The Amalthea Reu Program: Activities, Experiences, And Outcomes Of A Collaborative Summer Research Experience In Machine Learning
- Conference
- Location
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Austin, Texas
- Publication Date
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June 14, 2009
- Start Date
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June 14, 2009
- End Date
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June 17, 2009
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Electrical and Computer
- Page Count
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18
- Page Numbers
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14.1177.1 - 14.1177.18
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--5218
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/5218
- Download Count
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494
Paper Authors
Georgios Anagnostopoulos Florida Institute of Technology
GEORGIOS C. ANAGNOSTOPOULOS is an Associate Professor in the Electrical & Computer Engineering department of Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Florida. He is also the Director of the AMALTHEA REU Program. His research interests are statistical machine learning, neural networks and data mining.
Michael Georgiopoulos University of Central Florida
MICHAEL GEORGIOPOULOS has received a Diploma in EE from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 1981,and an MS in EE and a Ph.D.in EE from the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, in 1983 and 1986, respectively. He joined the University of Central Florida in 1986, where he is currently a Professor in the School of EECS. His research interests lie in the areas of Machine Learning and applications with special emphasis on ART neural networks. He has published his work in over 250 journal and conference venues. He has been an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks from 2002 to 2006 and he is currently serving as an Associate Editor of the Neural Networks journal. He has served as the General Chair of the S+SSPR 2008 Workshops, a satellite event of ICPR 2008.
Veton Kepuska Florida Institute of Technology
VETON Z. KËPUSKA is an Associate Professor of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the Florida Institute of Technology. He has joined the academia after over a decade of R&D work in the high-tech Speech Recognition Industry of the Boston area. His research interests lie in the areas of Speech Processing and Recognition, Speech Coding, Microphone Arrays, Neural Networks and Applications of Neural Networks in Pattern Recognition, Speech Processing and Recognition, Blind Source Separation, Image Processing, Natural Language Understanding, Human Machine Interface. He holds a number of patents in the speech recognition area.
Kenneth Stanley University of Central Florida
Alison Morrison-Shetlar University of Central Florida
ALISON MORRISON-SHETLAR is Vice Provost and Dean, Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Biology at the University of Central Florida. Her science research interests are in the molecular biology, biochemistry and physiology of Hydrogen-proton membrane transport proteins and her pedagogical research is in the area interactive teaching and learning strategies for any size classroom.
Pat Lancey University of Central Florida
Paula Krist University of Central Florida
PAULA S. KRIST is the Director of Assessment Support for the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. She works with all departments to support program and student learning outcomes assessment for faculty and staff. Previously the Director of Operational Excellence and Assessment Support at the University of Central Florida and the Director of Institutional Research and Assessment at Florida Institute of Technology, Dr. Krist regularly presents workshops on assessment topics and enjoys working with faculty on grant projects. Her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Tace Crouse University of Central Florida
TACE CROUSE is currently the Interim Director of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Central Florida where she has served since 2004. From 1999-2004 she was on the faculty of the university's College of Education. From 1986-1998 she served in various positions at Brevard Community College including faculty member, department chair, dean, campus provost and Executive Vice President. Her B.S. degree in Mathematics (1972) and her M.S. in Mathematics Education (1974) were earned at the Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. Her Ed.D. is in Educational Leadership (1993) from the University of Central Florida. Her research area is in the use of assessment to improve instruction.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
The AMALTHEA REU Program: Activities, Experiences & Outcomes of a Collaborative Summer Research Experience in Machine Learning
Abstract
The AMALTHEA REU Program is a 10-week, summer research experience for science or engineering undergraduate students funded by the National Science Foundation since 2007 and featuring Machine Learning as its intellectual focus. Moreover, it is a joint effort of two collaborating universities in Central Florida, namely Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and University of Central Florida in Orlando.
Organizing, implementing and directing REU Sites is typically perceived as a demanding effort; while offering unique advantages, operating collaborative sites may impose an additional layer of challenges. In this paper our intention is to present the objectives of our program, its unique characteristics, and the structure and organization of our collaborative site. Furthermore, we would like to give an informative account of our activities across the various aspects of the program, such as marketing of the experience, recruiting of student participants, the summer experience itself and our dissemination efforts. Finally, we report on our outcomes accomplished so far, which include research products and evaluation results.
While our program is only entering into its third year of operation, we do hope that, by sharing our experiences and promising strategies to date, we will encourage and aid prospective REU Site directors to successfully plan for and operate collaborative sites.
1. Introduction
The AMALTHEA REU Program1 is a collaborative effort between two closely-located universities, Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne and University of Central Florida in Orlando. ``AMALTHEA'' stands for Advances of MAchine Learning in THEory & Applications, which, in turn, stems from the program's full title ``REU Site: Collaborative Research: Advances of Machine Learning in Theory and Applications (AMALTHEA).'' Finally, REU stands for ``Research Experiences for Undergraduates,'' which is the name of the National Science Foundation (NSF) program funding this effort. Overall, the project seeks to provide top quality educational experiences to a diverse community of learners through research participation in the area of Machine Learning (ML).
Machine Learning is nowadays a high-importance, ever- expanding discipline that draws concepts from a variety of fields, including artificial intelligence, cognitive sciences, information theory, statistics, mathematics, physics, philosophy and biology among others. On the other hand, automatic target recognition, earthquake prediction, gene expression discovery, intelligent credit fraud protection and affectionate computing, to mention just a few, are examples of cutting-edge applications of ML in various technological and scientific domains. The project's thrust area is the theory of ML and how it can be integrated and applied to important real-life problems, thus exposing participants to both theory and applications.
Anagnostopoulos, G., & Georgiopoulos, M., & Kepuska, V., & Stanley, K., & Morrison-Shetlar, A., & Lancey, P., & Krist, P., & Crouse, T. (2009, June), The Amalthea Reu Program: Activities, Experiences, And Outcomes Of A Collaborative Summer Research Experience In Machine Learning Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5218
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