Economic Development Administration Awards Georgia Tech

Impressed what I saw in long past visits  ... 

Economic Development Administration Awards Georgia Tech $65 Million for AI Manufacturing Project

Largest grant ever awarded to a Georgia Tech-led coalition of partners to drive Build Back Better initiatives

The Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded a $65 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration (EDA) to support a statewide initiative that combines artificial intelligence and manufacturing innovations with transformational workforce and outreach programs. The grant will increase job and wage opportunities in distressed and rural communities, as well as among historically underrepresented and underserved groups. ... '

Many Simple Small Robots,

Robot work at Ga Tech, which we visited a number times.   Always liked the idea of small,  multiple and cooperative problem solving doing tasks.  Bur even without collaboration can have value.  Gathering data, especially can be a good example. 

Simple robots, smart algorithms   by Georgia Institute of Technology

Anyone with children knows that while controlling one child can be hard, controlling many at once can be nearly impossible. Getting swarms of robots to work collectively can be equally challenging, unless researchers carefully choreograph their interactions—like planes in formation—using increasingly sophisticated components and algorithms. But what can be reliably accomplished when the robots on hand are simple, inconsistent, and lack sophisticated programming for coordinated behavior?

A team of researchers led by Dana Randall, ADVANCE Professor of Computing and Daniel Goldman, Dunn Family Professor of Physics, both at Georgia Institute of Technology, sought to show that even the simplest of robots can still accomplish tasks well beyond the capabilities of one, or even a few, of them. The goal of accomplishing these tasks with what the team dubbed "dumb robots" (essentially mobile granular particles) exceeded their expectations, and the researchers report being able to remove all sensors, communication, memory and computation—and instead accomplishing a set of tasks through leveraging the robots' physical characteristics, a trait that the team terms "task embodiment."

The team's BOBbots, or "behaving, organizing, buzzing bots" that were named for granular physics pioneer Bob Behringer, are "about as dumb as they get," explains Randall. "Their cylindrical chassis have vibrating brushes underneath and loose magnets on their periphery, causing them to spend more time at locations with more neighbors." The experimental platform was supplemented by precise computer simulations led by Georgia Tech physics student Shengkai Li, as a way to study aspects of the system inconvenient to study in the lab.  ... ' 

Home Robotics with a Reaching Tele-Assistant

What looks like a minimalist robot, but with a great reach.  Evidently primarily for tele-operation. And thinking about it, reach is a big component of convenience in a home, say for assisting a disabled person.  Unclear if it is enough to be a universal assistant.   Also potential for other functionality.

Ex-Google robotics head unveils automated home assistant    by Peter Grad , in Tech Xplore

The former head of Google's robotics division has unveiled a new robot named Stretch that he hopes will prove to be an economical and handy assistant around the home.

And it's no stretch to say that it could provide a blueprint for future efforts in practical, low-cost automated devices to assist with household chores.

Aaron Edsinger, along with partner Charlie Kemp of the Georgia Tech Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, say simplicity was key. They devised a lightweight machine consisting of a wheel base, a three-foot-high center pole and a telescoping touch-sensitive arm that, as its name suggests, stretches, and intelligently grabs and handles objects. It can carry items weighing up to three pounds.

"What sets this robot apart is its extraordinary reach, which is why we named it Stretch," said Edsinger. The arm, which moves easily along the center pole from top to bottom, can stretch out about 20 inches from its base.  ...  "

See also:  Home Robot Control for People With Disabilities
Georgia Tech's augmented-reality interface gives control over complex robots to the people who need them   .... By Evan Ackerman

See also Tele-operation video examples at:   https://hello-robot.com/

Smarticles for Robotic Locomotion

New means of locomotion provide new options for robotic use.

Shape-Shifting Robot Built from 'Smarticles' Shows New Locomotion Strategy

Georgia Tech Research Horizons
September 18, 2019
strategy

Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) researchers have constructed a robot from smaller robots called smart active particles (smarticles) to explore a potential new approach to locomotion. Each three-dimensionally-printed two-armed smarticle flaps its appendages; five smarticles corralled in a circle can nudge each other to form a supersmarticle, which can move by itself. Adding a light or sound sensor enables the supersmarticle to move in response to stimulus and to become sufficiently controllable to navigate a maze. By providing mechanical control over very small robots, the smarticle architecture could eventually support a locomotion/control strategy for small shape-shifting machines. The U.S. Army has expressed interest in this research because it could lead to new robotic systems capable of changing shapes, modalities, and functions.  ... "

More Aims at Explainable AI

More interesting moves in providing explanation to AI.  Here from Ga Tech.   As in the previous recent  post, this asks the question:   What does explainable mean?   And to whom in what context?  Simplicity is good, if everyone agrees to its truth and value.

A Breakthrough in Explainable AI   By Joe Dysart in CACM
A new artificial intelligence (AI) agent offers easy-to-understand English explanations of the AI's analysis and decisions.

Such tools of explanation are considered critical by those working in AI who fear users may be reluctant to embrace AI applications that make recommendations whose rationales are shrouded in mystery.

"As AI pervades all aspects of our lives, there is a distinct need for human-centered AI design that makes black-boxed AI systems explainable to everyday users," says Upol Ehsan, a doctoral student in the School of Interactive Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and lead author of the study.  "Our work takes a formative step toward understanding the role of language-based explanations and how humans perceive them."

Adds Devi Parikh, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Interactive Computing, "Just like human teams are more effective when team members are transparent and can understand the rationale behind each others decisions or opinions, human-AI teams will be more effective if AI systems explain themselves and are somewhat interpretable to a human."

Eshan and his research team set out to solve the explainable AI problem by developing an AI agent that could offer easy-to-understand explanations to humans in certain settings.

For their research, the team—including researchers from Georgia Tech, Cornell University, and the University of Kentucky—decided to create an AI agent that would analyze and explain moves in the video game "Frogger." The game is an ideal choice for developing an AI agent, given its simplicity: the entire goal of the game is to move an animated frog across a screen, enabling it to dodge oncoming vehicles and other animated hazards.

The researchers trained their AI agent by first asking gamers to play Frogger as they explained the rationale behind each action they took, move by move."  ... ' 

Very Tiny, Vibration Powered Robotics

Power of the very small.

Vibration-Powered Robots Are the Size of the World's Smallest Ant 
Georgia Tech Research Horizons
By John Toon

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) have developed tiny three-dimensional (3D)-printed robots that move by harnessing vibration from piezoelectric actuators, ultrasound sources, or tiny speakers. The bots respond to different vibration frequencies, depending on their configurations, allowing users to control individual devices by adjusting the vibration. The bots are about two millimeters long, about the size of the world's smallest ant, and can cover four times their own length in one second. The researchers built a “playground” in which multiple micro-bots can move around as the researchers learn more about what they can do. Said Georgia Tech's Azadeh Ansari, “We are working to make the technology robust, and we have a lot of potential applications in mind. We are working at the intersection of mechanics, electronics, biology and physics. It’s a very rich area, and there’s a lot of room for multidisciplinary concepts.” .... "

Slothbot For Forestry Management

When we were involved in Forestry management, something like this could have been useful to better predict growth and management.   We did imagine sensors on a moving platform, but nothing was workable at the time. Probably more stable than drones?    Might have uses for other long time examples in agriculture.

SlothBot Takes Leisurely Approach to Environmental Monitoring   By Georgia Tech News Center 
May 31, 2019

The structure of the SlothBot.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have designed an environmental monitoring robot that measures chemical and climate-related changes in forest canopies.

Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) researchers have designed an environmental monitoring robot that measures chemical and climate-related changes in forest canopies, and is powered by photovoltaic panels to operate for months at a time.

The wire-crawling SlothBot must switch from one cable to another in trees without falling, which Georgia Tech’s Gennaro Notomista described as “a tricky maneuver and you have to do it right to provide a fail-safe transition.”

SlothBot will be clad with a three-dimensionally-printed shell to protect its inner workings from rain and wind.

The robot is a proof of concept for the "theory of slowness" formulated by Georgia Tech's Magnus Egerstedt, which applies low energy consumption principles by restricting movement. Said Egerstedt, "For environmental robots, you should only move when you absolutely have to."   .... '

From Georgia Tech News Center  .... 

Tennenbaum Institute

Just reviewed Ga Tech's Tennenbaum Institute.  Had not for some time.  Especially about process and decision in the enterprise.  Worth a look:

The Tennenbaum Institute at Georgia Tech helps businesses and organizations use data to inform better decision making.

Our research and education addresses a rich mixture of concepts, principles, models, methods, and tools applicable to a wide range of enterprise domains, with particular emphasis on healthcare delivery and global manufacturing. Our work in these two domains is enhanced by strong partnerships with leading companies and agencies, as well as thought leaders from many organizations. We believe that this diversity is our greatest strength in addressing the complex organizational problems the world faces today.

The Tennenbaum Institute was founded in 2004, enabled by the generosity of Georgia Tech alumnus, Michael Tennenbaum.  Our Research Approach: 

The Tennenbaum Institute has established a structured approach for understanding the transformation of complex enterprise systems. This approach includes four fundamental steps as outlined below.  .... 

Notable too their book: Work, Workflow and Information Systems.   Has probably since. been updated.

Georgia Tech Tests Assistants in Dorms

Like to see not only what is being done, but what skills are seen as being most useful in varying contexts, here in a Georgia Tech dorm, a university known for practical engineering.  Worked with them on Tech applications.   Can we get a read out about which skills provided end up being most useful? Especially beyond what you would typically call 'hospitality' functions.   Will follow up.

Amazon Alexa pilot begins in Towers dorm  at Ga Tech By Polly Ouellette
On the evening of Feb. 7, all residents of Towers Residence Hall were invited to pick up their very own Amazon Dot, a voice-controlled personal assistant that they would install in their dorm room.

The Dots, which can be paired with a bluetooth speaker, will respond to verbal commands that tell the device to play music, get the weather and listen to the news. Additionally, students will be able to perform several Tech-specific operations.  .... "

(Update) This was previously also tested at AZ State in August 2017.

Georgia Institute of Technology Robotarium

Been a while since I have been to Ga Tech's lab spaces, we visited while I ran tech in our company's innovation centers.  Impressive then, and they continue to improve.   Had seen the remote lab idea suggested before, but did not know they were doing this.   Need to get there.

This Robot Lab Has No Idea What Its Robots Are Doing    By The Wall Street Journal 
Magnus Egerstedt, executive director for the Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines at the Georgia Institute of Technology, in the new Robotarium. 

In the Robotarium, a 10-square-foot table inside the Atlanta laboratory of Magnus Egerstedt, executive director of the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines, up to 50 ground bots and 20 aerial copters can be remotely controlled by researchers often from other schools, or even foreign countries ....

The Georgia Institute of Technology's (Georgia Tech) Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines supports the Robotarium, an arena where scientists can run experiments on remote-controlled machines.

Georgia Tech's Magnus Egerstedt says unpredictability is a regular feature of the Robotarium, where swarms of ground and airborne robots are put through their paces. Researchers use these swarms to test search-and-rescue scenarios, model flight formations for the U.S. Department of Defense, and predict the interactions of fleets of autonomous cars. Cameras located throughout the arena record the trials so the researchers conducting them can see the results of their experiments.  ... " 

Jill Watson at Ga Tech

Have worked with many TA's myself, so this is interesting.  It also relates to chatbots too, lessons to are to be learned here.   As in all tests of this type I wonder about the difference between providing value to someone versus fooling them.  Not the same thing. The goal can sculpt the results.    Read the full piece.

Jill Watson, Round Three.
The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) is beginning its third semester using a virtual teaching assistant (TA) system, called Jill Watson, in an online course about artificial intelligence (AI).

Jill, which is implemented on IBM's Watson platform, was first used last spring to successfully answer particular types of frequently asked questions without the help of humans.

Georgia Tech professor Ashok Goel told the students at the beginning of the semester some of their TAs may or may not be computers. "Then I watched the chat rooms for months as they tried to differentiate between human and artificial intelligence," Goel says.   ... " 

Full list of advisory systems being followed.

Robots Working Together

A topic of interest that addresses applications like cooperation and teamwork in robots.   Working with each other or with people.

From GaTech:

Team of Robots Learns to Work Together, Without Colliding
Georgia Tech News Center (09/06/16) Jason Maderer 

New algorithms created by Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) researchers enable robots to move within inches of each other, without colliding, to complete their task. The team, led by roboticist Magnus Egerstedt, director of Georgia Tech's Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines, is the first to create such minimally invasive safety algorithms. A set of safe states and barrier certificates ensure each bot stays in its own safe set throughout the entire maneuver, the researchers note. In a demonstration involving four robots, the machines approach from four different areas, meet in the middle, circle counterclockwise within inches of each other, then fan out into opposite directions. In another demonstration, eight robots perform the same task, this time circling clockwise before dispersing. Instead of keeping their distance and taking the long way around their neighbors, the robots move very independently wherever they wish. "Robots are very conservative--they want to make sure they're safe," Egerstedt says. "You couldn't pack the interstate with self-driving cars with today's technology." He says a minimally invasive safety controller similar to the algorithms could be used for the next generation of air traffic control.  ... " 

Warehouse Science from Georgia Institute of Technology

Brought to my attention.   ©  by colleague John J. Bartholdi III • Georgia Institute of Technology

Warehouse Science
Mathematical models to optimize management of time and space in a warehouse

Free text book, with …

Supplementary materials
Warehouse tours
Class projects for industry
Order-picking by bucket brigade

Free-to-use software

Draw a “heat map” of a warehouse
Identify product affinities from sales history
Slot pallets in a forward case-pick area
Slot cartons in a forward piece-pick area

Classes (not free)

ISyE 6335, a core course in Georgia Tech's program leading to a Masters Degree in Supply Chain Engineering
Executive education
Professional education

Game that Speeds Language Learning

In the CACM:   Always the kind of gamification that should be of most value, one that turns a difficult, lengthy and tedious effort into obsessive fun.    But how often does this work well?   Where do the game mechanics make the most sense?

" ... In an effort to streamline the process of learning a second language, Cornell University researchers first created a "fun" aspect by adopting a video game format, then boosted the speed of learning by incorporating a social media "chat" function.

The researchers' most recent paper, Social Situational Language Learning through an Online 3D Game, was presented at the recent ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction conference (CHI 2016).

Mark Riedl, associate professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) School of Interactive Computing and director of the university's Entertainment Intelligence Lab, said the Cornell work "parallels my own studies of 'games with a purpose.' While we work with games that crowdsource common-sense knowledge data sets instead of education, we are trying to identify which game mechanics increase player enjoyment and also increase the accuracy of data produced by humans."  .... '   

Robot Teaching Assistants

Reminiscent of the legendary Eliza system.  .... Expectations are being driven higher .... See this mornings WSJ,  may require  registration. Imagine Discovering That Your Teaching Assistant Really Is a Robot   More to follow on this effort, out of Georgia Tech.  This was for Prof Ashok Goel's AI course.

" .... Since January, “Jill,” as she was known to the artificial-intelligence class, had been helping graduate students design programs that allow computers to solve certain problems, like choosing an image to complete a logical sequence.

“She was the person—well, the teaching assistant—who would remind us of due dates and post questions in the middle of the week to spark conversations,” said student Jennifer Gavin. ... " 

More in my blog about related work at Ga Tech.

(Update) And more on the creation of the Assistant in the CACM.

McD's First Loyalty Program

A first .. McDonalds to join the App based loyalty programs.   " ... Nation's Restaurant News noted that McDonald's has been building up its digital team to better tap customer-facing technology. Margo Georgiadis, president of Americas at Google, joined its board last year. ... ".  A first example of gathering this kind of real time data by McDs.

Biologically Inspired Question Answering

 Via Jim Spohrer.    See the previous CSIG talk on this work.

In Kurzweil AI: IBM’s Watson shown to enhance human-computer co-creativity, support biologically inspired design ... Watson Engagement Advisor AI system was trained to "learn" about biologically inspired design from biology articles, then answer questions.

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers, working with student teams, trained a cloud-based version of IBM’s Watson called the Watson Engagement Advisor to provide answers to questions about biologically inspired design (biomimetics), a design paradigm that uses biological systems as analogues for inventing technological systems.

Ashok Goel, a professor at Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing who conducts research on computational creativity. In an experiment, he used this version of Watson as an “intelligent research assistant” to support teaching about biologically inspired design and computational creativity in the Georgia Tech CS4803/8803 class on Computational Creativity in Spring 2015. Goel found that Watson’s ability to retrieve natural language information could allow a novice to quickly “train up” about complex topics and better determine whether their idea or hypothesis is worth pursuing.  ... " 

Watson and Creativity

Upcoming talk of particular interest:   Thu Oct 1, 2015,  10:30am – 11am (EDT)

" .... Our scheduled speaker is Bryan Wiltgen from Georgia Tech, who will be presenting "Using Watson for Enhancing Human-Computer Co-Creativity."

Dial-In Number(s):   888-426-6840, Participant Code:  48982031. Dial in on phone and also Join Web meeting: https://apps.na.collabserv.com/meetings/join?id=2894-8491 password=cognitive. 

If you are not a member, Join as a Guest. When you click on Join as Guest, you will be asked for your name and organization then click on Join meeting to be taken to screen to enter the password = cognitive .... 

Please find the schedule of presenters here for the next several calls and please sign up for making a presentation by sending a note to me (fodell@us.ibm.com).   A link to slides (if used) and a recording of each call will 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 we ask that you ask questions at the end of the call. .... " 

Student Watson Projects from Georgia Tech

Prof. Ashok Goel (Georgia Tech) shared these fascinating student project videos from his cognitive-related course:


Team 2: Clayton Feustel, Nitin Vijayvargiya, Sanjana Oulkar, and Keith Frazer

Erasmus = Watson + AlChemy


Team 1: Brian Creeden, Abhinaya Shetty, Mithun Kumble, and Shanu Salunke

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGISCw-nOcg

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0BzEfvP1S0DHIfkpqRXAwQURJS29WRjZ5YTcxYVVScEFLbVpRMXZuY0NmaDVDLVl3alpwa3M&usp=sharing


Team 3: Hans Bergren, Utkarsh Garg, Sridevi Koushik, and Bhavya Dwivedi

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9mwUlu11EZ5RlBLSzY2dGNLZkk/view?usp=sharing

Team 4: Shweta Raje, Sasha Azad, Carl Saldanha, Aziz Somani

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bzmzpwok3kVmQVF3dnhRTG9IakE/view?usp=sharing

Team 5: Sriharsha Pothukuchi, Divya Vijayaraghavan, Parul Awasthy, and Sriya Sarathy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4VfN7N3VgQ

Team 6: Jordan Belknap, Tory Anderson, Will Hancock, and Bradley Sheneman

http://goanimate.com/videos/0cETCgSVmvBI?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent

Python as Language, for Beginners

In the CACM:   A look at Python, a computer language now often used for analytics, and increasingly taught in schools.   For a techno piece, quite thoughtful.  Have always thought about the differences in expression between natural and human language.  Learning Python is not much different from learning other computer languages now less used, like Pascal or PL/1.   It expresses algorithms and communicates with data.  It describes effect much more precisely than human language.

" ... The way Taylor Poulo sees it, learning to code in Python is comparable "to learning Latin and romantic languages." Once someone grasps the logic behind Python, the concepts can be more easily transferred to other languages, maintains Poulos, a senior majoring in industrial engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). "Once you get comfortable thinking in a different type of logic and using different words, it's much more comfortable to learn new things," she says, adding that she was required to take three computer science classes at Georgia Tech, all in Python. "Python did that."

Python, an open source scripting language, has become the most popular introductory teaching language at top U.S. universities—Georgia Tech among them—according to a recent survey by Philip Guo, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Rochester. Guo decided to conduct the research after noticing anecdotally over the past few years that Python was replacing languages such as Java as the de facto introduction to programming class in more and more computer science classes at universities around the country. ... "