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AIList Digest Volume 6 Issue 072
AIList Digest Monday, 18 Apr 1988 Volume 6 : Issue 72
Today's Topics:
Queries - AI Texts & Cognitive Science &
Software Engineering vs. Knowledge Engineering &
Undergraduate AI Curriculum &
Explorer (vs. Sun) Experience &
Expert System for Scheduling &
Emycin & Holographic Memory &
AI and Self-Awareness &
Expert Systems in the Railroad Industry
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 13 Apr 88 22:41:53 GMT
From: stride!tahoe!wheeler!greg@gr.utah.edu (Greg Sharp)
Subject: References needed
I am looking for introductory references (books, articles...) concerning ai.
My background is primarily engineering, with a small amount of computer
science experience. Replies via email are fine.
Greg Sharp (greg@wheeler.wrc.unr.edu)
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 88 09:37 CST
From: PMACLIN%UTMEM1.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: CONTRIBUTION TO AILIST
For my first time, I'm teaching a college undergraduate course on
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence. In a few weeks, we will be
discussing Cognitive Science, an area in which I am comparatively
weak. I would like some current thinking and new ideas in this field.
If you or an associate have written any papers in the field of
Cognitive Science or related topics in the past two or three years,
I would much appreciate it very much if you would mail me a copy.
Thanks in advance.
Philip Maclin, AI Specialist
University of Tennessee at Memphis
Computer Science Dept.
877 Madison Ave., Suite 330
Memphis, TN 38163
PMACLIN@UTMEM1
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 88 12:14:39 EDT
From: CMSBE1%EOVUOV11.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Software Engineering VERSUS Knowledge Engineering. What do
you think?
Date: 14 April 1988, 12:10:31 EDT
From: Juan Francisco Suarez Vicente (KIKO) CMSBE1 at EOVUOV11
To: AILIST at SRI
Hello from Spain!!!
This request is very precise, and I need to know all possible expert
opinions from you (if you want help me,of course).
- Which are the main points of view,in your opinion, about the
subject "Software Engineering VERSUS Knowledge Engineering"?
- How should I explain it in a Conference?
- How could I relate Soft and Knowledge engineerings, in a non-conflictive
way? Or, contrarily, Should I explain these concepts oppositely?
-----o------
It's a very important question to me. THANKS A LOT.
Answers to: AILIST or CMSBE1@EOVUOV11 (spanish userid)
------------------------------
Date: 15 Apr 88 12:26:00 CST
From: "HENRY::TSATSOUL" <tsatsoul%henry.decnet@space-tech.arpa>
Reply-to: "HENRY::TSATSOUL" <tsatsoul%henry.decnet@space-tech.arpa>
Subject: Undergraduate AI curriculum
The recent discussion on this list about AI has touched upon a subject
that I thought might be interesting to pursue. Specifically, what is the
state of the undergraduate AI education? It is my impression that AI is
rapidly reaching that point that Computer Science had reached about 30 years
ago. At that time lots of people started discussing and writing about
curriculum requirements for CS degrees on all levels, resulting to today's CS
departments and degrees.
I am very interested in compiling a list of courses, textbooks and
requirements that various Universities and Departments offer on the under-
graduate level and which are considered (or can be considered) AI-oriented.
Especially interesting are curricula that offer BS or BA degrees with AI
specialization, or, even more, ``pure'' AI degrees.
It would also be interesting to start compiling everybody's thoughts
on a bachelor's in AI. What should be included? How much CS, how much
engineering, how much psychology, philosophy, mathematics? What kind of
different specializations and emphases?
I hope there are enough people out there with enough interest to
start a discussion. I volunteer to gather and distribute information from
and to anyone interested. As a first step people can send me descriptions
of the undergraduate AI courses and curricula in their departments. If you
have the information on file, please e-mail it. Otherwise, just US-mail
me catalogs, brochures, etc.
Cheers,
Costas Tsatsoulis
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Costas Tsatsoulis | tsatsoul @ space-tech.arpa |
| Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering |-------------------------------|
| Nichols Hall | |
| The University of Kansas | H A I K U |
| Lawrence, KS 66045 | |
------------------------------
Date: 12 Apr 88 21:29:16 GMT
From: mikeb@ford-wdl1.arpa (Michael H. Bender)
Subject: Explorer (vs. Sun) Experience ?
PLEASE - if you have any experience with the TI Explorer environment,
or have made any comparisons between it and the SUN environment,
please help us by lettin us know ....
An associate of mine is debating between the purchase of a Mac-II with
the TI Explorer board, or a Sun workstation. Currently, he has a Sun,
and he wants to buy 2 Mac's and link them togehter (NFS? IP/TCP?). He
will be running Knowledge Craft Primarily.
QUESTION 1)
How hard is it to learn to use the Lisp environment on the Explorer?
Is it as difficult as the Symbolics used to be?
In the past - people have told me that it takes close to a year to
become expert on the Symbolics (much less on the Sun) ... is this true
for the Explorer also?
QUESTION 2)
How hard is it to maintain the software and environment? He is afraid
that if he gets a Sun he will need to hire a Unix guru.... Will he
have to hire an Explorer/Zeta-Lisp expert if he gets a MacII with the
TI board?
QUESTION 3)
Does the TI environment (which I assume will completely run on the
Mac-II) provide a large number of libraries that would otherwise have
to be developed on the SUN workstations?
Please share your experiences with us...
Mike Bender mhb@ford-wdl1
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 15 Apr 88 15:50 H
From: ANANDA%NUSDISCS.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Subject: Expert System for scheduling
We at the Department of Information Systems & Computer Science, National
University of Singapore are in the process of developing an expert system
for crew scheduling for a simple subway train network. We would appreciate
information on any similar project, pointers to literature on any expert
system project involving scheduling, and tools that may be useful in the
development work. At present we are planning to use TI's PCPLUS shell.
Please send your response directly to me
Thanks in advance.
A.L.Ananda
Bitnet address: ananda@NUSDISCS
------------------------------
Date: 14 Apr 88 21:37:55 GMT
From: mnetor!spectrix!yunexus!oz@uunet.uu.net (Ozan Yigit)
Subject: Emycin... where can I find it ??
I am looking for the source (common lisp and/or franz) of emycin, to
study + play. All pointers would be appreciated.
oz
--
... and they will all Usenet: [decvax|ihnp4]!utzoo!yunexus!oz
bite the dust ... .......!uunet!mnetor!yunexus!oz
comprehensively. ... Bitnet: oz@[yusol|yulibra|yuyetti]
Archbishop Tutu Phonet: +1 416 736-5257 x 3976
------------------------------
Date: 15 Apr 88 09:20:43 GMT
From: munnari!basser.cs.su.oz.au!ray@uunet.UU.NET
Subject: holographic memory and pattern recognition
>From John Haugeland, "The Nature and Plausibility of Cognitivism",
Behavioural and Brain Sciences, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1978), pp 215-260 ...
> ... if a hologram of an arbitrary scene is suitably illuminated with
> the light from a reference object, bright spots will appear
> indicating (virtually instantaneously) the presence and location of
> any occurrences of the reference object in the scene (and dimmer
> spots indicate "similar" objects). So some neurophysiological
> holographic encoding might account for a number of perplexing
> features of visual recall and recognition ...
This stuff is part of AI folklore. There are many papers that discuss
the philosophical implications for AI of this phenomenon (as does
Haugeland's paper), or propose neural implementations of this sort of
process. But what I want is a paper by somebody who has ACTUALLY PERFORMED
THIS EXPERIMENT. Can anyone point me to such a paper?
Raymond Lister
Basser Department of Computer Science
University of Sydney
NSW 2006
AUSTRALIA
ACSnet: ray@basser.cs.su.oz
Internet: ray%basser.cs.su.oz.au@uunet.uu.net
CSNET: ray%basser.cs.su.oz@csnet-relay
UUCP: {uunet,hplabs,pyramid,mcvax,ukc,nttlab}!munnari!basser.cs.su.oz!ray
JANET: munnari!basser.cs.su.oz!ray@ukc
[Fourier-based template matching is trivial to set up on an
optical workbench, and is not considered experimental AI. In
character recognition, for instance, one can project a text letter
through a font mask and choose the mask position corresponding to
the greatest response in the Fourier plane. (Holograms can be
used, but are not required when you have the optics generating
real-time Fourier planes. Computer vision research usually
substitutes digital FFT transforms for the optics. Fielded
target-recognition systems are likely to use holograms or acoustic-
wave devices because they are faster than digital techniques and
more robust than complex lens systems.) Such template matching
works great if the text characters are complete, isolated, and
not distorted. Holographic systems storing dozens of different
views of tanks and aircraft have been demonstrated. -- KIL]
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 16 Apr 88 13:54:02 est
From: Mr. David Smith <dsmith@gelac.arpa>
Subject: AI and Self-Awareness
I have an interesting piece of software which has caused me to think at
various levels about self-awareness. First, I will describe the software. It
is an aid for learning to type correctly. It types a word randomly selected
from a large dictionary, and waits for the user to type the word, checking
that each letter is correct and requiring the use of the backspace key to
correct any errors. So far, a useful tool.
Unbeknownst to the user, it is also measuring his proficiency in typing each
letter combination and adapting its dictionary selections to emphasize those he
is weak at typing.
The first question is this: "Is this AI?" to which the most likely answer might
be: "You have not given me enough information."
The second question then arises: "What would you need to know about this
program to decide whether it is AI or not? " Its size? language? The method
for determining proficiency? The adaptation technique? The size of the
dictionary? Where the 'expertise' came from?
The third question: "Why are we in the AI community always asking the first two
questions?" Can you measure the "AI-ness" of something by its behavior, its
structure or its source of wisdom? Should not AI as a scientific discipline
be content, as the manufacturers of pencils, compilers etc. are, to become an
integral useful part of engineering or computer science?
David Smith.
David Smith: dsmith@gelac.arpa
------------------------------
Date: 16 Apr 88 18:00:17 GMT
From: lagache@violet.Berkeley.EDU (Edouard Lagache)
Subject: Expert Systems in the Railroad Industry.
I attended a lecture by Hubert Dreyfus on the problems in
Artificial Intelligence, and he mentioned that he was aware of only 2
Expert systems that work as well or better than the human experts that
they were based on. What does this have to do with trains? Well, one
of the systems (called ALPS) is designed to optimally load a cargo
planes, which is a problem that looks isomorphic with the problem of
loading a railroad switch yard.
That raises an interesting question for those interested in
computers and trains: what sort of expert systems have developed for
the railroad industry? It seems to me that there are a number of
promising areas:
1.) Scheduling.
2.) Optimal switching moves and train assembly.
3.) Cargo routing and loading.
4.) Equipment Maintenance.
Does anyone know of what work (if any) has been done by railroads
or A.I. outfits in this area? Interestingly enough, Dreyfus would
probably claim that the first 3 areas would be very promising domains
for expert systems.
Edouard Lagache
School of Education
U.C. Berkeley
lagache@violet.berkeley.edu
P.S. I has posted this to both 'rec.railroad', and 'comp.ai'. Please
don't reply to both groups unless it is truly of general interest.
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End of AIList Digest
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