Metaphors and Algorithms as Sources of Knowledge

" ...  Cognitive Systems Institute Group Speaker Series on Thursday Oct 26, 2016 at 10:30 am ET US (7:30 am PT US and 4:30 pm in Spain).  Our presenter this week is Xavier Busquets Carretero, ESADE, Ramon Llull University in Spain, who will present “Metaphors and Algorithms as Sources of Knowledge.”

Please point your web browser to https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491password=cognitive.   Use audio on computer or 855-233-7153 in the US  ...  PIN Code: 43179788    Non-IBMers, please use the "guest" option instead of entering your email. 

A link to slides and a recording of each call should be available on the CSIG website (http://cognitive-science.info/community/weekly-update/). 

We encourage those who join the calls to add questions and comments to the https://www.linkedin.com/groups/Cognitive-Systems-Institute-6729452 on LinkedIn and please ask questions at the end of the call.

Thank you.
Dianne Fodell

IBM Global University Programs
fodell@us.ibm.com

Teaching Hard Math to Children

Adventures in math metaphors for teachers and parents.  How to you teach what most students fear, even to the very young?  Pass it on.    In Reddit. 

Lego as a Tool for Serious Thinking

Remember looking at this long ago.  Not sure how commonly it is used.  Small and useful tools for thinking.

" ... LEGO Serious Play is a way of using LEGO bricks to express feelings and ideas. It is used by adults (mostly), to collaborate and discuss relationships and concepts. The building is done in metaphors – which might sound odd at first, but our research shows that almost anyone can pick it up. The process offers a unique and powerful way for people to exchange ideas. .... "

See also Lego's description.

Cities in a Complex World

From the Santa Fe Institute:  I used to be our representative to SFI in the 90s and we got quite a few inspirations from them, and we provided them with problems to solve.  Some led to major projects. " ... Cities have been compared to everything from beehives to river networks, but most of these metaphors fall short. In the Santa Fe New Mexican, SFI Professor Luis Bettencourt looks to the data to suggest a new way of thinking about how cities function and grow. ... " .  The SFI article is non technical, but points to others that give you the complexity technology.

Virtual World Data Environments

Something I had explored since well before virtual worlds were common. The idea was that you could explore data by flying through a 3D space. There were several problems. One is that a 3D does not provide lots of additional resolution for exploration and there was little opportunity for precise manipulation.

The results showed little benefit beyond carefully designed 2D data representation. In fact while some BI packages today include 3D visual metaphors but they seem to be rarely used since motion is required to understand the data relationships and it is hard to understand dimensional interactions. Experts in data design push simplicity rather than increasing dimensions. To be clear, I am not saying this is not a good idea, but that current interfaces are insufficient to make it work.

A new example explorable in beta:

Glasshouse by Green Phosphor is a gateway which can take a database query or a spreadsheet and place a 3D representation of it into a virtual world. Users can see data, and drill into it; re-sort it; explore it interactively - all from within a virtual world. Glasshouse produces graphs which are avatars of the data itself ... "

Update: A video tour of the technology.