2007 Undergraduate Projects
Last updated: July 2007
I actually do have some other ideas I still haven't gotten around to
writing here, please feel free to email me & hassle me about that.
Dr Joanna Bryson
jjb _AT_
cs.bath.ac.uk
From 2007-2009 I am going to be on sabbatical at the Konrad Lorenz Institute for
Evolution and Cognition Research
(KLI). That's in Vienna, Austria. This means I do not have teaching
responsibilities during this period, and I won't be on campus very much.
However, I might
take a couple students if:
- they
are sufficiently keen and competent that both I and the DoS think they
will be able to handle relatively little live, `hands-on' supervision,
and
- they choose a project directly
relevant to the work I'm meant to be doing at the KLI.
I
will be working on understanding the biological evolution of cultural
evolution, so this will mostly mean doing agent-based modelling
projects, although other sorts of projects are possible. Examples of
possible projects include:
- Modelling the social structure of lemurs or spotted hyenas.
- Modelling the fission/fusion society and inter-troop relations of
chimpanzees.
- Modelling
a shift in intellectual capacity for self-representation resulting from
learning tool use (see Iriki, A.: "The neural origins and implications
of imitation, mirror neurons and tool use", Current Opinion in
Neurobiology, 16(6):660-667
(2006)).
For previous projects that have been related to this work, see Christos
Bechlivanidis, Avri Bilovich, and Ando
Yasushi's dissertations on my previous
dissertations page, and papers with Hagen Lehmann and Ivana Cace on
my publications page.
It
is slightly possible that I would take AI projects for improving the
software I use for modelling (which is also used sometimes for computer
games). See the AmonI software
page
for details. Even if improving a tool is the main thrust of your
project, you should still have a science project to conduct as well,
since developers don't tend to really improve tools they aren't
actively using themselves. See related papers on my designing intelligent systems page.
Interested students should email me in order to arrange an online
chat. Since that's how you'll be supervised, that's how we'll do any
pre-supervisory discussions, to see how it would work out.