News

Maseeh College Associate Dean for Research Dan Hammerstrom, in collaboration with HRL Laboratories, the University of Southern California (USC), and Boston University, received $1.36 million in funding from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) for a project entitled BICA-LEAP—Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architecture for Integrated Learning, Action and Perception. The Phase 1 contract began December 1, 2005 and extends through December 31, 2006.

BICA-LEAP is a novel neuroscience-inspired comprehensive architecture that seamlessly integrates perception, memory, planning, decision-making, action, self-learning, and affect to address the full range of human cognition.

BICA-LEAP also integrates learning mechanisms, adaptively timed neural circuits and reinforcement-learning based neural circuits, that model emotional and motivational drives to explain various cognitive processes including reasoning, planning and action. Several Brain Operating Principles (BOPs) provide the architecture with the ability to control a flexible repertoire of cognitive behaviors most relevant to the task at hand. These characteristics are realized using an inherently nonlinear and parallel architecture and offer a powerful alternative to the probabilistic and linear models of traditional Artificial Intelligence based systems.

The principal investigator (PI) on the project is Dr. Deepak Khosla, HRL Laboratories (formerly Hughes Research Lab). Co-PIs include Drs. Suhas Chelian and Narayan Srinivasa, HRL; Professors Michael Arbib and Laurent Itti, USC; Professor Stephen Grossberg, Boston University; and Associate Dean Dan Hammerstrom, PSU.

The goal of Phase 1 is to design and specify an architecture. Phase 2, which has been proposed but not yet funded, would begin when Phase 1 ends and would extend over several years. Phase 2 will involve the actual implementation of the architecture and its use in a real application. The application has not been determined but will be similar to the Grand Challenge 2005 that DARPA ran in Death Valley, in which autonomous (driver-less) cars had to negotiate a 100-mile course.

Dan Hammerstrom, in addition to 10 computer science faculty members, moved from Oregon Health & Science University’s OGI School of Science & Engineering to PSU’s Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science in fall 2004. As associate dean for research, he is charged with increasing the level and sophistication of research activity at the Maseeh College, as well as tech transfer to industry in both licensing of technology and spinning off new companies. One important focus area is in increasing nanotechnology research; he is actively involved with the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, ONAMI.

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Source:
Dan Hammerstrom (503-725-5125)
Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science