Creativity Projects at Georgia Tech
This Page is under construction and is incomplete.
Improviser -- Modeling Serendipitious Recognition
- Janet L. Kolodner and Marin Simina
- We are developing a computational model of ``serendipitous
recognition'' in mechanical design, which we are implementing in a
system called Improviser. Serendipitous recognition is something
designers often do when deeply engaged in a problem: they recognize
solutions to pending design problems in the objects in their
surrounding environment. This can often lead to innovation and
insight, sometimes revealing new functions and purposes for common
design pieces in the process. Improviser is a system under
development to capture and explore serendipitous recognition. It is
based on ideas from reconstructive dynamic memory and situation
assessment in case-based reasoning.
- ISAAC -- Modeling Creative Reading
- Kenny Moorman and Ashwin Ram
- Reading requires a large number of tasks which interact to
produce an understanding of a piece of text. These tasks include
sentence processing, story structure understanding, episodic
understanding, explanation, memory, interest management, learning, and
so on. We are developing a functional theory of reading which models
the complete set of tasks which a reader must perform during the
comprehension process. The various tasks maintain a close interaction,
exchanging information as needed; this integrated approach lessens the
burden on any one task. We are particularly interested in a kind of
reading we call creative reading, in which the reader must learn
enough about a novel situation, in a short text, in order to accept it
as the background for the story, and simultaneously must understand
the story itself. Consider reading a science fiction story, which
will likely contain elements which are novel to a read (e.g., warp
drive, intelligent robots, and so forth). The theory is implemented
in the ISAAC (Integrated Story Analysis And Creativity) system, a
computer model which reads science fiction short stories.
- Creativity and conceptual change
- Kenny Moorman, Juan Carlos Santamaria, and Ashwin Ram
- Creative conceptual change involves (a) the construction of new
concepts and of coherent belief systems, or theories, relating these
concepts, and (b) the modification and extrapolation of existing
concepts and theories in novel situations.Computational models of
constructive and extrapolative processes in creative conceptual change
specify the functions of conceptual change, the mechanisms or
algorithms that achieve these functions, and the knowledge and
representations that the mechanisms rely on.Implemented systems
include ISAAC, a science fiction story understanding program that
carries out conceptual change as it reads about concepts different
from its own; and SINS, a robot navigation system that autonomously
and progressively constructs representational structures that
encapsulate the system's sensorimotor experiences.