NSF CreativeIT Grant Work

Issues with Drawing Program

     The proposed project will integrate a language processing system into a classroom environment. The Language parser will have a speech recognition component that will recognize the speech while the parser will extract meaning and diagram the schematic meaning in a temporal diagramming program. One benefit of this paradigm is a more efficient transmission of information due to a novel graphic representation of the material. Another benefit is the student interactivity and engagement this project fosters; each student will have a tablet laptop to use during class that has the temporal diagramming program installed and synched to the main display in the class. This will allow each student to propose additions or clarifications of the professor’s initial diagrammatic conception.

    This project will unfold during the course of a three year grant. Year one will focus on implementing the stemmatic parser pilot project that has been three years in the making on a large scale to create a database of worldly knowledge. The temporal diagramming program will be augmented during this period to respond to simple speech driven diagrammatic commands such as ‘container’ or ‘barrier.’ The first half of year two will focus on extracting patterns from both the parser and diagramming program in order to apply the worldy knowledge stored in the stemmatic database efficiently. The second half of year two will be directed toward integrating these components into an interactive classroom system. Year three will debut the new learning initiative into a classroom setting. The target class would ideally be receptive to diagramming supplementation such as COGS 301, a research oriented seminar on cognitive robotics, including aspects of artificial intelligence, stemmatic syntax, semiotics, linguistics, cognitive theories, and design.  

    Students will have access to the blackboard, the traditional focus of teaching, at their fingertips; this will encourage those students who are either physically or mentally unable to draw their ideas on the board the option to contribute from their seat in class or out of class. The lecture will be recorded, in a fashion similar to mediavision, but with the blackboard information in a temporally accurate format serving to complement the video component. Video conferencing moves this possibility to an internationally accessible blackboard/workspace. This would also encourage creative engagement to disabled students who cannot easily attend class.

    All diagrams and pursuits of knowledge within a lecture will be documented as well as stored within the stemmatic parsing database of worldy knowledge thereby teaching the computer system as well as the students. This will progressively create an intelligent machine-student that will eventually evolve into a highly interactive and knowledgable resource.