Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Prosense, Johnny Favazza Ii, Casey Glasgow, Matt Epperson

Computer Engineering

This project aims to gather advanced data sets from MEMS sensors and GPS and deliver it to the user, who can capitalize on the data. The once negligible half-degree difference of your board barreling down a wave can be recorded from a gyro and exploited for the perfect turn. The exact speed dreaded by longboarders where speed wobbles turn into a road rash can be analysed and consequently avoided. Ascertaining the summit of your flight using combined GPS sensors from the ski ramp allows for the correct timing of tricks. When it comes to pursuing excellence in professional sports, amateur …

Visualizing Relationships Between Related Variables: Improving Physics Education Through D3.Js Network Visualizations, Stephanie Friend

Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

phiMap is a web application started by Cal Poly professors and students to aid professors in teaching physics. I developed Javascript visualizations for phiMap that serve to simplify the processes of both teaching and learning physics. These visualizations aim to present relationships between physics variables in an easy to understand manner, and they could eventually have a huge impact on physics education.

Validation Of Data Reduction Interactive Pipeline For Forcast On Sofia, Brent C. Nicklas, William T. Reach, Sachindev S. Shenoy

STAR Program Research Presentations

The Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is a heavily modified Boeing 747SP aircraft equipped with 2.5 meter reflecting telescope. Among the suite of instruments onboard is the Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST). FORCAST features two cameras for short (5-25 microns) and long (25-40 microns) wavelength detection. Making infrared observations in these wavelengths presents a challenge because the telescope and sky emit background radiation magnitudes brighter than the object of interest. Because of this, the raw FORCAST data must be corrected and reduced. The Data Reduction Interactive Pipeline (DRIP) was developed to process all FORCAST data …

Big Data: Immediate Opportunities And Longer Term Challenges, Jens Pohl, Kym Jason Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The transformation of words, locations, and human interactions into digital data forms the basis of trend detection and information extraction opportunities that can be automated with the increasing availability of relatively inexpensive computer storage and processing technology. Trend detection, which focuses on what, is facilitated by the ability to apply analytics to an entire corpus of data instead of a random sample. Since the corpus essentially includes all data within a population there is no need to apply any of the precautions that are in order to ensure the representativeness of a sample in traditional statistical analysis. Several examples are …

Solving The Data Deluge Problem, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The paper postulates that the information technology revolution that is commonly referred to as the Information Age is currently in a transition stage between data-processing and knowledge management that should be more aptly referred to as the Data Age. Symptoms of this transition stage are a data deluge problem that is evidenced by the inability of human computer-users to effectively analyze and draw useful conclusions from the overwhelming volume of data that is being collected, the increasing complexity of networked systems, and the acknowledged vulnerability of virtually all existing digital systems to cyber security threats.

The author suggests that the …

The Representation Of Context In Computer Software, Hisham Assal, Kym Pohl, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Computers do not have the equivalent of a human cognitive system and therefore store data simply as the numbers and words that are entered into the computer. For a computer to interpret data it requires an information structure that provides at least some level of context. This can be accomplished utilizing an ontology of objects with characteristics, semantic behavior, and a rich set of relationships to create a virtual version of real world situations and provide the context within which intelligent logic (e.g., agents) can automatically operate.

This paper discusses the process of developing ontologies that serve to …

Alternative Paths To Intelligent Systems, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper examines the three prevalent approaches to Artificial Intelligence (AI), namely symbolic reasoning systems, connectionist systems, and emergent systems based on the principles of the subsumption theory. Distinguished by their top-down and bottom-up mechanisms all three approaches have strengths and weaknesses. While the logical reasoning approach is precise and well supported by mathematical theories and procedures, it is constrained by a largely predefined representational model. Connectionist systems, on the other hand, are able to recognize patterns even if these patterns are only similar and not identical to the patterns that they have been trained to recognize, but they have …

Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (Kmes): Concepts And Implementation Principles, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to present concepts and implementation principles related to the design and development of reusable software services that are capable of assisting users at the operational level. Knowledge Management Enterprise Services (KMES) are an implementation of the service-oriented architecture paradigm, with a focus on the exchange of data within the meaningful context of a particular application (i.e., knowledge) domain. This requires a KMES service to incorporate a high level representation of this knowledge domain in the form of an ontology that is shared among all collaborating services within the application environment and at the same …

Elements Of Human Decision-Making, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

The purpose of this paper is to present some understandings of the human problem-solving activity that we have gained in the Collaborative Agent Design Research Center (CADRC) over the past two decades. Since we feel strongly that the human decision-maker should be an integral component of any computer-based decision-support system, it follows that we would have endeavored to incorporate many of the elements that appear to be important to the user in the design of these systems. The complexity of the human cognitive system is evidenced by the large body of literature that describes problem-solving behavior and the relatively fewer …

Ontological Approaches For Semantic Interoperability, Michael A. Zang, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper provides a basic description of the concept of an ontology. It then describes how ontologies are structured and employed in the context of interfaces between software based information systems. This usage is discussed in the context of three successive levels of semantic interoperability between two example systems. The paper goes on to suggest that the interfaces between information systems should perhaps be viewed and implemented as systems themselves. The paper concludes by providing a brief summary of what was discussed.

The Emerging Knowledge Management Paradigm: Some Organizational And Technical Issues, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper addresses the expectations, organizational implications, and information processing requirements, of the emerging knowledge management paradigm. A brief discussion of the enablement of the individual through the wide-spread availability of computer and communication facilities, is followed by a description of the structural evolution of organizations, and the architecture of a computer-based knowledge management system. The author discusses two trends that are driven by the treatment of information and knowledge as a commodity: increased concern for the management and exploitation of knowledge within organizations; and, the creation of an organizational environment that facilitates the acquisition, sharing and application of knowledge. …

The Knowledge Level Approach To Intelligent Information System Design, Michael A. Zang, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Traditional approaches to building intelligent information systems employ an ontology to define a representational structure for the data and information of interest within the target domain of the system. At runtime, the ontology provides a constrained template for the creation of the individual objects and relationships that together define the state of the system at a given point in time. The ontology also provides a vocabulary for expressing domain knowledge typically in the form of rules (declarative knowledge) or methods (procedural knowledge). The system utilizes the encoded knowledge, often in conjunction user input, to progress the state of the system …

Data, Information, And Knowledge In The Context Of Sils, Michael A. Zang, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

Data, information, and knowledge are becoming increasingly common terms in the literature of the software industry. This terminology originated some time ago in the disciplines of cognitive science and artificial intelligence to reference three closely related but distinct concepts. Traditionally, mainstream software engineering has lumped all three concepts together as data and has only recently begun to distinguish between them. Unfortunately, the popular desire to distinguish between data, information, and knowledge within the mainstream has blurred the individual meanings of the words to the point where there is no longer a clear-cut distinction between them for most people. This problem …

Adapting To The Information Age, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper draws attention to the profound changes that human civilization is experiencing as it moves from an industrial environment into an information environment, in which unprecedented emphasis is placed on the knowledge and capabilities of the individual. A clear distinction is drawn between data and information in relationship to computer-based facilities, and the transition of data-processing to the higher levels of information and knowledge representation in quasi intelligent decision-support systems. It is argued that the cultivation of its human capital becomes a foundational requirement for the success of a knowledge-based organization. In such an organization traditional practices of hierarchical, …

The Future Of Computing: Cyberspace, Jens G. Pohl

Collaborative Agent Design (CAD) Research Center

This paper traces trends in the technological advances of computer and communication systems and examines the promises of the Information Society: global information sharing; and, intelligent decision-support. The technological developments that will lead to the realization of Cyberspace, an information rich environment in which virtual reality capabilities couple directly to the human senses, is explored in terms of five essential components: information processing requirements; communication networks; computing devices (i.e., platforms); hardware and software user-interfaces; and, the meaningful representation of information.

Attention is drawn to the critical role played by information representation in a Cyberspace environment. The author argues …