Validation and Verification of Aircraft Control Software for Control Improvement

Validation and Verification are important processes used to ensure software safety and reliability. The Cooper-Harper Aircraft Handling Qualities Rating is one of the techniques developed and used by NASA researchers to verify and validate control systems for aircrafts. Using the Validation and Verification result of controller software to improve controller\u27s performance will be one of the main objectives of this process. Real user feedback will be used to tune PI controller in order for it to perform better. The Cooper-Harper Aircraft Handling Qualities Rating can be used to justify the performance of the improved system

Exploring the Use and Adoption of Workplace Automation through Metaphors: A Discourse Dynamics Analysis

Organizational metaphors represent an important study area in the information systems (IS) field. In this paper, I review previous work on organizational metaphors in IS research and build on this work by proposing a discourse dynamics approach to metaphors as an alternative lens for conceptualizing and studying IS metaphors. With this approach, one can recast organizational metaphors from something that researchers commonly perceive as detached from the subjects they investigate—a view fixed in much IS thinking—to something that results from both language and the mind, that has a situational nature, and that individuals can deploy in flexible and dynamic ways. Drawing on in-depth focus group studies, I illustrate the discourse dynamics approach via analyzing metaphors that individuals made in describing workplace automation. With this study, I not only raise new questions in relation to theorizing about and analyzing organizational metaphors in IS research but also illustrate metaphors’ usefulness as a form of sense making to generate fresh insights into the implications that arise from adopting and using workplace automation that remain unnoticed if one used more conventional methods

Factors Influencing the Surprising Instability of Word Embeddings

Despite the recent popularity of word embedding methods, there is only a small body of work exploring the limitations of these representations. In this paper, we consider one aspect of embedding spaces, namely their stability. We show that even relatively high frequency words (100-200 occurrences) are often unstable. We provide empirical evidence for how various factors contribute to the stability of word embeddings, and we analyze the effects of stability on downstream tasks.Comment: NAACL HLT 201

Precis of neuroconstructivism: how the brain constructs cognition

Neuroconstructivism: How the Brain Constructs Cognition proposes a unifying framework for the study of cognitive development that brings together (1) constructivism (which views development as the progressive elaboration of increasingly complex structures), (2) cognitive neuroscience (which aims to understand the neural mechanisms underlying behavior), and (3) computational modeling (which proposes formal and explicit specifications of information processing). The guiding principle of our approach is context dependence, within and (in contrast to Marr [1982]) between levels of organization. We propose that three mechanisms guide the emergence of representations: competition, cooperation, and chronotopy; which themselves allow for two central processes: proactivity and progressive specialization. We suggest that the main outcome of development is partial representations, distributed across distinct functional circuits. This framework is derived by examining development at the level of single neurons, brain systems, and whole organisms. We use the terms encellment, embrainment, and embodiment to describe the higher-level contextual influences that act at each of these levels of organization. To illustrate these mechanisms in operation we provide case studies in early visual perception, infant habituation, phonological development, and object representations in infancy. Three further case studies are concerned with interactions between levels of explanation: social development, atypical development and within that, developmental dyslexia. We conclude that cognitive development arises from a dynamic, contextual change in embodied neural structures leading to partial representations across multiple brain regions and timescales, in response to proactively specified physical and social environment

Designing Dialogs between Users and Products through a Sensory Language

This paper presents a research-through-design exploring interaction as a dialog between the user and the product that is in contact for sharing something, typically quantitative and/or qualitative information (e.g., data, points of view, feelings, and so on). This exchange is made possible by the implementation of a given kind of common language. Traditionally, human-computer interaction relies on an explicit, codified language, as for example when designers use icons, text, or pictures to convey a message. In contrast, we define empirical sensory language as those sensory stimuli coming from an artifact, processed most often unconsciously, which play a constructive role in generating a meaningful interactive experience, yet do not require any explicit exchange of information messages. Our investigation aimed at exploring potentialities and limits of applying a sensory language to arouse meaningful interactions leading to a desired change in routine behaviors. We thus designed two product prototypes intended to lead users to decrease water consumption. Our approach opens up a new space for design that is currently not covered by explicit, codified forms of interaction. We discuss implications for a product designer to design for a sensory language and the results of an exploratory user evaluation

Understanding Word Embedding Stability Across Languages and Applications

Despite the recent popularity of word embedding methods, there is only a small body of work exploring the limitations of these representations. In this thesis, we consider several aspects of embedding spaces, including their stability. First, we propose a definition of stability, and show that common English word embeddings are surprisingly unstable. We explore how properties of data, words, and algorithms relate to instability. We extend this work to approximately 100 world languages, considering how linguistic typology relates to stability. Additionally, we consider contextualized output embedding spaces. Using paraphrases, we explore properties and assumptions of BERT, a popular embedding algorithm. Second, we consider how stability and other word embedding properties affect tasks where embeddings are commonly used. We consider both word embeddings used as features in downstream applications and corpus-centered applications, where embeddings are used to study characteristics of language and individual writers. In addition to stability, we also consider other word embedding properties, specifically batching and curriculum learning, and how methodological choices made for these properties affect downstream tasks. Finally, we consider how knowledge of stability affects how we use word embeddings. Throughout this thesis, we discuss strategies to mitigate instability and provide analyses highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of word embeddings in different scenarios and languages. We show areas where more work is needed to improve embeddings, and we show where embeddings are already a strong tool.PHDComputer Science & EngineeringUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162917/1/lburdick_1.pd