Ash Dean
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dickinson College
(Honor's Thesis Defense)
How much of "Survival of the fittest" is actually
"Survival of the lucky?" Come to this talk for
some insight! Mr. Dean will explain techniques for
simulating learning and evolution using computers. He
will explain how he used these techniques to investigate
how learning impacts the effects of random chance, genetic
history and adaptation on the course of evolution.
Adam Labadorf
How might your ability to learn to compute a partial
derivative affect the course of evolution? Come to
this talk and find out! Mr. Labadorf will introduce
techniques for simulating both learning and evolution
on a computer. Using these techniques, he will explain
his research into the question of how learning to
perform tasks that are seemingly unrelated survival can
affect the "survival of the fittest."
Rebecca Wells
How can bees and flowers improve our ability to solve
difficult problems using computers? For a glimpse, come
to this talk! Ms. Wells will introduce techniques for
using computers to simulate evolution, coevolution and
learning. She will explain how she used these techniques
to explore the relative problem solving power of learning
combined with evolution and coevolution.
Liz Bouzarth
The study of magnetic field lines is a
vital area of many plasma physicists' research. Utilizing magnetic
field line reconnection as inspiration for this study of knot theory
led to the discovery of reconnection equivalence classes,
characterized by topological helicity, an invariant for framed
knots.
Dr. Bernd Zimmerman
At least two examples from ancient Arabic mathematics (one from
elementary number theory, one from elementary geometry) will be presented
and discussed. You might get a feeling of problem solving methods of that
epoche which might point to results several hundreds of years ahead of
that time (related to Euler and Fermat).
Dr. Hugh McGuire
An AVL (Adelson-Velskii and Landis) tree is a binary search tree
with a balance condition. The balance condition is clear and relatively
easy to maintain, and it ensures that the depth of the tree is O (log N),
where N is the number of items stored in the tree. Issues of the implementation in C++ will also be noted from a course on intermediate data structures and algorithms, using the textbook "Data Structures & Algorithm Analysis in C++" by Mark Allen Weis.
Dr. Tim Wahls
Computers are extremely fast, but programming computers to do
something useful is extremely slow. If programming is considered as
teaching a computer to solve a problem, then the computer is a very poor
student. The programmer/teacher must break the process of finding the
solution down into tiny steps, and then tell the computer exactly what
order to do the steps in. In this talk, we examine constraint satisfaction
as a technique for increasing the "intelligence" of the computer. Using
constraint satisfaction allows the programmer to just describe the
solution to the computer, rather than giving detailed step-by-step
instructions for finding the solution. This approach greatly reduces the
time needed to write programs, and the time needed to run such programs is
often still acceptable.
Dr. Andy Novobilski
Dr. Novobilski will discuss
data mining from the perspective of identifying Bayesian Network Models for
forecasting future outcomes from existing data. A brief introduction to
evolutionary computing (genetic algorithms and genetic programming) is given
with examples of their use in forecasting time series data. Also discussed
are future directions and opportunities for collaborative research in the
area of Biomedical Informatics.
Wed. 4/30 (12:30) -Dynamic Correlation: the effect of learning on evolution
when learning and evolutionary tasks are different
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dickinson College
(Honor's Thesis Defense)
Tues. 4/29 (12:00) - Effects of Learning on Coevolution
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dickinson College
(Honor's Thesis Defense)
Thurs. 4/24 (12:00) - A Link Between Mathematics and Physics: A Study of Knot Theory and Magnetic Field Line Reconnection
Department of Mathematics and Computer Science
Dickinson College
(Honor's Thesis Defense)
Tues. 3/25 (12:30) - On Problem Solving in Ancient Arabic Mathematics
University of Jena
1/27 - AVL Trees (Adelson-Velskii and Landis)
Department of Computer Science
University of California Santa Barbra
a
Thurs. 1/23 (12:00) - Constraint Satisfaction: Computing at the Speed of Stupidity
Department of Computer Science
Hood College
Tues. 1/21 (12:00) - Searching in Uncertain Places; An Overview of Evolutionary Computing
Department of Computer Science
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chats from previous semesters:
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| Spring 1999
| Fall 1998
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