Fine-tuned Physics VLM: Qwen2-VL-7B with LoRA & QLoRA 🧪⚡
Model Details
Model Description
A specialized vision-language model fine-tuned for physics problem solving, combining OCR capabilities with mathematical reasoning through an innovative multi-adapter training approach.
Attribute
Details
Developed by
Paranidharan
Model type
Vision-Language Model (VLM) with LoRA/QLoRA adapters
This model is a fine-tuned version of Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct specifically optimized for physics education and problem-solving tasks. The model demonstrates excellent OCR capabilities with math-friendly reasoning, making it ideal for interpreting and solving physics problems from images.
Key Capabilities
OCR Excellence: Accurate text extraction from physics diagrams and equations
Mathematical Reasoning: Solid problem-solving capabilities for physics concepts
Multi-modal Understanding: Seamless integration of visual and textual information
Structured Output: JSON-formatted responses for auto-grading compatibility
Technical Architecture
Training Strategy
Our approach uses a hybrid multi-adapter fine-tuning strategy that optimizes different model components with specialized techniques:
QLoRA (4-bit quantization) on LLM blocks using bitsandbytes + peft
Tiny LoRA (r=4/8) on vision-language projector linear layers
Frozen vision encoder to preserve pre-trained visual representations
Infrastructure & Scaling
Distributed Training Setup:
Hardware: 4×NVIDIA A6000 (24GB VRAM each) with H200 migration support
Framework: DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 + Hugging Face Accelerate for distributed computing
Precision: Mixed precision (bf16) with gradient accumulation
Effective Batch Size: 32-64 sequences across distributed setup
Total GPU Hours: 16 GPU hours (4 hours × 4 GPUs)
Distributed Strategy: DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 for memory optimization and model sharding
Monitoring: Weights & Biases integration with tqdm progress tracking
Trained on ScienceQA - a comprehensive multi-subject dataset with strong physics representation.
Data Format:
json
1{2"image":"path/to/physics_problem.jpg",3"question":"Calculate the acceleration of the object...",4"answer":"The acceleration is 9.8 m/s² because..."5}
Training Metrics
Training Efficiency:
Total Training Time: 4 hours wall-clock time
Total GPU Hours: 16 GPU hours (4×A6000 for 4 hours)
GPU Type: NVIDIA A6000 (24GB VRAM each)
Distributed Computing: DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 for efficient multi-GPU training
GPU Utilization: Optimized with gradient accumulation and mixed precision
Memory Efficiency: QLoRA reduces memory footprint by ~60%
Convergence: Stable training with consistent loss reduction across 3 epochs
Add Image Here: GPU utilization and memory usage charts
Prompt Engineering
The model uses a specialized Physics-tutor system prompt with structured JSON output formatting for consistent response generation and auto-grading compatibility.
Language Model: QLoRA fine-tuned (4-bit quantization)
Projector: Tiny LoRA adapted (rank 4-8)
Compute Requirements
Training Hardware: 4×NVIDIA A6000 (24GB VRAM each)
Training Time: 4 hours wall-clock (16 total GPU hours)
Distributed Framework: DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 for memory-efficient multi-GPU training
Inference: Single A6000/RTX 4090 compatible
Memory: ~12GB VRAM for inference with quantization
Scalability: H200 support planned for future training iterations
Framework Versions
PEFT: 0.17.1
Transformers: Latest compatible version
DeepSpeed: ZeRO-3 configuration
PyTorch: 2.0+ with CUDA support
Weights & Biases: For training monitoring and logging
🎓 Use Cases
Direct Use
Educational Physics Tutoring: Step-by-step problem solving assistance
OCR + Reasoning: Extract and solve physics problems from images
Auto-grading Systems: JSON structured outputs for automated evaluation
Downstream Use
Physics Problem Analysis: Large-scale problem dataset processing
Educational AI Research: Benchmark for vision-language physics understanding
Homework Assistance Tools: Integration into educational platforms
Out-of-Scope Use
Non-physics domains: Model is specifically optimized for physics problems
Non-English languages: Training focused on English-language content
Production without GPU: Requires GPU acceleration for optimal performance
⚠️ Bias, Risks, and Limitations
Limitations
Domain Specificity: Optimized primarily for physics problems
Language Support: English-focused training data
Computational Requirements: Requires GPU for optimal performance
Dataset Bias: Limited to ScienceQA dataset characteristics
Recommendations
Users should be aware of the physics-focused training and may need additional fine-tuning for other scientific domains. GPU acceleration is recommended for production use.
🚀 How to Get Started with the Model
Basic Usage
python
1from transformers import AutoModelForCausalLM, AutoProcessor
2from peft import PeftModel
34# Load the fine-tuned model5base_model = AutoModelForCausalLM.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct")6model = PeftModel.from_pretrained(base_model,"parani01/Fine-tuned-physics-VLM-on-LoRA-and-QLoRA")7processor = AutoProcessor.from_pretrained("Qwen/Qwen2-VL-7B-Instruct")89# Your physics problem solving code here
📊 Training Details
Training Data
Dataset: ScienceQA multi-subject dataset
Format: JSONL with image, question, answer triplets
Focus: Physics problems with visual components
Size: Optimized subset for physics reasoning
Training Procedure
Training Hyperparameters
Training regime: Mixed precision bf16 with gradient accumulation
Batch Size: 32-64 effective batch size across 4 GPUs
Learning Rate: Optimized for LoRA/QLoRA setup
Epochs: 3 epochs
Distributed: DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 across 4×A6000
Speeds, Sizes, Times
Training Time: 4 hours wall-clock
Total GPU Hours: 16 hours (4×A6000)
Model Size: Base 7B + LoRA adapters
Memory Usage: ~60% reduction with QLoRA quantization
Model Type: Vision-Language Model with Multi-Adapter Fine-tuning Training Date: September 2025 Languages: English Domains: Physics, Mathematics, Science Education Hardware: 4×NVIDIA A6000, DeepSpeed ZeRO-3 Distributed Training