Research Paper instead of Quizzes

For those of you who prefer to do a research paper, please follow the instructions from last year’s 581 class. The formatting instructions can also be obtained from the International Joint Conference in Artificial Intelligence IJCAI 2011 site (instead of IJCAI 2009, as indicated in the 581 class). This might be especially interesting for those of you working on a thesis, and intending to submit the paper for publication.

[The conference info below is from last year, but there might be similar ones this year. I’ll update this later.]
If you’re looking for a potential venue, there are about 30
workshops at IJCAI 2011, with deadlines typically in March or April. The conference will be July 16-22 in Barcelona, Spain, and it is the premier conference in AI. An alternative is the Twenty-Fifth Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-11) from August 7-11 in San Francisco. The deadline is Feb 3 for abstracts and Feb 8 for papers for the main conference, so this is a bit tight. Then there is a Student Abstract and Paper program, with a Feb 15 deadline. This student program is actually a great opportunity to get a chance to participate in such a conference. There are also workshops (there is no list available yet), with an April 22 deadline.
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Blackboard Available: KB Nugget Signup, Survey

Blackboard is now available for the 481 course. We will use it for the following:
- scheduling and repository for KB Nugget presentations (see AI-KB-Wiki on Blackboard),
- assignment submission,
- quizzes,
- possibly some course materials that I can’t put on my public course Web site.

Please take the survey under “Surveys and Quizzes”. It is not graded; I use it to get a better impression about the background of the students, and also to get you familiarized with the way the quizzes will be done.
If you’ve already selected a topic for your KB Nugget presentation, you can sign up on Blackboard. Throughout next week (Week 3), those students with topics selected will be able to sign up; if you haven’t made up your mind yet, you’ll have to wait until Week 4.
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A1: Concept Map Available

The description for the first assignment is available now. The deadline is Thu, Jan. 27.
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Project Description and TRAC Wikis Available

You can find the project description on the class Web page now. We also have a number of TRAC Wikis available; if your team already has decided on a topic, let me know and I’ll give you access to the Wiki.
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KB Nugget Description Available

You can find the KB Nugget description on the course Web page now. There may be some modifications (such as the length of the presentation) depending on the decision about doing a term paper vs. quizzes.
A table where you can sign up for time slots will be available on Blackboard soon. If you already have a topic in mind, and would like to present early, let me know. If you do your presentation during Week 2, you’ll get a 10% bonus, and 5% during Week 3.
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Project Topic Proposal: Managing the Design Process in Architecture

This is a proposal by Brent Griffis, a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. It could also be the basis for a Senior project or Master’s thesis.




Greetings,

My name is Brent Griffis and I am a graduate student in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design.

My research is focused on managing the design process. It is my opinion that the overall design process can be broken up into many different but interconnected activities. Then after analyzing each activity, and weighting them, we can look at the links/dependencies between them and begin to optimize the design process through logic and mathematical models. In doing this, we will be able to identify the critical stages and activities of the design process, and begin to understand the sensitivity of the decision making path to various activities as well as begin to eliminate unnecessary design iterations. Essentially, I want to organize the design process in such a way that it maximizes the possibility of successfully completing the process in the most efficient way possible before the project even begins. I will be creating a set of “guidelines” or a theory that one should follow in order to successfully manage the design process. Then I will actually apply the theory to a couple of different projects and see how it works. I feel that the computer can be useful in this optimization approach. In my limited research of expert systems and constraint programming, I feel that my research is set up perfectly for utilizing the capabilities of these programming techniques. Also, I feel this is a great opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary manner to solve problems that can be applicable to all forms of design; rather it be buildings, software, machines, etc. They are all designed based on the logical completion of different interconnected activities. This description of my research is quite basic, and I feel that if anyone is interested in working with me on this project once you learn more of the specifics, it will hopefully peak your interest further and fit even better into the realm of expert systems and constraint programming than depicted here.

Since at many points during the design process, we as designers must design under uncertainty, the second portion of my guidelines will be focused on how to make design decisions under uncertainty. Again using mathematical models and statistical analysis to provide us with different levels of certainty and answers when there is a lack of information available. I feel that the computer can be helpful in analyzing and computing different levels of uncertainty during a multi-criteria design process. I feel that my abilities in using MATLAB are enough to tackle this portion of the project, but if you would be interested in this portion as well I am open to working with you on it. Thank you for you time, and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.

Regards,

Brent

Brent Griffis
Graduate Student, Researcher
Architecture Department
College of Architecture and Environmental Design
California Polytechnic State University San Luis Obispo
brentgriffis@hotmail.com (408) 489-3229

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