Select a calendar:
Filter September Events by Event Type:
SUNMONTUEWEDTHUFRISAT
Events for September 16, 2010
-
Festival de Flor y Canto: Yesterday, Today, TomorrowThu, Sep 16, 2010
USC Viterbi School of Engineering
Receptions & Special Events
In 1973, USC hosted the Flor y Canto literary festival, a three-day event that featured dozens of emerging Mexican American poets and writers in the nascent Chicano movement. One of the recurring themes was the contrast between great Mesoamerican civilizations of the past and the indignities suffered by those chasing the elusive âAmerican Dream.â This year, which marks the centennial of the Mexican Revolution and the bicentennial of Mexican independence, the university will reprise the event, inviting prominent participants from the previous festivalâincluding Alurista, Juan Felipe Herrera, Rolando Hinojosa, José Montoya and Ron Ariasâto share the stage with a new generation of Chicano and Latino writers.
Organized by Tyson Gaskill (USC Libraries), Barbara Robinson (USC Libraries) and MarÃa-Elena MartÃnez (History and American Studies and Ethnicity). Co-sponsored by El Centro Chicano and the Latino Student Assembly.
Admission is free.
For festival schedule, visit the event page: http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/113/event/873308
For further information on this event:
visionsandvoices@usc.eduLocation: Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library (DML) - Friends Lecture Hall, Room 240
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Daria Yudacufski
-
CS Colloquium
Thu, Sep 16, 2010 @ 03:30 PM - 05:00 PM
Thomas Lord Department of Computer Science
Conferences, Lectures, & Seminars
Speaker: Dr. Ashwin Ram, Georgia Tech
Talk Title: Real-Time Case-Based Reasoning for Interactive Digital Entertainment
Abstract: User-generated content is everywhere: photos, videos, news, blogs, art, music, and every other type of digital media on the Social Web. Games are no exception. From strategy games to immersive virtual worlds, game players are increasingly engaged in creating and sharing nearly all aspects of the gaming experience: maps, quests, artifacts, avatars, clothing, even games themselves. Yet, there is one aspect of computer games that is not created and shared by game players: the AI. Building sophisticated personalities, behaviors, and strategies requires expertise in both AI and programming, and remains outside the purview of the end user.
To understand why authoring Game AI is hard, we need to understand how Game AI works. AI can take digital entertainment beyond scripted interactions into the arena of truly interactive systems that are responsive, adaptive, and intelligent. I will discuss examples of AI techniques for character-level AI (in embedded NPCs, for example) and game-level AI (in the drama manager, for example). These types of AI enhance the player experience in different ways. The techniques are complicated and are usually implemented by expert game designers.
I propose an alternative approach to designing Game AI: Real-Time CBR (Case-Based Reasoning). This approach extends CBR to real-time systems that operate asynchronously during game play, planning, adapting, and learning in an online manner. Originally developed for robotic control, Real-Time CBR can be used for interactive games ranging from multiplayer strategy games to interactive believable avatars in virtual worlds.
As with any CBR technique, Real-Time CBR integrates problem solving with learning. This property can be used to address the authoring problem. I will show the first Web 2.0 application that allows average users to create AIs and challenge their friends to play them without programming. I conclude with some thoughts about the future of AI-based Interactive Digital Entertainment.
Biography: Dr. Ashwin Ram is an Associate Professor and Director of the Cognitive Computing Lab in the College of Computing at Georgia Tech, and an Adjunct Professor in Psychology at Georgia Tech and in MathCS at Emory University. He received his PhD from Yale University in 1989, his MS from University of Illinois in 1984, and his BTech from IIT Delhi in 1982. He has published 2 books and over 100 scientific articles in international forums. He is a founder of Enkia Corporation which develops AI software for social media applications, and OpenStudy.com which is an online social learning network for students and faculty.
Host: Dr. Milind Tambe
Location: Seaver Science Library (SSL) - 150
Audiences: Everyone Is Invited
Contact: Kanak Agrawal
