Cs488-2009

Research Topics

• Aaron (project page) - An educational game for teaching digital logic
• Brad (project page) - Coevolution of combinatorial game theory evaluation functions using self modifying cartesian genetic programming
• Dylan - (project page) - Developing a learning experience through a computer game
• Nate (project page) - Algorithmic Cut-Up Poetry Generation Using Large Internet-Based Corpuses
• Sam L-M (project page) - Computational English language recognition and synthesis in database interfacing
• Sam W (project page) - Implementing fault tolerance in software

Using Github as a work log

Here are some directions on getting up and running with git and github.

Initial Setup

1. Download and install Git (in linux it's as easy as sudo apt-get install git git-core. Not sure about other platforms)
2. Get a user account at github.com
3. Click on the New Repository button
4. Fill out the info (note that you'll be using the project name to set up git on your machine)
5. Click next (or continue or whatever)
6. You'll be given directions similar to these. FOLLOW THESE! Especially if you're working on an ACL. When finished, click 'continue' and rejoice.

 mkdir <PROJECT NAME>
 cd <PROJECT NAME>
 git init
 git config user.name '<YOUR NAME>'
 git config user.email <YOUR EMAIL>
 touch README
 git add README
 git commit -m 'first commit'
 git remote add origin git@github.com:<GITHUB USERNAME>/<PROJECT NAME>.git
 git push origin master

Workflow

• When you add a new file to the directory OR modify an existing file, add it to git tracking using

 git add <filename>

• When you want to see what changes you have made to your code (in other words, compare your working code with what was last committed) do

 git diff

• When you've made changes you're happy with and want to save (both edits and file adds), use

 git commit

• If you've made LOTS of changes and you only want to record some of them, do

 git add -P
 git commit -m '<LOG MESSAGE>'

• When your committed work is in a state you're happy with, 'push' (it's like uploading) it to github using

 git push origin master

• When you've made a bunch of changes, but you realize they suck, and you want to wipe the slate clean, use

 git reset --hard

Support

I am by no means a git master (I just use it because I like github) I have been using it for personal projects for some time. Feel free to ask questions of me about git if you run into trouble. you can email nate@cs.earlham.edu. There is also good documentation here: [1]

Topic Allocation

1. SIMULATION The Monte Carlo Method - Samuel
2. GAME TRESS The Minimax Method - Brad
3. MATHEMATICAL RESEARCH The Mandelbrot Set - Nate
4. GENETIC ALGORITHMS Solutions That Evolve - Brad
5. COMPUTER VISION Polyhedral Scenes - Brad
6. PERCEPTIONS A Lack of Vision - Nate
7. ANALOG COMPUTATION Spaghetti Computers - Sam Leeman-Munk
8. NEURAL NETWORKS THAT LEARN Converting Coordinates - Samuel
9. PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY Intractable Secrets - Samuel
10. NUMBER SYSTEMS FOR COMPUTING Chinese Arithmetic - Aaron
11. CELLULAR AUTOMATA The Game of Life - Sam Leeman-Munk
12. COOK'S THEOREM Nuts and Bolts - Aaron
13. SELF-REPLICATING COMPUTERS Codd's Machine - Sam Leeman-Munk
14. STORING IMAGES A Cat in a Quad Tree - Nate
15. THE SCRAM A Simplified Computer - Dylan
16. SHANNON'S THEORY The Elusive Codes - Aaron
17. NP-COMPLETE PROBLEMS The Tree of Intractability - Aaron
18. ITERATION AND RECURSION The Towers of Hanoi - Dylan
19. VLSI COMPUTERS Circuits in Silicon - Dylan
20. THE HALTING PROBLEM The Uncomputable - Sam Leeman-Munk
21. COMPUTER VIRUSES A Software Invasion - Brad
22. LOGIC PROGRAMMING Prologue to Expertise - Nate
23. RELATIONAL DATABASES Do-It-Yourself Queries - Samuel

Class Presentation Schedule

September 9

• Brad - Ch. 60: Computer Viruses
• Aaron - Ch. 42: Number Systems for Computing

September 16

• Sam L-M - Ch. 33: Analog Computation
• Dylan - Ch. 56: VLSI

September 23

• Sara Penhale - Where to find academically sound research materials (meet in Science Library)

September 30

• Sam W - Ch. 4: Simulation, The Monte Carlo Method (p.22)
• Nate - Ch 64: Logic Programming (p. 420)

October 7

• Brad - Ch. 6: Game Trees
• Aaron - Ch. 54: NP Complete Problems

October 14

• Sam L-M - Ch. 44: Cellular Automata
• Dylan -

October 21

• Sam W - Neural networks
• Nate -

October 28

• Brad - Ch. 16: Genetic Algorithms (p.103)
• Aaron - Ch. 45: Cook's Theorem (p.301)

November 4

• Sam L-M - Self-replicating computers
• Dylan - Towers of Hanoi

November 11

• Sam W -
• Nate - storing images #47 pg 315