Dr. Anthony G. Francis, Jr.
Curriculum Vitae
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Physical Address |
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Internet |
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5 King's Tavern
Place Atlanta, GA
30332-0280 Phone (404)
351-4574 |
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i-n-f-o_at_dresan_dot_com http://www.dresan.com/francis/ |
Objectives
I study human and other minds to aid in the design and construction of intelligent machines and emotional robots, and pass on the fruits of this research program through teaching, advising, and software development.
Research Areas
Artificial intelligence, specializing in memory, information retrieval, planning, agents, knowledge representation, and natural language understanding; cognitive psychology; emotion; animal cognition; robotic control; Internet search technologies; and human-computer interaction.
Education
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ph.D. in Computer Science (summer 2000)
n Thesis: “Context-Sensitive Asynchronous Memory” A theory of memory retrieval that achieves performance by interleaving retrieval and reasoning and using feedback from reasoning to guide memory search.
n Thesis Supervisor: Ashwin Ram
n Committee: Janet Kolodner, Ashok Goel, Kurt Eiselt, Nancy Nersessian
n Minor: Cognitive Psychology; Certificates: Cognitive Science
Masters of Science in Computer Science (fall 1996)
B.S. in Information and Computer Science (spring 1991)
n With Highest Honor
Honors and Awards
U.S. Air Force Laboratory Graduate Fellow (1992-1995)
n 3-year fellowship awarded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research
n Sponsored by Human Resources Laboratory, Brooks AFB, Texas.
n Mentor: Dr. Mike Spector, AL/HRTI, Brooks AFB.
National Merit Scholarship (1987-1991)
Dow Chemical Corporation Sophomore Award (1988)
n Awarded to the outstanding sophomore student in Chemistry.
Professional Experience
Police Central Incorporated Atlanta, Georgia
Senior Software Developer fall 2001—present
n Developed file transfer protocol suite for client-server data transmission
n Developed NIBRS incident-based reporting system output modules
Enkia Corporation Atlanta, Georgia
VP of Research and Development fall 1998-summer 2001
n Inventor of IRIA, an intelligent information management and recommendation system based on my Ph.D. work in context-sensitive asynchronous memory
n Principal Investigator on SBIR Phase I and II grants with Air Force Research Labs and Department of Education totaling $850,000
n As part of management team closed angel and Series A investment rounds totaling $2,250,000.
n Developed original IRIA core in Lisp and participated in development of commercial IRIA engine in cross-platform Java
n Managed research and development efforts, including proposal, paper and patent writing
n Managed intellectual property, legal, and corporate secretarial issues
n Co-Founded Enkia with Ashwin Ram (CEO) and Mark Devaney (VP of Product Development)
Yamaha Motor Corporation Iwata, Shizuoka, Japan
Visiting Researcher summer 1998
n Joint research with Yamaha Motor Corporation to present and extend the results of Georgia Tech’s Personal Pet (Pepe).
n Designed an emotional long-term memory control system for a robot pet
n Implemented the system in both simulation and on a robot
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Research Assistant fall 1997-current
n Worked with Ashwin Ram, Irfan Essa, and Juan Carlos Santamaria on the Personal Pet (Pepe) project
n Designed emotional model for an artificial pet based on current psychological research and robot control theory
n Advised and managed junior research assistants on the Pepe project.
SRI International Menlo Park, CA
Student Associate summer 1997
n Worked with Marie desJardins and Michael Wolverton on the Joint Maritime Crisis Action Planning (JMCAP) project
n Designed and implemented Patton, a case-based extension to the SIPE-2 planner.
Freelance
Consultant 1995-present
n Consulted with the Emory University ELITE Project on applications of AI technology to the Web (1995)
n Consulted with the Virtual Design Group on applications of AI technology to virtual reality (1995-1996)
Carnegie-Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA
Research Internship summer 1996
n Worked with Manuela Veloso to apply the experience-based agency theory to PRODIGY/ANALOGY
n Developed PRODIGY/ANALOGY load utility system.
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Research Assistant fall 1997
n Worked with Ashwin Ram on the Introspective Multistrategy Reasoning project.
n Participated in system design; participated heavily in the writing of grant proposals and project reports.
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
Research Assistant/Programmer 1991-1992
n Member of the Science Education Project design team
n Developed CLIM-based editor for case entry in the SciEd system.
The 16th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society Atlanta, GA
Chair, Animal Cognition Symposium summer 1994
n Organized and conducted the Animal Cognition Symposium.
Graphic Designer
n Designed and printed event tickets and proceedings stubs.
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA
HTML Designer 1994-1996
n Designed home pages for Artificial Intelligence (1994, 1996), Cognitive Science (1994, 1996), and Edutech (1994)
n Maintained AI/Cognitive Science Web Site (1994-1996)
Teaching and Advising
Collegiate-Level Instruction
CS3361: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence fall 1995
n Solo instructor for a junior-level core course with enrollment of 60.
n Redesigned Georgia Tech’s AI course to fit a new textbook (Russel & Norvig 1995) which is now standard
n Prepared and graded all examinations and designed HTML course notes
CS7342: Knowledge Structures for AI spring 1994
n Guest instructor on case-based reasoning and the PROTOS system.
Advising
Advisor, Research Project fall 1997
n Advised a junior graduate student on implementing emotion models for the the Pepe artificial pet project
Advisor, Research Project winter 1997
n Advised a graduate student on independent study to implement new planning domains in the Nicole/MPA system.
Supervisor, Research Project spring-fall 1996
n Supervised an undergraduate on a multi-quarter research project to develop a customized AI simulation and integrate it with the Nicole system.
Supervisor, Special Projects winter 1996
n Supervised an undergraduate on a quarter-long research project on interactive storytelling systems as part of a consulting project with the Virtual Design Group.
Supervisor, Summer Internship summer 1995
n Supervised an undergraduate on a summer internship to implement a course registration advisor in the Nicole system.
Selected Publications
Invited Publications
n Ram, A. & Francis, A.G. (1996) Multi-plan adaptation and retrieval in an experience-based agent. In David Leake, Ed., Case-Based Reasoning: Experiences, Lessons, Future Directions. MIT Press.
n Francis, A.G. (1995) “Sibling Rivalry.” (fiction) The Leading Edge: Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 30. Provo, Utah.
Reviewed Publications
n Francis, A.G., Devaney, M., Ram, A. & Santamaria, J.C. (2001) Scaling Spreading Activation for Production Information Retrieval. In Arabina, H.R., (Ed.) Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence IC-AI’2000, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 26-29, 2000. CSREA Press.
n Francis, A.G., Ram, A., and Devaney, M. (2000). IRIA: The Information Research Intelligent Assistant. In Arabina, H.R., (Ed.) Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence IC-AI’2000, Las Vegas, Nevada, June 26-29, 2000. CSREA Press.
n Ram, P., Francis, A., Devaney, M., & Ram, A. (2000). Virtual Sherlock: an intelligent computer based PBL system for undergraduate chemistry. In Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Problem-Based Learning in Higher Education, Linköping, Sweden, September 17-20, 2000.
n desJardins, M., Francis, A.G., & Wolverton, M. (1998) Hybrid Planning: An approach to integrating generative and case-based planning. In Case-Based Reasoning Integrations: Proceedings from the 1998 AAAI Workshop, AAAI Technical Report WS-98-15, AAAI Press, 1998.
n Francis, A.G. & Ram, A. (1997) Can your architecture do this? A proposal for impasse-driven asynchronous memory retrieval and integration. In Proceedings of the AAAI-97 Workshop on Robots, Softbots and Immobots: Theories of Action, Planning and Control.
n Francis, A.G. & Ram, A. (1995) Multi-plan adaptation and retrieval in an experience-based agent. In Proceedings, AAAI 1995 Fall Symposium on Adaptation of Knowledge For Reuse.
n Francis, A.G. & Ram, A. (1995) A Comparative Utility Analysis of Case-Based Reasoning and Control-Rule Problem Solving. In Proceedings of ECML-95: the 8th European Conference on Machine Learning.
n Francis, A.G., & Ram, A. (1993) Computational models of the utility problem and their application to a utility analysis of case-based reasoning. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Knowledge Compilation and Speedup Learning (KCSL 93), June 30, 1993
n Francis, A.G., & Ram, A. (1993) The Utility Problem in Case-Based Reasoning. Abstracted in Case-Based Reasoning: Papers from the 1993 Workshop, July 11-12, Washington, D.C., Technical Report WS-93-01, AAAI Press.
Interests and activities
Science Fiction Author (1987-present)
n Published short story: “Sibling Rivalry”, The Leading Edge (30) 1995.
n Currently working on several novels and short stories
Artist / Creative Videographer (1985-present)
n Computer Skills: 2D, 3D, digital retouching, web graphics, HTML
n Primary Media: pencil/charcoal, pastel, oils
n Other media: videography, video editing
Emory University Voice (1990-1991)
n Senior staff for Emory University’s current events newspaper
n National News Editor 1990, Managing Editor 1991
n Wrote articles translated for college newspaper in Soviet Union
Martial Arts
n Purple belt in Taido under Andy Fossett / Mits Uchida
n 3rd-degree brown belt in Tae Kwon Do under Billy Hong