 2023 (hereafter referred to as “the original paper/authors”). In their study, the original authors conducted a series of analyses using nonpulse, single‐pulse, and multipulse ground motion records, evaluating their impact on a frame structure, a slope, and a gravity dam. Their key finding sugg...
Cover Page
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For this Special Issue on "Empowering Design, Monitoring and Assessment of Hydraulic Structures with Data-Based Models", we seek high-quality submissions of original research articles as well as review articles on all aspects related to data-based models with the potential for practical application on topics related to hydraulic structures. This in...
Article
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Probabilistic assessment of seismic structural reliability relies on the simulation of structural behavior using nonlinear dynamic analysis of numerical models. This typically involves analyzing samples of ground motions that are assumed to represent specific populations of signals recorded at the site of interest. While the literature extensively...
Article
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Machine learning has become increasingly popular for modeling dam behavior due to its ability to capture complex relationships between input parameters and dam behavior responses. However, the use of sophisticated machine learning methods for monitoring dam behaviors and making decisions is often hindered by model uncertainty and a lack of interpre...
Technical Report
Full-text available
Sensitivity analysis is a crucial step in computational mechanics and earthquake engineering. Sensitivity analysis of a model (either numerical or physical) aims at quantifying the relative importance of each input parameter, their potential interaction, and their effects on the model response. Sensitivity analysis has a long-term application in st...
Article
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Concrete, as a complex and anisotropic material, poses challenges in accurately simulating its behavior in numerical simulations. This paper focuses on selecting an appropriate constitutive model for simulating the behavior of a steel–concrete composite column using finite element analysis under compression and push-out tests. Two models are analyz...
Article
In material science and engineering, the estimation of material properties and their failure modes is associated with physical experiments followed by modeling and optimization. However, proper optimization is challenging and computationally expensive. The main reason is the highly nonlinear behavior of brittle materials such as concrete. In this s...
Cover Page
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The proposed technical session for the World Conference of Earthquake Engineering will focus on the latest developments in seismic analysis and design of dams and levees. This session will cover a broad range of topics related to probabilistic seismic analysis of dams, including ground motion selection, seismic hazard assessment, and developing sei...
Article
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Dams have played a vital role in human civilization for thousands of years, providing vital resources such as water and electricity, and performing important functions such as flood control [...]
Article
Dimensionality reduction (DR) techniques are becoming increasingly important in engineering and scientific applications for feature extraction and data visualization purposes. This problem gets significantly more demanding when encountering class-imbalanced data sets with a disproportionate ratio of observations in each class. The main objective of...
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Dynamic monitoring data plays an essential role in the structural health monitoring of dams. This study presents a surrogate-assisted stochastic optimization inversion (SASOI) algorithm, a novel technique for static and dynamic parameter identification. This algorithm is based on probabilistic finite element simulations and Bayesian inference theor...
Article
Dam failure can cause extraordinary flooding. Water and wastewater treatment plants, electricity generation facilities, bridges, highways, population centers, and other dams often lie downstream of a dam. If poorly maintained, aging dams can be overtopped by extreme rainfall events, and long-term loss of critical infrastructure services for many co...
Article
Full-text available
This paper proposes a systematic approach for the seismic design of 2D concrete dams. As opposed to the traditional design method which does not optimize the dam cross-section, the proposed design engine offers the optimal one based on the predefined constraints. A large database of about 24,000 simulations is generated based on transient simulatio...
Article
Full-text available
Uncertainty quantification is a challenging task in the risk-based assessment of buildings. This paper aims to compare reliability-based approaches to simulating epistemic and aleatory randomness in reinforced concrete (RC) frames. Ground motion record-to-record variability is combined with modeling uncertainty which is propagated by either an appr...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Given the important capabilities of soft computing techniques (SCT) and advances in dam engineering, the use of these techniques in the response analysis of earth dams seems necessary. For this purpose, coupled numerical-soft computing models were developed for analysing horizontal and vertical displacements and stresses of an earth dam (Maku dam,...
Cover Page
Full-text available
We solicit high-quality original research articles presenting state-of-the-art techniques and methods focused at the interface of sustainability, resilience, risk analysis and disaster management for structures and infrastructures subject to earthquakes. We welcome both theoretical and applied papers of high technical standard across various discip...
Article
The mathematical formulation of the problem describing the interaction between a dam and the reservoir during earthquakes is complex, and the solution requires the implementation of sophisticated numerical tools. Although analytical solutions of some idealized and simplified cases are available, including the formulation of Westergaard (1933), thes...
Article
Probabilistic analyses facilitate the incorporation of inherent uncertainties in dam safety evaluation. Their application is limited due to the high computational burden, especially for the complex transient analyses and the cases in which the random field theory is applied to account for spatial uncertainty in material properties. In this work, un...
Article
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In seismic performance evaluations, the force-deformation response of a structure is typically assessed using a deterministic analytical model, and inherent uncertainty is often neglected. For reinforced concrete structures, a source of uncertainty is variability in the mechanical properties of reinforcing steel and concrete (that is, material unce...
Article
Full-text available
The concept of resilience has been used extensively across the sciences in engineering and the humanities. It is applied to ecology, medicine, economics, and psychology. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed an extraordinary challenge to the resilience of healthcare systems, communities, and nations and has profoundly altered our previ...
Article
Probabilistic seismic demand models are widely used for structures to establish a relation between the engineering demand parameter (EDP) and ground motion intensity measures (IM). For the complex infrastructures such as dams two challenges in implementation of probabilistic seismic demand models are scarcity of the appropriate real ground motions,...
Article
Quantifying the impact of uncertainty in material properties and ground motion records on the structural response is essential in implementing the performance-based earthquake engineering framework. Within the finite element approach with implicit limit states, a large number of nonlinear transient simulations are typically required to quantify the...
Article
Uncertainties such as material randomness, manufacturing anomalies, and external loading play an important role in the design of engineering structures. Therefore, reliability-based design optimization (RBDO) is frequently used as a tool to guarantee economic aspects without compromising safety. In this paper, an uncertainty–aware framework is prop...
Article
Full-text available
3D concrete printing has gained tremendous popularity as a promising technique with the potential to remarkably push the boundaries of conventional concrete technology. Enormous research efforts have been directed towards improving the material properties and structural safety of 3D printed concrete (3DPC) over the last decade. In contrast, little...
Conference Paper
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A fundamental task in machine learning involves visualizing high-dimensional data sets that arise in high-impact application domains. When considering the context of large im-balanced data, this problem becomes much more challenging. In this paper, the t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) algorithm is used to reduce the dimensions of...
Preprint
Full-text available
A fundamental task in machine learning involves visualizing high-dimensional data sets that arise in high-impact application domains. When considering the context of large imbalanced data, this problem becomes much more challenging. In this paper, the t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) algorithm is used to reduce the dimensions of...
Article
Full-text available
With recent advancements in technology, energy storage for gadgets and sensors has become a challenging task. Among several alternatives, the triboelectric nanogenerators (TENG) have been recognized as one of the most reliable methods to cure conventional battery innovation’s inadequacies. A TENG transfers mechanical energy from the surrounding env...
Article
Full-text available
Within the engineering domain, safety issues are often related to engineering design and typically exclude factors such as epidemics, famine, and disease. This article provides a perspective on the reciprocal relationship and interaction between a natural hazard and a simultaneous pandemic outbreak and discusses how a catastrophic dam break, combin...
Article
Investigating the economic consequences of the natural hazards on the infrastructures is a crucial task in any risk-based decision-making process. Life-cycle cost (LCC) analysis is an important tool in both design (to choose the most economic configuration) and analysis (to estimate the future cost of ownership) stages. The pile-supported wharves,...
Article
Full-text available
Generating low-rank approximations of kernel matrices that arise in nonlinear machine learning techniques holds the potential to significantly alleviate the memory and computational burdens. A compelling approach centers on finding a concise set of exemplars or landmarks to reduce the number of similarity measure evaluations from quadratic to linea...
Article
Full-text available
An advanced numerical analysis has become a primary tool in structural assessments of dams. Expanded computing power currently available to engineers allows conducting complex structural simulations of dam behavior for static, thermal and seismic loads. The analysis results are used then to describe potential failure modes of dam structures and ser...
Article
Engineers are often confronted with the challenge of performing a rigorous safety assessment of concrete structures affected by alkali silica reaction (ASR). Such an endeavor is often accompanied by accelerated expansion tests to simulate the aging process. This paper proposes an integrative framework to link test results with finite element analys...
Article
Time-dependent reliability and sensitivity analysis, in which the nature of demand, capacity and the limit state function varies over the life cycle of the structural system, is a challenging task. Meta-models are a suitable tool to construct inexpensive-to-evaluate and accurate surrogates in analysis of modern engineering problems. The paper’s con...
Book
This self-contained book focuses on the safety assessment of existing structures subjected to multi-hazard scenarios through advanced numerical methods. Whereas the focus is on concrete dams and nuclear containment structures, the presented methodologies can also be applied to other large-scale ones. The authors explains how aging and shaking ultim...
Chapter
Though the title of this book implies exclusive focus on concrete dams and nuclear structures, coverage (most of it) applies also to other types. By way of example, this chapter will use two distinct illustrative examples: (a) a massively reinforced concrete supporting structure and (b) a landmark bridge.
Chapter
This section explains the fundamentals of seismic hazard analysis as part of earthquake engineering. According to Elnashai and Di Sarno (Fundamentals of earthquake engineering: from source to fragility. Wiley, London, 2015), Earthquake Engineering is a branch of engineering concerned with the estimation of earthquake consequences and the mitigation...
Chapter
This chapter addresses the interaction between the structure and its foundation. It begins with a seldom covered problem: rocking of the structure on the foundation and possible “lift-off” that would act as stress reliever. Different techniques to model this problem are outlined. Then, deconvolution, the technique to apply a proper seismic excitati...
Chapter
Aging Management Programs (AMP) are unique to the nuclear industry and are designed to ensure the continuous safety of nuclear power plant as they age.
Chapter
The performance of the infrastructures subjected to internal or external loading should be a property quantified to be used in the context of performance based engineering. Quantification of the potential damage due to earthquakes has the utmost importance. Seismic damage indices (DI) are widely used for this purpose. Having a comprehensive list of...
Chapter
Whereas in the previous chapter we have detailed, and commented on, reported analyses of NPP by others, this one will provide an alternative numerical solution to these case studies using methods covered in this book.
Chapter
This is the first of four chapters dedicated to the analysis of nuclear structures, or Containment Enclosure Building (CEB) more precisely. It constitutes an attempt to contextualize the complex, and seldom fully addressed, problematic of the safety of nuclear reactor enclosure buildings. This chapter will begin with some general remarks associated...
Chapter
Dynamics is a sine qua non for seismic investigation of structures. Rather than reviewing its fundamentals, this chapter will focus on the computational aspects as implemented in finite element analysis codes.
Chapter
There are two major forms of environmentally induced concrete deterioration: the first is caused by the ingress of chloride (in marine environments or whenever salt based de-icing is used) and the other by carbonation from the atmosphere. Although per se these ingress will not deteriorate the concrete, they will eventually cause internal rebar corr...
Chapter
Creep is a quintessential form of concrete aging. It has been the subject of countless studies, and indeed in many cases it is a phenomenon that must be properly accounted for. Though it should never be discounted, its importance may be minimized by other aging mechanisms (such as ASR).
Chapter
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the earth. A seismologist is a scientist who does research in seismology. A field that uses geology to infer information regarding past earthquakes is paleoseismology. On the other hand, the seismicity refers to the geographic and historical distribution...
Chapter
Safety assessment of structures can not be purely code based and certainly not based on linear elastic analyses. Hence, this chapter will cover key aspects of non-linear finite element analysis.
Chapter
This chapter aims to provide the fundamentals of probability and statistics. This is an essential topic, and most of the advanced topics and majority of the applied examples are rooted in probabilistic-based simulations. First the differences between discrete and continuous random variables are explained. Next, the properties of several widely-used...
Chapter
In this chapter, we examine a particularly complex case-study, one that brings together multiple issues separately addressed in this book and is thus a fitting last chapter.
Article
The reliability of reinforced concrete (RC) structures can be estimated based on the required capacity ratio. The structural demand increases with population growth and climate change, while the capacity is reduced by rebar corrosion and concrete deterioration. Several engineering structures (e.g., bridges deck and harbors) are susceptible to both...
Chapter
Plasticity is probably the most commonly studied failure mechanism. Its usage in metals is wide-spread; however, it has its limitations in capturing concrete failure (especially in tension). Failure modes, causes of plastic failures, and implications on computational plasticity will be addressed.
Chapter
Mechanics is where it all starts. Rooted in mathematics, it provides a solid underpinning for subsequent engineering solutions. Rather than providing a classical introductory “Mechanics of Materials” approach, we have opted for the more concise and powerful continuum mechanics based one. Far from exhaustive, this chapter limits itself to the fundam...
Chapter
Whereas Chaps. 3 and 8 addressed the theoretical underpinning of classical (linear and nonlinear) fracture mechanics and concrete fracture mechanics, this chapter will cover modeling of cracks. It is broken into four parts: (a) linear elastic fracture mechanics (use of singular elements to determine the stress intensity factors); (b) nonlinear frac...
Chapter
Ultimately and at different scales, fracture is the leading cause of material failures. As continuum mechanics by its very essence can not capture fracture, a different branch of mechanics addresses this complex failure mode. Hence, this chapter will be devoted to the fundamentals of theoretical fracture mechanics. Coverage will be substantially mo...
Chapter
Identification, description, and evaluation of site-specific potential failure modes (PFMs) are the most important steps towards a risk analysis. Potential failure mode analysis (PFMA) is a standard and state-of-the-practice technique in dam engineering and forms the basis for risk evaluations and event tree development. Figure 27.1 illustrates the...
Chapter
This chapter is, in fact, a summary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Risk-Informed Decision Making Risk Informed Decision Making Guidelines to identify, analyze, assess, and manage the risks in dams. The concept of risk and its differences with other similar topics (e.g. hazard, vulnerability, fragility) are already discussed in S...
Chapter
This chapter focuses on reported (finite element) studies/investigation in four NPP that have received much attention lately: Gentilly 2, Ikata, and Crystal River. The first two are the only ones reported to have suffered from ASR, and the last has notoriously delaminated following detensioning for steam generator replacement. Each case is treated...
Chapter
Fragility functions are resultedFragility Function from a structural assessment of the system (in the case of analytical form). In simple language, the fragility can be defined as “the quality of being easily broken or damaged” Porter (A Beginner’s guide to fragility, vulnerability, and risk. Springer, Berlin, 2015). The seismic fragility functions...
Chapter
Whereas the boundary conditions for vector field problems are straightforward, this is not the case for thermal (diffusion) problems. Those are particularly important in the thermal analysis of concrete dams, and the proper investigation of chloride diffusion. Hence, they are addressed separately in this chapter.
Chapter
A metamodel, or surrogate model, is a model of a model. Metamodeling refers to a process of generating such metamodels which is based on analysis, construction and development of the frames, rules, constraints, models and theories applicable and useful for modeling a predefined class of problems. On the other hand, machine learning is an applicatio...

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