[CSENews] [Fwd: CSE Colloquium reminder: Benjamin Kuipers 4/17/09]

[Teresa Isela VanderSloot]

  Autonomous Robot Learning of Foundational Representations


    Spring 2009 CSE Colloquium Series <http://www.cse.msu.edu/?Pg=143&Col=2>


      Benjamin Kuipers <http://eecs.umich.edu/%7Ekuipers/>

Professor
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Michigan

Friday, April 17
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
3105 Engineering Building 
<http://www.maps.msu.edu/interactive/index.php?location=eb>

Host: John Weng <http://www.cse.msu.edu/%7Eweng/>


      Abstract

An intelligent agent experiences the world through low-level sensory and 
motor interfaces (the "pixel level"). However, in order to function 
intelligently, it must be able to describe its world in terms of 
higher-level concepts such as places, paths, objects, actions, goals, 
plans, and so on. How can these higher-level concepts that make up the 
foundation of commonsense knowledge be learned from unguided experience 
at the pixel level?

This question is important in practical terms: As robots are developed 
with increasingly complex sensory and motor systems, it becomes 
impractical for human engineers to implement their high-level concepts 
and define how those concepts are grounded in sensorimotor interaction. 
The same question is also important in theory: Must the knowledge of an 
AI system necessarily be programmed in by a human being, or can the 
concepts at the foundation of commonsense knowledge be learned from 
unguided experience?  


      Biography

Benjamin Kuipers joined the University of Michigan in January 2009 as 
Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Prior to that, he held an 
endowed Professorship in Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at 
Austin. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College, and his Ph.D. from 
MIT. He investigates the representation of commonsense and expert 
knowledge, with particular emphasis on the effective use of incomplete 
knowledge. His research accomplishments include developing the TOUR 
model of spatial knowledge in the cognitive map, the QSIM algorithm for 
qualitative simulation, the Algernon system for knowledge 
representation, and the Spatial Semantic Hierarchy model of knowledge 
for robot exploration and mapping. He has served as Department Chair at 
UT Austin, and is a Fellow of AAAI and IEEE.  


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Teresa Isela VanderSloot, M.S.A.
Academic Specialist/Advisor
Computer Science and Engineering
College of Engineering
Michigan State University
3201 Engineering Building
East Lansing, MI 48824-1226
Phone: (517) 353-5455
Fax: (517) 432-1061
www.cse.msu.edu/~iselava1

Schedule an appointment:https://ntweb11.ais.msu.edu/aas/
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