Brian Slator - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Brian Slator

A cell is a minifactory in which structures and molecules are assembled, rearranged, disassembled... more A cell is a minifactory in which structures and molecules are assembled, rearranged, disassembled,
packaged, sorted, and transported. Because cellular structures and molecules
are invisible to the human eye, students often have difficulty conceptualizing the dynamic
nature of cells that function at multiple scales across time and space. To represent these dynamic
cellular processes, the Virtual Cell Productions team at North Dakota State University
develops freely available multimedia materials to support molecular and cellular biology
learning inside and outside the high school and university classroom.

2010 Seventh International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, 2010

... [8] A. Paiva, J. Faria, and R. Vidal, “Towards the integration of visual and formal models fo... more ... [8] A. Paiva, J. Faria, and R. Vidal, “Towards the integration of visual and formal models for GUI testing,” Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. vol. 190, 2007, pp. 99–111. [9] A. Memon, M. Pollack, and M. Soffa, “Using a Goal-driven Approach to Generate Test Cases for GUIs,” Proc. ...

When solving a complex problem, gathering relevant information to understand the situation and im... more When solving a complex problem, gathering relevant information to understand the situation and imposing appropriate interpretations on that information are critical to problem solving success. These two tasks are especially difficult in weak-theory domains -- domains in which knowledge is incomplete, uncertain, and contradictory. In such domains, experts may rely on experience for all aspects of problem solving. We have developed a case-based approach to problem elaboration and interpretation in such domains. An experience-ba sed problem-solver should be able to incrementally acquire information and, in the course of that acquisition, be reminded of multiple cases in order to present multiple viewpoints to problems that present multiple faults. We are addressing issues of 1) elaboration and interpretation of complex problem situations; 2) multiple interpretations; and 3) the role of categories as the foci of reasoning in the context of the Organizational Change Advisor (ORCA). Its model of incremental reminding is a plausible mechanism for this sort of expert problem solving behavior, and one that works well in

The addition of international projects to a capstone projects course can provide a great learning... more The addition of international projects to a capstone projects course can provide a great learning experience for students. There are, however, many options available for how to structure these programs, with and without international travel. Given some good planning and pre-work it is quite possible for any institution to build a very good international option into their current capstone programs. This paper describes several models for setting up international capstone projects as well as detailing many of the issues involved. Some examples are drawn from the author’s experiences when adding international projects into an established capstone program. Although the examples cited are related to computer science and engineering programs the concepts are relevant to any capstone program.

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2014

Knowledge Acquisition, 1989

Knowledge acquisition from text is identified as a desirable goal and an incremental, bootstrappi... more Knowledge acquisition from text is identified as a desirable goal and an incremental, bootstrapping approach to this is outlined. As a first step, a subsystem that produces text-specific lexicons from selected machine-readable dictionary definitions has been developed. The input to this subsystem is unconstrained text; the database is Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE, a machine-readable dictionary which is, itself, simply a special purpose text); the output is a collection of lexical semantic objects, one for every sense of every word in the text. Each lexical semantic object in this lexicon is in a general purpose predicate and frame representation. A relative contextual score is computed for selected objects; these scores provide a simple metric for comparing competing word senses to address the problem of lexical ambiguity. Further, the text of selected dictionary definitions are analysed, to enrich the resulting representation. The result of this processing is a knowledge-base suitable for a larger system of Preference Semantics and knowledgebased parsing--the next step in the bootstrapping schedule.

Computational Linguistics, 1991

Video stories are an effective way to teach complex subjects, but video is opaque to a computer p... more Video stories are an effective way to teach complex subjects, but video is opaque to a computer program. To what extent must the content of such stories be represented? We present three issues in story indexing that affect the distinctions that must be drawn in story representation and illustrate these issues with examples from ORCA, a pedagogical case-retrieval system in the domain of organizational change.

This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transf... more This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transformation of machine readable dictionaries (MRDs) into machine tractable dictionaries, i.e., MRDs converted into a format usable for natural language processing tasks. The MRD used is

Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 1993

Problem CategoriesThe abstract problem categories include a set of concepts takenfrom Andersen Co... more Problem CategoriesThe abstract problem categories include a set of concepts takenfrom Andersen Consulting's change management methodology andanother set of common sense categories borrowed from the study ofconventional, proverbial, wisdom. These categories provide anexplicit way of organizing both the sets of problem-describingfeatures, and the cases which are indexed by those features.The abstract problem categories drawn from the changemanagement methodology are called

2013 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2013

ABSTRACT Testing game applications relies heavily on beta testing methods. The effectiveness of b... more ABSTRACT Testing game applications relies heavily on beta testing methods. The effectiveness of beta testing depends on how well beta testers represent the common game-application users and if users are willing to participate in the beta test. An automated testing tool framework could reduce the dependence upon beta testing by most companies to analyze their game applications. This paper presents the Crushinator as one such framework. This framework provides a game-independent testing tool that implements multiple testing methods that can assist and possibly replace the use of beta testing.

Theories and Practice from the Learning Sciences, 2010

... Bradley Vender North Dakota State University, USA ... Related Content Television, Games, and ... more ... Bradley Vender North Dakota State University, USA ... Related Content Television, Games, and Mathematics: Effects of Children's Interactions with Multiple Media Sandra Crespo, Vincent Melfi, Shalom M. Fisch, Richard A. Lesh, and Elizabeth Motoki (2011). ...

Proceedings of the 12th conference on Computational linguistics -, 1988

This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transf... more This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transformation of machine readable dictionaries (MRDs) into machine tractable dictionaries, i.e., MRDs converted into a format usable for natural language processing tasks. The MRD used is

Proceedings of the 13th conference on Computational linguistics -, 1990

We describe a technique for automatically constructing a taxonomy of word senses from a machine r... more We describe a technique for automatically constructing a taxonomy of word senses from a machine readable dictionary. Previous taxonomies developed from dictionaries have two properties in common. First, they are based on a somewhat loosely defined notion of the IS-A relation. Second, they require human intervention to identify the sense of the genus term being used. We believe that for taxonomies of this type to serve a useful role in subsequent natural language proce,sing tasks, the taxonomy must be based on a consistent use of the IS-A relation which allows inheritance and transitivity. We show that hierarchies of this type can be automatical!y constructed, by using the semantic category codes and the subject codes of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) to disambiguate the genus terms in noun definitkms. In addition, we discuss how certain genus terms give rise to other semantic relations between definitions.

A cell is a minifactory in which structures and molecules are assembled, rearranged, disassembled... more A cell is a minifactory in which structures and molecules are assembled, rearranged, disassembled,
packaged, sorted, and transported. Because cellular structures and molecules
are invisible to the human eye, students often have difficulty conceptualizing the dynamic
nature of cells that function at multiple scales across time and space. To represent these dynamic
cellular processes, the Virtual Cell Productions team at North Dakota State University
develops freely available multimedia materials to support molecular and cellular biology
learning inside and outside the high school and university classroom.

2010 Seventh International Conference on Information Technology: New Generations, 2010

... [8] A. Paiva, J. Faria, and R. Vidal, “Towards the integration of visual and formal models fo... more ... [8] A. Paiva, J. Faria, and R. Vidal, “Towards the integration of visual and formal models for GUI testing,” Electr. Notes Theor. Comput. Sci. vol. 190, 2007, pp. 99–111. [9] A. Memon, M. Pollack, and M. Soffa, “Using a Goal-driven Approach to Generate Test Cases for GUIs,” Proc. ...

When solving a complex problem, gathering relevant information to understand the situation and im... more When solving a complex problem, gathering relevant information to understand the situation and imposing appropriate interpretations on that information are critical to problem solving success. These two tasks are especially difficult in weak-theory domains -- domains in which knowledge is incomplete, uncertain, and contradictory. In such domains, experts may rely on experience for all aspects of problem solving. We have developed a case-based approach to problem elaboration and interpretation in such domains. An experience-ba sed problem-solver should be able to incrementally acquire information and, in the course of that acquisition, be reminded of multiple cases in order to present multiple viewpoints to problems that present multiple faults. We are addressing issues of 1) elaboration and interpretation of complex problem situations; 2) multiple interpretations; and 3) the role of categories as the foci of reasoning in the context of the Organizational Change Advisor (ORCA). Its model of incremental reminding is a plausible mechanism for this sort of expert problem solving behavior, and one that works well in

The addition of international projects to a capstone projects course can provide a great learning... more The addition of international projects to a capstone projects course can provide a great learning experience for students. There are, however, many options available for how to structure these programs, with and without international travel. Given some good planning and pre-work it is quite possible for any institution to build a very good international option into their current capstone programs. This paper describes several models for setting up international capstone projects as well as detailing many of the issues involved. Some examples are drawn from the author’s experiences when adding international projects into an established capstone program. Although the examples cited are related to computer science and engineering programs the concepts are relevant to any capstone program.

Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 2014

Knowledge Acquisition, 1989

Knowledge acquisition from text is identified as a desirable goal and an incremental, bootstrappi... more Knowledge acquisition from text is identified as a desirable goal and an incremental, bootstrapping approach to this is outlined. As a first step, a subsystem that produces text-specific lexicons from selected machine-readable dictionary definitions has been developed. The input to this subsystem is unconstrained text; the database is Longman's Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE, a machine-readable dictionary which is, itself, simply a special purpose text); the output is a collection of lexical semantic objects, one for every sense of every word in the text. Each lexical semantic object in this lexicon is in a general purpose predicate and frame representation. A relative contextual score is computed for selected objects; these scores provide a simple metric for comparing competing word senses to address the problem of lexical ambiguity. Further, the text of selected dictionary definitions are analysed, to enrich the resulting representation. The result of this processing is a knowledge-base suitable for a larger system of Preference Semantics and knowledgebased parsing--the next step in the bootstrapping schedule.

Computational Linguistics, 1991

Video stories are an effective way to teach complex subjects, but video is opaque to a computer p... more Video stories are an effective way to teach complex subjects, but video is opaque to a computer program. To what extent must the content of such stories be represented? We present three issues in story indexing that affect the distinctions that must be drawn in story representation and illustrate these issues with examples from ORCA, a pedagogical case-retrieval system in the domain of organizational change.

This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transf... more This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transformation of machine readable dictionaries (MRDs) into machine tractable dictionaries, i.e., MRDs converted into a format usable for natural language processing tasks. The MRD used is

Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 1993

Problem CategoriesThe abstract problem categories include a set of concepts takenfrom Andersen Co... more Problem CategoriesThe abstract problem categories include a set of concepts takenfrom Andersen Consulting's change management methodology andanother set of common sense categories borrowed from the study ofconventional, proverbial, wisdom. These categories provide anexplicit way of organizing both the sets of problem-describingfeatures, and the cases which are indexed by those features.The abstract problem categories drawn from the changemanagement methodology are called

2013 28th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2013

ABSTRACT Testing game applications relies heavily on beta testing methods. The effectiveness of b... more ABSTRACT Testing game applications relies heavily on beta testing methods. The effectiveness of beta testing depends on how well beta testers represent the common game-application users and if users are willing to participate in the beta test. An automated testing tool framework could reduce the dependence upon beta testing by most companies to analyze their game applications. This paper presents the Crushinator as one such framework. This framework provides a game-independent testing tool that implements multiple testing methods that can assist and possibly replace the use of beta testing.

Theories and Practice from the Learning Sciences, 2010

... Bradley Vender North Dakota State University, USA ... Related Content Television, Games, and ... more ... Bradley Vender North Dakota State University, USA ... Related Content Television, Games, and Mathematics: Effects of Children's Interactions with Multiple Media Sandra Crespo, Vincent Melfi, Shalom M. Fisch, Richard A. Lesh, and Elizabeth Motoki (2011). ...

Proceedings of the 12th conference on Computational linguistics -, 1988

This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transf... more This paper discusses three different but related large-scale computational methods for the transformation of machine readable dictionaries (MRDs) into machine tractable dictionaries, i.e., MRDs converted into a format usable for natural language processing tasks. The MRD used is

Proceedings of the 13th conference on Computational linguistics -, 1990

We describe a technique for automatically constructing a taxonomy of word senses from a machine r... more We describe a technique for automatically constructing a taxonomy of word senses from a machine readable dictionary. Previous taxonomies developed from dictionaries have two properties in common. First, they are based on a somewhat loosely defined notion of the IS-A relation. Second, they require human intervention to identify the sense of the genus term being used. We believe that for taxonomies of this type to serve a useful role in subsequent natural language proce,sing tasks, the taxonomy must be based on a consistent use of the IS-A relation which allows inheritance and transitivity. We show that hierarchies of this type can be automatical!y constructed, by using the semantic category codes and the subject codes of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) to disambiguate the genus terms in noun definitkms. In addition, we discuss how certain genus terms give rise to other semantic relations between definitions.