James A.(Jim) Mason
Professor Emeritus
of Computer Science and Senior Scholar
- Email:
-
I have retired from teaching to devote more time to my
research. For matters regarding the Computer Science degree
programs please see the Department
of Computer Science and Engineering web site.
My research involves natural-language understanding --
specifically, writing software to understand English in limited
application domains. I am continuing to develop object-oriented
software tools to create and edit English grammars in the form of
graphical networks called Augmented Syntax
Diagrams (ASDs), and to parse English
utterances with ASD grammars. Recently I have extended
the use of ASDs to implement decision networks as well as
grammars. Also, I have implemented several successive models
of English-language understanding in a domain called CardWorld. That
domain is well suited to building and testing linguistic and
cognitive models which actually work as components in simulated
conversational partners.
The tools and models are available in Java implementations,
free of charge, under an open-source Apache license. To access
them, see the ASD home page :
Here's a link to one of my favourite sites: Astronomy
Picture of the Day
This
link is to some philosophical musings of mine. Warning:
If you are offended by religious views that may differ from your
own, please use "viewer discretion" and don't read them. The
views are my own.
updated 2012 Sept. 5