Current research projects

• Semantic cognitive mapping of natural language (with G.A. Ascoli)

• NeuroNavigator: A biologically inspired cognitive microcircuit (with G.A. Ascoli, supported by DARPA DSO SYNAPSE)

• A Pilot Study to Assess the Critical Components of a Transformative Self-Regulated Learning Assistant (with K.A. De Jong, A. Kitsantas and N. Dabbagh, supported by the Center for Consciousness and Transformation, George Mason University)

Selected recent research projects

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

• 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, supported by NINDS, NIMH and NSF)

Other scientific interests

• Comparative analysis and future development of biologically-inspired cognitive architectures

• Modeling formation of the grid cell network in rodent medial entorhinal cortex

• Theory and applications of continuous-attractor neural networks storing multiple multi-dimensional cognitive maps

Example talks

• TowardA Metacognitive Architecture that Supports Human-Like Learning. Talk at TSC 2010 (download PowerPoint slide show with synchronous live sound record): Tucson, Arizona, April 12-17, 2010

• Why BICA is Necessary for AGI?   A short talk at AGI-09 (March 7, 2009)

• Attractor Map Theory of the Entorhino-Hippocampal Spatial Code Phenomenon (invited lecture given in the University of Maryland on December 3, 2008)

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

Recent (co-)organized events

• BICA-2010: Washington, D.C., November 13-14, 2010 (conference co-Chair)

• BICA-2009: Washington, D.C., November 5-7, 2009 (Symposium Chair)

• BICA-2008: Washington, D.C., November 7-9, 2008 (Symposium Chair)

• AAAI 2008 Workshop on Metareasoning: Discussion of Models of Self (Panel Chair)

• AGI-08: Memphis, TN (Organizing Committee member)

• 2008 Northern Virginia Regional Brain Bee: A neuroscience contest for grades 9 – 12 (Session and Referee Board Chair)

Teaching

Journal cover awards

Selected links

• Always remembering Tucson...
   
• Becoming a US citizen (2004)