E-Day

Today was E-Day (Engineering Day) on Auburn's Campus. Middle and high school students and either their parents or their teachers from all over Alabama were here to learn more about engineering. The person who usually handles E-Day for our department was out of town today so I was in charge...I set everything up last night, she had arranged for volunteers, I just made sure they had something to do. Of course, I enjoyed visiting with families, but even better than that, I had a chance to visit with faculty and other ISE students. I think the event was a success for everyone involved.

Snow Again

It's snowing again. I didn't notice a prediction of snow, but I really didn't pay much attention to news last night. At least I don't need to be on campus until 3:00 today. I can sit here in my La-Z-Boy with the heater at my feet, look out the window and study. I didn't do well on my linear programming quiz. I wasn't surprised, but I have an uphill climb now. I must learn how to budget my time better. I'm spending too much time on the optimization class, because I'm really enjoying it.

So far in the optimization class, we've solved problems using simulated annealing, genetic algorithms and evolutionary algorithms. This week we begin studying Tabu search. This one is characterized by a list of tabu partial solutions. Yes, tabu, in that they are frowned upon. It uses a somewhat thoughtful process to decide whether to accept a generated solution. I had to laugh at the documentation since it reminded me of the jokes about aging. Here are some of the things to consider when implementing this one:

• Recency (short term memory) "how recently was I here?"
• Frequency (long term memory) "how often have I been here?"
• Quality (aspiration) "how good is being here?"
• Influence (aspiration) "how far away am I from where I have just been?"

And, the aspiration aspects can override the memory aspects. You can decide that it is so good being here, that you don't care if you've been here a lot and it really isn't a good place to be, you're going anyway. I can't wait to write this program!! But, I have to work on linear programming first.

Huge flakes of snow! I can't believe it. So far it isn't sticking, but if it keeps up like this, it might. I'm surprised AU hasn't emailed me to say the campus is closed. Maybe they don't know.

Good news!

Good news! Haluk is out of the hospital and on the road to recovery. As a result of his accident and several others during 2009, Auburn is working to improve lighting along Magnolia Avenue where Haluk was hit. I was there Tuesday night and they have put up temporary spot lights to shine on the crosswalks until permanent lighting can be designed and installed. This morning the crosswalks had all been freshly painted with reflective white paint. There is an article in the Plainsman (college newspaper) about how critical the issue is to Auburn, both the university and the town. It is good to be in a town where necessary changes are made promptly.

All of my school commitments this week have been met. Economics homework, linear programming test, Genetic Algorithm computer programming homework and Power Point presentation of a scholarly journal paper have all been accomplished. I do not feel very good about any of the results. I've yet to re-learn how to study for recall and I'm still frustrated with the two steps forward and four+ steps backward in catching up to where I should be to take these classes. You'd think that would not be much of a problem since I have nothing else to do, but it is. This week I spent no less than 12-16 hours per day on all of this work and it wasn't enough. I suppose that by the end of the summer I'll be caught up, but, I'll also be finished!

Having a nice glass of wine before beginning the coding of my Evolutionary Algorithm computer program, due Thursday.

Two down, two to go

I just finished the Bruster's hot fudge sundae that I had to reward myself. I turned in my Econ homework-5 double spaced pages of useless information and I finished a 23-slide Power Point presentation about designing a super structure using Evolutionary Strategy Design Algorithm. I was going to link this blog to the paper I'm presenting, but it is only available for purchase unless you're an Auburn student. The Evolutionary Strategy Design Algorithm is based on evolution. In a nutshell, you initiate a population of solutions to a problem (like minimizing a function) and through mutation and some other strategies and complications along the way you create generations of better solutions while keeping the population constant by "culling" less robust solutions. It's really very interesting. I've written two programs in Matlab using Genetic Algorithm, which is similar. One of the programs is to take 25 cities and their latitudes and longitudes, find the best(minimize distance between cities and hubs) 2 hubs among them and assign each city to a hub. Next week I write an ESDA. I was up until 3am this morning tweaking the program. One of the "two to go" is to write up the results of this homework--due Thursday. Also due Thursday is my first quiz. It's in linear programming . Hopefully I'll have some time to study tomorrow.

Pictures from Mardi Gras are great! Thanks Brenda and Allan. I'm sorry I missed it! I was asked by one of my teachers to explain to the foreign students in our class what Mardi Gras is. How do you do that??? I ended my explanation by telling them that my husband was probably walking down the street in the middle of New Orleans drinking milk punch--it was 9:30. I think maybe they got it at that point. I'm planning to be in New Orleans this weekend--I REALLY need a break.

Valentine's Day

I've been so busy trying to get a computer program to work that I forgot it was Valentine's Day until a dozen roses arrived from Allan. They are beautiful and, thankfully, he remembered to include a vase. I had to move the lava lamp to the floor to accommodate the flowers on my piece of furniture. They make me smile each time I look up. I just hope Coma doesn't get lost on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. The lava lamp is her nightlight.

I finally (why did I wait so long) switched from trying to use Java to using Matlab for the genetic algorithm solution to the QAP (Quadratic Assignment Problem). I think I've described the problem before. Apparently, we get to try solving the same problem in every technique we study. I have finished the programming part of the problem. I'll wait until I'm more fresh to manipulate the parameters and write my report. Now, I have to start again with problem number 2. This time, I'll start with Matlab. But, first I have to figure out what Euclidean distance is. This is the way everything starts--I do a lot of backtracking.

In case you're curious, this is what Wikipedia says about Euclidean Distance: In mathematics, the Euclidean distance or Euclidean metric is the "ordinary" distance between two points that one would measure with a ruler, and is given by the Pythagorean formula. By using this formula as distance, Euclidean space (or even any inner product space) becomes a metric space. The associated norm is called the Euclidean norm. Older literature refers to the metric as Pythagorean metric.

Snow Day

Auburn University sent me an alert, both on my email and through my phone yesterday to say that the school would be closed today because of the "winter weather warning." So, I'm studying here and watching the snow fall. I'll keep you posted as the day progresses.

9:14 Started snowing.

9:49 Snow is beginning to stick, but it isn't stopping the squirrels and birds from visiting

my feeders

12:42 It's really piling up now. This is the backyard.

3:45 Walking Coma was a challenge. The lawn next door where we usually walk was about 4 or 5 inches deep in snow. She stepped on it and quickly back-peddled. We ended up crossing the street to an area with trees overhanging and less snow.

Pictures don't do justice to nature's beauty. These trees are so beautiful. The contrast of the snow piled on top of the branches and the branches themselves is incredible. It's not snowing right now and the snow is starting to melt. But, soon the temperature will drop and it will really be dangerous. It's 34 right now and expected to drop into the 20's this evening. I could use some boots!

Alvin

It's 26 degrees this morning--cold again. But, I'd rather have freezing and clear than just cold and damp. Yesterday I walked to class in the rain and when I got there my blue jeans were wet from just above the knees down to my shoes and they were wet too. I was cold and damp for about 2 hours before they dried out. My backpack and everything in it escaped the rain thanks to my raingear. I may go to Kinnucan's to look for a rain suit or rain pants or something as an upgrade. I doubt this will be the last rainy morning of my adventure.

Dr. Smith returned our graded homework yesterday and I got 95/100. Hurray! All of the hard work really does pay off and I am learning. Mardi Gras day I have both economics and adaptive optimizations homework due and then Thursday of the same week I have a linear programming quiz and a presentation to make in adaptive optimization. That is a lot to do, but I've kept up with all of the reading and I've already completed the economics homework--I just need to write it up formally on the computer.

I'm watching the cutest chipmunk on my bird feeder. His little cheeks are filled with seeds and he keeps shoveling them in anyway! Is that cute, or what?

Genetic algorithms

I spent the weekend, again, studying. In addition to economics problems and reading and linear programming problems and reading, I've read 5 scholarly articles about genetic algorithms. This is the second optimization method we've studied; the first was simulated annealing. For example: A company is building a manufacturing plant and needs to decide how to physically place the stages of assembly on the plant floor. They know the overall size of the plant floor and each stage that needs to be placed on the floor. They also know how much interaction needs to take place between each stage and the amount of floor space that should be between each stage. The task is to design the plant floor so that it optimizes the interaction and distance between the stages. A similar example involves chip layout...how to put all of the components on a silicon chip so that they fit and the amount of wire needed to connect them appropriately is minimized. There are many similar problems in many different circumstances. This is called a quadratic assignment problem and is notoriously difficult to solve, particular when the size of the problem is large--hundreds of manufacturing stages or components. Both simulated annealing and genetic algorithms have been used to optimize these problems.

A genetic algorithm is based on the biology of genetics. Very simply--parent chromosomes (feasible solutions to the problem) combine to create children with different chromosomes (additional feasible solutions to the problem). The population is tested for fitness (how well the solutions optimize) and some members of the population are eliminated. There are different ways for the parents to mate, ways to mutate offspring, different ways to assess fitness and many other parameters that are manipulated to better ensure an optimal solution.

It is quite interesting. Now, I have the challenge of writing a computer program to use this strategy to solve a particular problem. This homework is due February 16. One of the things I'm trying to re-learn is budgeting my time so that I don't fall behind in anything. Unfortunately, I am finding that Allan's right, I'm not very good at budgeting!

WHO DAT!

THE SAINTS WON THE SUPERBOWL!

Walking in the rain

It was another rainy day here so I walked to campus for the last TALONS student recruitment day and took a long way home through the Cary Woods neighborhood. There were robins everywhere. Those red-breasted birds are seen in flocks in open areas often looking for worms and bugs on the ground. The creeks in the neighborhood were flowing nicely and the sound of water was everywhere. When I walk, I often pass a house with a trailer parked in the driveway advertising Auburn Unicyclists. Today when I walked by someone came out with a baby in his arms. I said hello and it turns out he teaches unicycling at the Dean Road Rec Center. He tells me he's taught plenty of adults to ride unicycles so I'm going to sign up for the spring session. I've wanted to ride a unicycle ever since Brett and I visited Harvey Mudd College for the first time and saw all of those students riding unicycles around campus.

I wish it were easier to get home; I'd love to be in New Orleans this weekend to celebrate the Saints in the Superbowl. I voted by absentee ballot for the mayor's race, but I understand that the Saints have completely overshadowed that event. I'll be watching the game with my friend's 86-year old mother. She likes football and is fun to be with--clever, witty and happy. She's written several self-published books of poetry and an autobiography and she draws and paints for fun...a good role model for me. I'll be studying the rest of the weekend; I have a lot of reading to do before Tuesday.

Haluk

Last night a post-doctoral student in our department was hit by a car near our building. He has a head injury and is in Intensive Care in an Atlanta hospital. He's conscious so that's good, but this incident has everyone in the department in a funk. Haluk received his doctorate this fall and is hopefully planning to return to his native, Turkey in March. I wish him well.

Raingear

It was misty with occasional showers this morning during my regular routine of walking Coma, feeding the birds (and squirrels), eating breakfast and watching Morning Joe. When it was time to get dressed I decided it was too wet to ride my bike so I'd walk. I put on my running shoes, blue jeans and a light turtleneck, duct taped the holes that Coma has put in my bright yellow Mickey Mouse poncho and put it on over my backpack. I topped it all off with the rain hat I got for fishing in Alaska. I got some interesting looks on my walk to campus, but everything in my backpack is dry.

I guess I'll never learn to say, "No!" I've agreed to be the "local chair" of an international conference on Evolutionary Computation at the New Orleans Ritz Carlton in June of 2011. Dr. Smith (ISE Department chair and my Adaptive Optimization teacher) said she'd had a difficult time finding anyone in New Orleans to be a local presence. She spoke with Tulane and found that they had eliminated most of their engineering programs after Katrina. She spoke with UNO and found that they did not have anyone interested in evolutionary computation. She asked if I'd consider helping. Of course, I said "Yes," thinking how hard can that be? Today I got an email asking for a digital picture and the link to my personal website for the convention website and I realize this may be a really big deal. I won't worry about this today; I'll think about it later...I finished Gone with the Wind on my Ipod on the way back here from New Orleans.