Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 02:49:03 GMT
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John Gallagher's Never Ending Story
John's Never Ending Story Page
Last Modified : November 12, 1996
Who I am
John Gallagher, mild mannered computer science graduate student at
Case Western Reserve University who is seemingly unable to decide on
any one story, plan, or home page format....
Where I am
Case Western Reserve University
Crawford Hall, Room 505
Cleveland, OH 44106
(216) 368-5506
johng@alpha.ces.cwru.edu
What I do
I'm a Ph.D candidate in the
Department of Computer Engineering and Science
at
Case Western Reserve University and
a member of the
Autonomous Agents Research Group. I am also the lab instructor for CWRU's
Introduction to Engineering Class
(only CWRU access for now, sorry)..
I have completed research on the use of
genetic algorithms to
generate dynamical neural network controllers for both simulated and
real hexapod robots..
My current research intrests fall into two catagories:
- The use of analog dynamical neural networks to solve
classically intractable decision problems.
- Exploring the neural basis of cognitive behaviors.
Research Related Web Sites
I know it's mostly lame to put lists of "favorite" sites on a home page.
It's sort of egocentric to think that pages I like would be interesting
to anyone else -- especially if I don't bother to do anything clever
with the list, but who has time for clever? I'm supposed to be burning
that on research -- so that I can put up cool pages like
these.
My Story
In an effort to counteract my talent to avoid "real work",
my
thesis advisor
often requires I commit to "meeting agendas",
"research proposals", or other administrative nonsense. Plans are
often nothing more than after the fact rationalizations of behavior.
One would look much more together if he could look into the future so
tomorrow's mistakes could be rationalized today. For this purpose, I like
tarot readings -- as the results are as vague as any good research
proposal
. In a pinch, I have been known to use a
Magic 8-Ball.
I never use
a ouija board, as I've found that
spirits
rationalize better than I can, and that's really scarry.
Some of my collegues have gone far beyond the automatic
generation of plans, and are into the automatic generation of
results. What better way to figure out how to build a control
for a walking robot than to crack open the head of a
cockroach
to see how they do it. Cheating off Ma Nature's test paper.
Who says researchers can't have
slack?
In my spare time, I perform
reconstructive surgery on indigent tubers. Though I'm not the
worst, I don't think
my skills are quite up to working on
dead frogs -- I'm trying, though.
to be continued....
johng@alpha.ces.cwru.edu