Web Host Access Tool

Since the Spring 2002 semester I have been involved in the WHAT project, though the website has not been updated since before I joined the project. The WHAT project is an effort to improve web searching through the creation of a personalized context for each user, which is stored locally on the user's machine to ensure privacy. Along with Aaron Archer Waterman, I am applying Machine Learning techniques, specifically Support Vector Machines, to the automatic discovery of context, as well as contributing to the overall design of the system. Our mentor is Dr. Ursula Wolz.

Selected Publications, Papers, and Presentations

• Experimental Determination of Size of Data Sets for Support Vector Classification - Presented at the 2003 ACM SIGCSE Student Research Contest in Reno, Nevada.
• Size of Data Sets fo Support Vector Machine Classification - Final paper for Spring 2002 Mentored Research in Computer Science with Dr. Wolz.
• Application of Machine Learning Techniques to Improving Web Search Results - Presented at the 2003 CCSCNE Conference in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Improvement of Web Searching through Learned Context - Final paper for Spring 2003 Mentored Research in Computer Science with Dr. Wolz. Currently being editted into a journal paper which will be submitted for publication.

Question Answering System Through Intelligent Information Retrieval

I have been working on the QASTIIR project since the Spring 2003 semester. The QASTIIR project is a Question Answering System which will be competing in the 2003 Text Retrieval Conference. Aaron Archer Waterman and I are designing the Reference Resolution module, as well as contributing to the overall design of the system. Our mentor is Dr. Miroslav Martinovic.

Selected Publications, Papers, and Presentations

• Reference Resolution Presentation - A presentation Aaron and I gave to the Spring 2003 Special Topics in Computer Science: Question Answering Systems class, which covers common approaches to Reference Resolution as well as our design.

Parallel Genetic Algorithms: An Exploration of Weather Prediction through Clustered Computing

Fall 2002 through Spring 2003 I was funded by the CRA-W Collaborative Research Experience for Women project. I worked with Emily Gibson and Dr. Deborah Knox on a small Beowulf-style cluster, applying Parallel Genetic Algorithms to the problem of temperature prediction.

Selected Publications, Papers, and Presentations

• Parallel Genetic Algorithms: An Exploration of Weather Prediction through Clustered Computing Poster - Presented at the 2003 CCSCNE Conference in Providence, Rhode Island.
• Parallel Genetic Algorithms: An Exploration of Weather Prediction through Clustered Computing Final Paper - Extremely long final paper submitted for Spring 2003 Mentored Research in Computer Science with Dr. Knox.