You are invited to the first in a new double series of colloquia in
Cognitive Science, hosted by the Cognitive Psychology Research Group
at the University of Southampton. There will be both an External and an
Internal Speaker Series. Our first speaker (External) is a Neural Net
Theorist from the Bolyai Institute of Mathematics in Hungary. His talk
will take place this Tuesday, 11 October, in the Murray Lecture
Theater, Southampton University, from 12:45 - 13:45.
AUTONOMOUS ADAPTIVE AGENTS:
GENERALIZED DYNAMIC CONCEPTS
Dr. Csaba Szepesvari
Bolyai Institute of Mathematics
University of Szeged
Szeged, Hungary
szepes(a)inf.u-szeged.hu
SUMMARY
A brain-based alternative to reinforcement learning integrates
artificial neural networks (ANN) and knowledge based (KB) systems
into one unit or agent for goal-oriented problem solving. The agent
works under closed-loop control. Its sensory system provides the
input to the controller and the controller's output results in the
agent's immediate motor actions.
The controller can have both inherited and learned ANN and KB
systems. The agent has and develops ANN cues to the environment
for dimensionality reduction (data compression) in order to ease
the problem of combinatorial explosion. A dynamic conceptual model
(DCM) builds cue-models of the phenomena in the world, designs
dynamic action sets and makes them compete at a
spreading-activation neuronal stage to come to a decision.
DCM can create concepts or subgoals. For the production of subgoals
two things are important: (i) DCM has an inherited goal system and
(ii) subgoals are created by the agent's experiences encountered
during the interaction with the environment. Concepts allow the use
of rule-based systems for control. The agent's experiences
transform during learning into a rule system. Concept generation
reduces memory and time requirements. It also improves the system's
ability to handle unknown situations. We examine the capabilities
of a simple robotic-like object in a two-dimensional conditionally
probabilistic space.
Date: Tuesday, October 11
Time: 12:45 - 13:45
Place: Murray Lecture Theater, Murray Building
Cognitive Scientists at University of Southampton are invited to
present their work to their fellow cogntive scientists in the Internal
Speaker Series. If you wish to speak, or to recommend someone to speak,
please contact Professor Stevan Harnad, Psychology Department, Murray
Building 206, harnad(a)soton.ac.uk
The Cognitive Sciences include: Psychology, Neurobiology, Artificial
Intelligence, Robotics, Machine Vision/Speech, Neurocomputation,
Linguistics, and subareas of Biology, Anthropology, Sociology,
Archeology, Philosophy, and further disciplines. The common element
uniting the Cognitive Sciences is a research interest in how the mind
-- and systems that can do what mind the can do -- work.
Dr. Szepesvari will be here from Monday to Thursday and would be very
interested in visiting SU labs doing related work (neural nets,
parallel computation, cogntive systems, robotics/automomous agents,
control systems, AI, vision/speech, etc. Please let me know if you would
be interested in having the speaker visit your lab.
Stevan Harnad
Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Southampton
Highfield, Southampton
SO17 1BJ UNITED KINGDOM
harnad(a)ecs.soton.ac.uk harnad(a)princeton.edu
phone: +44 703 592582
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ftp://princeton.edu/pub/harnad/http://louis.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/http://www.princeton.edu/~harnad/
gopher://gopher.princeton.edu:9000/1
--- Forwarded message follows ---
From: psrds(a)warwick.ac.uk (Trevor Harley)
Subject: Research Fellowships in UK
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 94 11:08:34 GMT
Department of Psychology
University of Warwick
SIX-YEAR RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS IN
COGNITIVE SCIENCE and/or DEVELOPMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Applications for two Warwick Research Fellowships in Psychology
are invited, by 11th November or as soon as possible thereafter,
from candidates with research interests, postdoctoral experience
and significant publications in Developmental Psychology and/or
Cognitive Science (including Cognitive/Computational Neuroscience
and connectionism). The Fellowships will support outstanding
individuals for six years, and it is expected that Fellows will be
offered permanent academic appointments at the University at the
end of their Fellowship period, at the level of Lecturer, Senior
Lecturer, Reader or Professor.
The primary emphasis will be on research, and each Fellow will be
expected to establish an international reputation. To qualify for a
Fellowship, candidates will have begun to establish their academic
careers, having completed a doctorate and probably having some
years of further research experience. They may already hold an
academic appointment. The essential requirement will be to
demonstrate an outstanding level of achievement in research.
The research rating in Britain of Warwick University is exceeded
only at Cambridge, Oxford and London, and the present posts are part
of a research-led expansion of psychology at Warwick. An
outstanding research environment will be available to successful
candidates.
The salary offered will be on the Lecturer scale, depending on age
and experience. Further particulars and application forms are
available from: Dawn Duddridge, Assistant Registrar (Personnel),
University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Tel:
(01203) 524673 (24 hours); Fax: (01203) 524572; email
praded(a)admin.warwick.ac.uk
Details are also available on Word Wide Web at:
http://crocus.csv.warwick.ac.uk/WWW/wrf.html
or use Gopher command:
Gopher -p 1/univ-info/wrf gopher.csv.warwick.ac.uk
Informal enquiries concerning these post are welcome and can be
made to Gordon Brown, telephone (0203) 524672, email
pssac(a)warwick.ac.uk; or to Greg Jones (Department Chair),
telephone (0203) 523812, email psreb(a)warwick.ac.uk.
_______________________________________________________________________
Dr. Trevor A. Harley EMAIL: psrds(a)csv.warwick.ac.uk
Department of Psychology PHONE: UK (0)203 523762 (direct)
University of Warwick 523096 (messages)
Coventry CV4 7AL FAX: UK (0)203 524225
UK
_______________________________________________________________________
