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The constructed trees are further refined by a dynamic programming-based branch merging algorithm, which improves the wirelength without sacrificing the path lengths of any sinks. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed framework achieves significant improvements over both state-of-the-art traditional SLT generation algorithms and existing machine learning enhanced methods.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3789668","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T21:19:26Z","timestamp":1769203166000},"page":"1-15","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["MALT: ML Assisted Shallow-Light Tree Construction"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"31","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-4111-3781","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Liang","family":"Xiao","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6451-8074","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jinwei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hong Kong Baptist University","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8451-8100","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lixin","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1603-6211","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Qijing","family":"Wang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0623-1590","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Evangeline","family":"Young","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science and Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8274-9688","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Martin","family":"Wong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Hong Kong Baptist University","place":["Hong Kong, Hong Kong"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_1_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/3177540.3178239"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1145\/290179.290180"},{"key":"e_1_3_1_4_2","article-title":"Efficient broadcast and light-weight spanners","author":"Awerbuch B.","year":"1992","unstructured":"B. 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