IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,518,162
Granted Patent B2
US 12,518,162 · App. 18/484,851 · Granted Jan 6, 2026

Information-aware graph contrastive learning

Inventors: Wei Cheng (Princeton Junction, NJ); Dongkuan Xu (State College, PA); Haifeng Chen (West Windsor, NJ)
Assignee: NEC Corporation
G06N3/08
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,518,162
App. No.
18/484,851
Granted
Jan 6, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

A method for performing contrastive learning for graph tasks and datasets by employing an information-aware graph contrastive learning framework is presented. The method includes obtaining two semantically similar views of a graph coupled with a label for training by employing a view augmentation component, feeding the two semantically similar views into respective encoder networks to extract latent representations preserving both structure and attribute information in the two views, optimizing a contrastive loss based on a contrastive mode by maximizing feature consistency between the latent representations, training a neural network with the optimized contrastive loss, and predicting a new graph label or a new node label in the graph.

Claims (150)

1 . A method for performing contrastive learning for graph tasks and datasets by employing an information-aware graph contrastive learning framework, the method comprising (lump with selecting a contrastive mode):

obtaining two semantically similar views of a graph coupled with a label for training by employing a view augmentation component to generate views of the graph that do not affect a semantic label of the graph, wherein the graph represents a citation network indicating citation between technical papers and includes nodes each indicating the technical papers, and the labels indicates a research area;

feeding the two semantically similar views into respective separate instances of encoder networks to extract latent representations preserving both structure and attribute information in the two semantically similar views;

selecting a contrastive mode that is characterized by an aggregation operation by solving an optimization problem:

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where c*i and c*j are aggregation operations applied to latent representations z*i and z*j from the respective separate instances of encoder networks and where I(.;.) is a mutual information;

minimizing a contrastive loss based on the contrastive mode by maximizing feature consistency between the latent representations; and

training a document classification model by performing graph contrastive learning with the minimized contrastive loss, the trained document classification model being configured to predict a new node label of a new technical paper based on citation information and textual content of the new technical paper, wherein the predicted new node label is used to support a decision making process.

2 . The method of claim 1 , comprising

predicting the new label of the new technical paper based on the citation information and the textual content of the new technical paper using the document classification model.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the separate instances of encoder networks includes a graph neural network (GNN) backbone and a projection multilayer perceptron (MLP).

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the contrastive mode is selected from the group consisting of a global-global mode, a local-global mode, a local-local mode, a multi-scale mode, and a hybrid-mode.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein, in the global-global mode, graph representations from the two semantically similar views are contrasted.

6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein, in the local-global mode, node representations from the first view of the two semantically similar views are contrasted with graph representations from the second view of the two semantically similar views.

7 . The method of claim 4 , wherein, in the local-local mode, node representations from the two semantically similar views are contrasted.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the new node label is classified as either positive or negative.

9 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising a computer-readable program for performing contrastive learning for graph tasks and datasets by employing an information-aware graph contrastive learning framework, wherein the computer-readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the steps of:

obtaining two semantically similar views of a graph coupled with a label for training by employing a view augmentation component to generate views of the graph that do not affect a semantic label of the graph, wherein the graph represents a citation network indicating citation between technical papers and includes nodes each indicating the technical papers, and the labels indicates a research area;

feeding the two semantically similar views into respective separate instances of encoder networks to extract latent representations preserving both structure and attribute information in the two semantically similar views;

selecting a contrastive mode that is characterized by an aggregation operation by solving an optimization problem:

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where c*i and c*j are aggregation operations applied to latent representations z*i and z*j from the respective separate instances of encoder networks and where I(.;.) is a mutual information;

minimizing a contrastive loss based on the contrastive mode by maximizing feature consistency between the latent representations; and

training a document classification model by performing graph contrastive learning with the minimized contrastive loss, the trained document classification model being configured to predict a new node label of a new technical paper based on citation information and textual content of the new technical paper, wherein the predicted new node label is used to support a decision making process.

10 . A system for performing contrastive learning for graph tasks and datasets by employing an information-aware graph contrastive learning framework, the system comprising:

a memory; and one or more processors in communication with the memory configured to:

obtain two semantically similar views of a graph coupled with a label for training by employing a view augmentation component, wherein the graph represents a citation network indicating citation between technical papers and includes nodes each indicating the technical papers, and the labels indicates a research area;

feed the two semantically similar views into respective separate instances of encoder networks to extract latent representations preserving both structure and attribute information in the two semantically similar views;

select a contrastive mode that is characterized by an aggregation operation by solving an optimization problem:

(

c

i

*

,

c

j

*

)

=

arg

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min

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j

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where c*i and c*j are aggregation operations applied to latent representations z*i and z*j from the respective separate instances of encoder networks and where I(.;.) is a mutual information;

minimize a contrastive loss based on the contrastive mode by maximizing feature consistency between the latent representations; and

train a document classification model by performing graph contrastive learning with the minimized contrastive loss, the trained document classification model being configured to predict a new node label of a new technical paper based on citation information and textual content of the new technical paper, wherein the predicted new node label is used to support a decision making process.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Nov 18, 2025
From: NEC LABORATORIES AMERICA, INC.
To: NEC CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 072938/0913 →
Continuity (4)
Continuation 17728071 · Apr 25, 2022
Provisional Application 63316505 · Mar 4, 2022
Provisional Application 63191367 · May 21, 2021
Related Publication 20240037401A1 · Feb 1, 2024
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