Track in Autonomous Systems for the Computer Science Curriculum

Approved by the faculty in April 2006

Purpose: The rapid progress of software and computer technology permits great increases in efficiency by automation of many tasks, with the goal of reducing effort for personnel and improving quality and reliability of task performance.� Autonomous systems are the main tools to achieve these goals, and they include handheld and wearable devices, robots, traditional machines with standalone software, and networks with distributed software.� In particular, autonomous systems are essential to two of ONR's twelve "Future Naval Capabilities", "Knowledge Superiority and Assurance" and ?Autonomous Operations?; autonomous systems can be used in dangerous and remote environments without risking personnel or spreading them too thinly.� Military officers need to understand the capabilities of these systems so they can design, adapt, and manage them efficiently and accurately.

Research questions addressed by the track include:

• How can computers understand human languages like English?
• How can computers understand what shapes are visible in pictures and what they are doing?
• How can robots helpfully move among people without interfering with human activities?
• How can computers learn new ideas by observing the world?
• How can computers model human thinking so that we can build simulations of people?

Required courses (choose 4 out of 5):

CS4313, Robotics (3-2): Sensing and control, including reactive and hierarchical control; biologically inspired robotics; developmental robotics; swarm robotics; unmanned autonomous vehicles.

CS4315, Learning Systems and Data Mining (3-1): Concept learning, decision trees, neural networks, support vector machines, Bayesian methods, case-based reasoning, genetic algorithms, analytical learning, reasoning by analogy, intelligent tutoring systems

CS4317, Language Systems (proposed, 3-2): lexicography, morphology, grammars, parsing, semantics, stochastic grammars, hidden Markov models, speech understanding, language generation, language translation systems (proposed)

CS4330, Introduction to Computer Vision (3-2): optics, image and video processing, pattern recognition, pattern classification, pattern learning, applications in military intelligence, surveillance, object tracking, robotic navigation, human-computer interfaces, and visual effects

MV4100, Cognitive Engineering (4-1): methods of building intelligent software covering agent-based issues and human-computer interaction issues, with a special focus on intelligent simulations

Track Elective courses (choose 3):

CS4130, Wireless Mobile Computing (3-2)

CS4319?, Advanced Topics in Autonomous Systems (proposed)

CS4322, Internet Information Systems (3-2)

CS4140?, Sensor Networks (proposed)

MV4015, Agent-Based Autonomous Behavior for Simulations (4-2)

MV4025, Cognitive and Behavioral Models for Simulations (3-2)

EC4460, Artificial Neural Networks (3-1)

ME4822 Guidance, Navigation, and Control of Marine Systems (3-2)