computer science

James F. Allen (computer scientist)

James F. Allen (computer scientist) is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand James F. Allen (computer scientist) rather than just read about it. In short: James Frederick Allen (born 1950) is an American computational linguist recognized for his contributions to temporal logic, in particular Allen's interval algebra. He is interested in knowledge representation, commonsense reasoning, and natural language understanding, believing that "deep language understanding can only currently be achieved by significant hand-engineering of semantically-rich formalisms coupled wit…

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Reproduce the core statement of James F. Allen (computer scientist) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

James Frederick Allen (born 1950) is an American computational linguist recognized for his contributions to temporal logic, in particular Allen's interval algebra. He is interested in knowledge representation, commonsense reasoning, and natural language understanding, believing that "deep language understanding can only currently be achieved by significant hand-engineering of semantically-rich formalisms coupled with statistical preferences". He is the John H. Dessaurer Professor of Computer Science at the University of Rochester.

Biography Allen received his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto in 1979, under the supervision of C. Raymond Perrault, after which he joined the faculty at Rochester. At Rochester, he was department chair from 1987 to 1990, directed the Cognitive Science Program from 1992 to 1996, and co-directed the Center for the Sciences of Language from 1996 to 1998. He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Computational Linguistics from 1983–1993. Since 2006 he has also been associate director of the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Academic life

TRIPS project The TRIPS project is a long-term research to build generic technology for dialogue (both spoken and 'chat') systems, which includes natural language processing, collaborative problem solving, and dynamic context-sensitive language modeling. This is contrast with the data driven approaches by machine learning, which requires to collect and annotate corpora, i.e. training data, firstly.

PLOW agent PLOW agent is a system that learns executable task models from a single collaborative learning session, which integrates wide AI technologies including deep natural language understanding, knowledge representation and reasoning, dialogue systems, planning/agent-based systems, and machine learning. This paper won the outstanding paper award at AAAI in 2007.

Selected works

Books Allen is the author of the textbook Natural Language Understanding (Benjamin-Cummings, 1987; 2nd ed., 1995). He is also the co-author with Henry Kautz, Richard Pelavin, and Josh Tenenberg of Reasoning About Plans (Morgan Kaufmann, 1991).

Articles 2007. PLOW: A Collaborative Task Learning Agent. (with Nathanael Chambers et al) AAAI'07 won the outstanding paper award at AAAI in 2007. 2006. Chester: Towards a Personal Medication Advisor. (with N. Blaylock, et al) Biomedical informatics 39(5) 1998. TRIPS: An Integrated Intelligent Problem-Solving Assistant. (with George Ferguson) AAAI'98 1983. Maintaining Knowledge about Temporal Intervals. CACM 26, 11, 832-843

Awards and honors In 1991 he was elected as a fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (1990, founding fellow). In 1992 he became the Dessaurer Professor at Rochester.

References

External links James F. Allen's Home Page Google Scholar, h-index is 59.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with James F. Allen (computer scientist)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what James F. Allen (computer scientist) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to James F. Allen (computer scientist) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about James F. Allen (computer scientist) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of James F. Allen (computer scientist)

In research: James F. Allen (computer scientist) appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses James F. Allen (computer scientist) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: James F. Allen (computer scientist) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, American artificial intelligence researchers, American computer scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for James F. Allen (computer scientist) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study James F. Allen (computer scientist) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what James F. Allen (computer scientist) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
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Frequently asked questions

What is James F. Allen (computer scientist) in simple terms?

Why does James F. Allen (computer scientist) matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study James F. Allen (computer scientist)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on James F. Allen (computer scientist).