Learning Automata-based Intelligent Tutorial-like Systems

John Oommen

Chancellor's Professor
School of Computer Science
Carleton University
Ottawa ON K1S 5B6 Canada

CZWARTEK, 19 MAJA, GODZ. 10:30, SALA 5070

STRESZCZENIE

The aim of this pioneering research is to study, design, and implement systems that could tutor other sub-systems using techniques that traditional real-life Teachers use when they teach real-life Students. The research undertaken is a result of merging the fields of Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) and Learning Automata (LA), and leads to a paradigm referred to as Intelligent Tutorial-like systems. In our proposed novel approach, every component incorporates the fundamental principles of LA. Thus, we model the Student (i.e., the learning mechanism) using an LA, and a Classroom of Students, in which each of them is individually represented by a distinct (and possibly different) LA. We also model the Domain and the Teacher using LA paradigms.

Our research also works within a new philosophical perspective. We relax the constraint that “traditional” Tutorial systems have, namely that of assuming that the Teacher is infallible. Rather, we assume that the Teacher is inherently uncertain of the domain knowledge, and is thus of a stochastic nature. However, although he is not absolutely certain about the material being taught, he is also capable of improving his own “teaching skills” even while the operation of the system proceeds. Finally, we also attempt to model a realistic learning framework, where the Students can learn not only from the Teacher, but also from other colleague Students in the Classroom.

O PRELEGENCIE

Dr. John Oommen was born in Coonoor, India on September 9, 1953. He obtained his B.Tech. degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India in 1975. He obtained his M.E. from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India in 1977. He then went on for his M.S. and Ph. D. which he obtained from Purdue University, in West Lafayettte, Indiana in 1979 and 1982 respectively. He joined the School of Computer Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, in the 1981-82 academic year. He is still at Carleton and holds the rank of a Full Professor. Since July 2006, he has been awarded the honorary rank of Chancellor's Professor, which is a lifetime award from Carleton University. His research interests include Automata Learning, Adaptive Data Structures, Statistical and Syntactic Pattern Recognition, Stochastic Algorithms and Partitioning Algorithms. He is the author of more than 345 refereed book chapters, journal and conference publications, and is a Fellow of the IEEE and a Fellow of the IAPR. Dr. Oommen has also served on the Editorial Board of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, and Pattern Recognition.