Projects

• Rick Sojda and I collaborated on a project entitled Investigating Whether Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used To Detect Birds in Nexrad Data that was first funded by USG and then by NREL. The work involved neural networks and data reformulation. Reggie Mead, who graduated with an M.S., worked with us. Summer 2006 - Summer 2010.
• Rick Sojda and I collaborated on a project entitled Wetland Data Organization and Computer Modelling that was funded through the USGS. The work involved data reformulation and Bayesian Belief Networks. Two students worked on the project: a math Ph.D. student (Julia Sharp) and a CS undergraduate (Reggie Mead). Fall 2005 - Fall 2007.
• Mike Emery used an agent-based approach to track people moving around in a facility such as an airport. The development environment we used was COUGAAR. Rick Donovan of Montana Tech was the PI and the funding came from the Montana Board of Research and Commercialization. Summer 2004 - Fall 2005.
• Jeff Elser was funded by RightNow Technologies to modify and incorporate learning into publicly available search engines such as ht://dig. Jeff continues to work on this project for his master's thesis. Spring 2005 - Summer 2005.
• Rick Sojda and I employed Brad Pascoe to do some embedded computer programming. Specifically, Brad constructed interfaces for programmable thermometers and water measuring sticks that are deployed at Red Rocks National Wildlife Refuge. Summer 2003.
• Modeling Methods for Assessing the Effects of Coalbed Methane Production on Emergent Wetlands. Rick Sojda of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center and I explored AI modeling techniques such as Bayesian Belief Networks, fuzzy expert systems, and agent-based systems for modeling the effects of coalbed methane production. The project was sponsored by the USGS (United States Geological Survey). A master's student, Hugh Richardson, was supported. Summer 2002.
• Collaborative Development of Artificial Intelligence Methodologies for Natural Resource Applications in the Northern Rockies. Rick Sojda and I used an agent-based system called Decaf to help wildlife managers study the impacts of natural resource decisions on local wildlife populations. The project was sponsored by the USGS. In the fall of 2001 and spring of 2002 an undergraduate, Devin Gray, was supported. In the summer of 2002 a master's student, Wenhao Lin was supported. Fall 2001 - Fall 2002.
• A Scheduling Investigation. Raytheon Corporation sponsored this project to explore how genetic algorithms can be used to solve various difficult scheduling problems that they confront. The project supported a master's student, Scott Furois and an undergraduate, Ryan Woodham. Fall 2000 - Fall 2001.
• Customer Support Technologies. Kase Cannon, a master's student, was supported by RightNow Technologies, Inc. to improve a customer support web using natural language and statistical techniques. Spring 2000.

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Student Projects

• Neal Richter studied properties of crossover and mutation in the context of evolutionary algorithms. Neal received his Ph.D. in Spring 2010.
• Nick Howard undertook an independent study project (CS 470) to evaluate and improve the VCSM web site. Fall 2005 - Spring 2006.
• Noriko Rogers finished her master's project that explores how to use AI game playing techniques in the context of the game of Avalam. Summer 2005.
• Darrin Sommers investigated how machine learning techniques such as neural networks and genetic algorithms could be used to model bioinformatic information. The data was provided by Mike Hahn of the Health and Human Development Department. Spring 2005.
• Jack Whitehouse put together a tutorial on Holodeck, a product that helps track down security holes in software. The tutorial was used by students taking a "software quality and reliability" course at Massey University in August. Summer 2004
• Gabe Rudy investigated how a boosting technique (AdaBoost) could be used to increase the classification accuracy of a decision stump. He presented his results at the undergraduate scholar's conference in April on the MSU campus. He also presented his results at a student poster competition at the CCSC Conference in Salem, Oregon in October. Spring 2004.
• Stuart Howard completed a master's project that constructs a web-based interface to the NeuroSys Database project. This database is used by BRIN (Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network). Spring 2004.
• Justin Hart explored the use of Hidden Markov Models to model a human's strategy in the context of a computer game. Fall 2003.
• Gabe Rudy conducted an investigation of search techniques in the context of the Rush Hour problem. Spring 2003.
• Valerie Wagner completed a master's project entitled Mobile Intersection Counter: A Traffic Engineering Software Application for the Palm OS. Fall 2002.
• Michael Milvich completed a senior design project where he created an image editor for Mac OS X from scratch. Fall 2001 - Spring 2002.
• Scott Duren investigated AI game playing techniques in the context of a Java Othello applet that he constructed from scratch. Fall 2001.
• Hasari Tosun completed a master's project that used different learning techniques to predict the age of an abalone. Spring 2000.
• Scott Duren investigated the effectiveness of different search techniques on the eight-puzzle. Fall 1999 - Spring 2000.