Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 22:04:04 GMT Server: NCSA/1.5.2 Last-modified: Sun, 03 Nov 1996 17:05:16 GMT Content-type: text/html Content-length: 6202 James Lester

James C. Lester

Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
North Carolina State University

Director of the IntelliMedia Initiative for the College of Engineering
North Carolina State University


Education

    Ph.D. in Computer Science (1994)
    University of Texas at Austin

    M.S.C.S. in Computer Science (1988)
    University of Texas at Austin

    B.A. in Computer Science (1986)
    University of Texas at Austin

    B.A. in History (1983)
    Baylor University


Research

    The primary objective of our research is to design, construct, and empirically evaluate computational mechanisms to support intelligent human-computer interaction in educational and scientific software. In particular, we focus on developing advanced animated and natural language explanation systems that facilitate learning and scientific analysis. We pursue this work in three areas: Knowledge-Based Learning Environments, Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology, and Natural Language Generation. Much of this research is conducted through the IntelliMedia Initiative. (Click on a research area for relevant publications.)

    • Knowledge-Based Learning Environments

      Research Focus:
      Animated pedagogical agents, design-centered learning
      environments, intelligent interfaces, and task modeling.

      Projects:
      Design-A-Plant
      The Internet Protocol Advisor

    • Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology

      Research Focus:
      Interactive advisory systems for homology searching, heterogenous genomics database integration, and explanation generation for complex analysis tasks.

      Project:
      The Genome Collaborator

    • Natural Language Generation

      Research Focus:
      Explanation systems, natural language revision, functional/systemic
      realization, knowledge-based document planning.

      Projects:
      Knight
      Fare
      Revisor
      The Docu-Planner


    Graduate Students

    • William Bares (whbares@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Charles Callaway (cbcallaw@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Carl Hobson (cphobson@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Colin Leonard (cmleonar@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Greg Miller (gsmiller@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Gary Stelling (gdstelli@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Stuart Towns (sgtowns@eos.ncsu.edu)

    • Jennifer Voerman (jlvoerma@eos.ncsu.edu)

    Many other students (especially animators and multimedia designers from NC State's School of Design, and cognitive scientists from NC State's College of Education and Psychology) work with us on the IntelliMedia Initiative.


    Alumni

    • Matthew Dailey (mdailey@cs.ucsd.edu)


    Sponsors

    We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the North Carolina State University IntelliMedia Initiative, the National Science Foundation, IBM, Novell, Glaxo Wellcome, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, Apple Computer, and Microsoft.


    Industry Collaborations

    Our research benefits considerably from partnerships with industry.

    • Glaxo Wellcome: In collaboration with GW's Bioinformatics Group, we are conducting research on intelligent systems for molecular biology.

    • IBM: In collaboration with IBM, we are creating new intelligent agent technologies.


    Contact Information

      Email: lester@adm.csc.ncsu.edu

      Phone: (919) 515-7534

      Fax: (919) 515-7896

      Secretary: (919) 515-2882

      Office: Withers 232

        (In Spring 1997, our offices and lab are moving to the new Engineering Graduate Research Center!)

      Address:

        Department of Computer Science
        North Carolina State University
        Box 8206
        Raleigh, NC 27695-8206


(v3.0/2-September-96/ Charles Callaway)