Research
My research program has two branches. The first is loosely titled Computational Astrobiology, and is a new (since my arrival at UH) field of research for me. The second is that of Entertaining and Affective Intelligent Interfaces, and is a continuation of the work I was doing before coming to UH.
The first branch takes place in the context of the Computational Astrobiology Lab (CAL), based in the Information and Computing Science (ICS) department at UH, but closely tied to the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) at UH, of which I am a co-investigator. CAL arose out of the observation that astrobiologists, while being excellent researchers, frequently do not make use of computational tools and innovations. Over the past three years, I have identified a number of needs in the NAI community that are suitable for research projects, ranging from well-specified software engineering projects appropriate for an undergraduate student to open-ended research projects appropriate for a PhD thesis.
Past and current projects at CAL include:
- A web interface to the Deep Impact observation database, for Prof. Karen Meech, the Deep Impact [A’Hearn et al 2000] team member in charge of coordinating all the ground-based observing support for the mission. Funded by the NASA Space Grant Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.
- A telescope scheduler with a web-based interface that allows high-school students to request observations on a 31 inch telescope at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona. [Binsted et al 2005]
- An evolutionary simulation to explore a range of environmental scenarios to which intelligent behaviors (adaptation on an individual time-scale, communication over generations, etc.) are adaptive. [Binsted & Joseph 2004]
- A system for building a network of hypotheses relevant to SETI message decoding. [Binsted & Takazawa 2003]
- A framework for intelligent data gathering and 'triage' techniques in self maintaining ad hoc wireless sensor networks for extreme environments. [Binsted & Nagar 2003]
- A set of software tools for doing statistical analyses of genomes and proteins. [Boal et al 2005]
- A software tool for performing calibrations and signal detection for an in-situ voltammeter used in deep ocean research.
As part of this effort to bring astrobiologists and computer scientists together, I am organizing the Computational Astrobiology Summer School, a three-week program designed to introduce computer science graduate students to astrobiology.
The second branch of my research program is that of Entertaining and Affective Intelligent Interfaces. This includes the continuation of my earlier research on computational humor as well as work on other forms of intelligent interface. Projects include:
- Extending the linguistic modeling of humor beyond puns to scalar humor (e.g. [Binsted & Bergen 2004]) and to semantic humor in the form of one-line jokes (e.g. [Stark, Binsted & Bergen 2005]).
- Developing a system that recognizes sub-vocalized speech based from the response of electro-myogram sensors placed on the throat of the speaker (e.g. [Binsted and Jorgensen 2006]). This research was supported by the NASA Summer Faculty Fellowship Program.
- Developing a chatbot to support second-language learning with entertaining, accessible conversation. Although this project has been moving slowly, we believe that it has great potential, and will continue to apply for funding to support it.