Research

I am fascinated by learning, both human learning and machine learning, and particularly like research where the two meet. I am currently working on two projects related to information retrieval and information extraction, Cornetto and QASSIR.

Projects

Information Retrieval and Information Extraction

The goal of Cornetto is to integrate two separate Dutch lexical resources, the RBN (Referentie Bestand Nederlands) and the DWN (Dutch WordNet) into one more comprehensive resource. My task is to support the current development of the Cornetto database and editing tools. Right now, I am working with Erik Tjong Kim Sang on Dutch hypernym extraction.

QASSIR is a project on automatic question answering (QA). I am currently working on a new, modular framework for our QA software, which will allow easier experimentation with different algorithms and analysis tools.

User Interfaces and Learning

Adaptive Hypermedia - I completed my Master's on adaptation in learning systems this summer. I researched whether low-level user behavior, such as mouse-movement, could be used as a source of information for user modeling in such a system. As little prior research existed in this area, a large part of my thesis work consisted of reviewing applicable literature in related areas and developing and evaluating suitable research methodology. As a result of this research, we collected an initial data set, extracted a small set of promissing features, and were able to identify a small set of user behavior patterns that are typical for our educational system. My experiments were based on the Adaptive and Collaborative UNIX Tutorial (ACUT). My thesis advisor was Prof. Hilary J. Holz.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems - With Dr. Farnaz Ganjezadeh and Stephan Iannce I worked on a research project with the goal of developing an Intelligent Tutoring System that monitors student progress and chooses the optimal teaching strategy for the individual student. We Followed a problem-based learning approach and developed a prototype system to demonstrate and evaluate the proposed approach. The prototype was evaluated in Wizard-of-Oz user studies and focused interviews.

Computer Simulation

Ant Simulation - This project developed out of a class project in Computer Simulation. Goal of the project was to model the distributed decision making process of ant colonies. The project was presented at the CSU Research Competition at CSU Northridge and was later continued by a group of students who took Computer Simulation a year later.

Robot Simulation - For my thesis at HTW Dresden, Germany, I developed a robot simulation system JRoboSim (German only). This system allows students and researchers to learn developing robots and robot controls. It provides an inexpensive way to test new developments in a realistic 3D-environment without the need of expensive robot hardware. The software is further developed and mainly used by the of my thesis advisor Dr. H. Iwe.