Research Projects

• Semantic cognitive mapping of natural language (with G.A. Ascoli, T.T. Sheehan and C.P. Sherrill)

• GMU BICA: an integrated self-aware cognitive architecture (with K.A. De Jong, G.A. Ascoli, M.A. Coletti, R. Lakatos, D. Sharma, T. Bhimdi)

• Cognitive constructor: An intelligent tutoring system based on a biologically inspired cognitive architecture (with K.A. De Jong, A. Kitsantas, M.L. Kalbfleisch, N.Dabbagh, E.E. Peters, and L. Schrum)

• Toward the Decade of the Mind: a scientific perspective on the hard problem of consciousness and its quantification (with H. Morowitz, K.A. De Jong, G.A. Ascoli, and M.L. Kalbfleisch)

• Statistical algorithmic description of neuronal morphology: hippocampal principal cell dendrites and axons (with G.A. Ascoli)

• Spontaneous compactification of the spatial map in a continuous attractor neural network model: a possible mechanism of the emergence of grid cells in rodent medial entorhinal cortex

• Theoretical capacity and practical applications of continuous-attractor neural networks storing multiple multi-dimensional cognitive maps

Recent talks

• Bringing consciousness to neuroscience: a computational perspective. Krasnow Monday Seminars, Fairfax, VA, February 11, 2008

• Cognitive Constructor: An Intelligent Tutoring System Based on a Biologically Inspired Cognitive Architecture (BICA). The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-08) Memphis, TN, March 1, 2008

• A Scientific Perspective on the Hard Problem of Consciousness. AGI-08 Workshop on the Sociocultural, Ethical and Futurological Implications of Artificial General Intelligence. Memphis, TN, March 3, 2008

Recent / upcoming (co-)organized events

• AAAI Fall Symposium on BICA: Washington, D.C., November 7-9, 2008

• AGI-08: Memphis, TN; AGI-09: Washington, D.C.

• 2008 Northern Virginia Regional Brain Bee: A neuroscience contest for grades 9 – 12

Teaching

Journal cover awards

Selected links

• Always remembering Tucson...
   
• Photo gallery
• Becoming a US citizen (2004)
   
• Email me from anywhere!