I finally have a date for my Thesis defense: September 12, 2007 (give or take one week depending on the other commitments of the Jury). The tentative title of my thesis is:
Knowledge Based Systems for the Assessment of Scoliosis Severity
In the thesis, I describe my research on image and data analysis using machine learning for the development of clinical applications. More details are forthcoming …
Cheers,
Lino
I am starting to think about programming systems for kids. My son is 4 years old now. He likes to play with the computer, just like his dad. He also started to like the text editors I used when writing programs, specially because the colour of the words change depending on the combination of keys he presses. He is learning to read and write and I guess that he will be soon ready to start learning something more serious than playing Tux Racer. This brings me to the topic of this post, I recently read an article in the O’Reilly Radar about programming systems for kids. The comments for that post are including some good references, I will start checking in the near future. However, I would like to get other opinions. So, do you now of any programming system for kids that you would recommend? If so, please, tell me in the comments.
Cheers,
Lino
I know I have not updated this Blog in a while but I am back! The last couple of months, I have been quite busy improving my Perl programming skills and learning to use the Perl Data Language (PDL). In the coming posts, I will share my experience using the PDL.
Cheers,
Lino
By the way, my experience level in the Monastery is growing faster than I expected. So far I have 303 XP (experience points) that puts me in level 6 (Scribe). I know it is just a game but it is nice to see how people are interested in my posts. In particular, considering that I am writing mainly about fuzzy logic, granular computing and the like.
Peace!
Lino
General Introduction: from information granules to granular computing; applications: image processing, data mining, signals processing, etc.; common frameworks for Granular Computing: Interval Analysis, Fuzzy Sets, Rough Sets; and finding information granules in a Fuzzy Sets framework.
Plan for a Granular Computing Module: here I present what modules are needed in Perl to write a Granular Computing Module. My idea is that we should create several (small?) modules and combine them to create the Granular Computing module. For instance, we could have a Fuzzy Sets Module (there are already some modules in CPAN related to Fuzzy Sets, so our task would be to chose one and improve it), a Rough Sets Module, an Interval Analysis Module, and a Clustering Module (I already wrote a Fuzzy C-Means script, I certainly would be happy writing all the scripts needed in this area). Our Granular Computing Module would call on these modules and add some additional functionalities. The advantage of doing it this way is that if someone is interested only on an individual module (Fuzzy Sets, Interval Analysis, etc.) that person would not need to use the whole Granular Computing Module. Moreover, I expect it to be easier to maintain smaller modules. The only problem I see with this idea is related to dependences. In any case, I guess that I will be writing a lot of Perl code this coming year 😉
The last point on this post is related to the 4th World Forum on Free Knowledge. This Forum will take place in Maturin, Venezuela from October 17 to October 21, 2006. In the Forum, I will be giving a talk titled: Open Science: Utopia or Reality? In this talk, I describes what is needed to have a truly open science, muse on whether Open Science is attainable, and present some guidelines to help us make it a reality. In the Forum, I will also give a tutorial on Image Analysis using Free and Open Source Software. The tutorial focus on my research in using Granular Computing for image analysis. I will describe my experience with the ITK and the Perl’s AI::FuzzyInference module in my quest for finding a way to help content experts in analyzing images. I will post more on that later.
Peace!
Lino
#!/usr/bin/perl
use LifeMission::Live;
use File::Find;
@Life::ISA = qw(Short_Journey);
do {
find(&your_call, @in_life) and live $it;
}
Lino
As I mentioned before, I asked my fellow Perl Monks for leads on Granular Computing Implementations using Perl. So far, I have not had any luck 😦 On the bright side, the question bumped up my experience (XP) points and now I have 39 points (11 points away from achieving the next Perl Monks’ category -Acolyte). The node was also displayed on the PerlMonks‘ home page on September 25.
I will give it a week, if I do not get any lead on Granular Computing with Perl, I will start planing the coding of a CPAN module.
Peace!
Lino
In this node, I asked for help in locating Granular Computing implementations using Perl. I am still waiting for some leads in that sense (I hope to find someone else working on that to share experiences). If you know about any implementation, I would love to hear about it, so, please, drop me a line.
By the way, I guess that people liked the idea of a Granular Computing implementation in Perl. Maybe because of that they rated so well my node (It was one of the 10 best rated nodes of September 24, 2006). Also, on September 24, I went from 4 XP points to 23 XP points (XP is a number used to rate the Perl Monks‘ experience) moving me from the 1st category (Initiate) to the 2nd one (Novice). I guess that it is not bad for someone that has been programming in Perl for less than two months.
Peace!
Lino
I am back from Europe. I spent the last 15 days in there on vacation. I also attended a conference of the International Research Society on Spinal Deformities (IRSSD 2006) where I presented a couple of papers on my research.
In this trip, I visited France (Paris and Caen), Spain (Barcelona), and Belgium (Brussels, Bruges, and Ghent). From the cities I visited, the one I liked the most was Barcelona. It has an amazing architecture and it has a life on its own.
I will comment on the trip later on. Now, I have to get back to answering e-mails and doing research
Lino
This trip to Montreal went much better than I expected, even tough it did not started on the right track. I tried to use the web check-in system from Air Canada and I could not figure out why it did not work. Then, I had some things to do before leaving home and I arrived late to the airport. I got there 35 minutes before my flight. I tried to use the automated check-in counter but it did not work either. After a while, a person from Air Canada told me I had to do the manual check-in. I waited in line and when I arrived to the counter there were 25 minutes before my flight and the person in the counter told me that I could not flight because I was too late (at that time I missed West Jet, their personnel always try to help you instead of making it hard for you). Well, I paid the CAD $ 150 for the change and went through security. After security I noticed that they were calling for the general boarding of the flight I was supposed to take. I waited patiently and ask one of the persons at the Air Canada counter whether the flight was full and she told me that it was not. I ask her whether I could take the flight and told her what happened to which she simply replied that it is Air Canada policy, I have to check-in at least 30 minutes before the flight or they simply do no let me flight. I guess there is only room for only one Airline like WestJet in Canada where the passengers are priority number 1.
Anyway, I arrived in Montreal and went to the Residences of the University of Montreal where I was going to stay. Everything was ok with the room. On Sunday morning, I went to the conference venue and attended several talks: the opening talk by Prof. Zadeh, the father of Fuzzy Logic, a talk by my previous supervisor, Prof. Pedrycz, a world-expert on Granular Computing, and some others. At noon I had a chance of having lunch from a couple of representatives from Decyde Inc., they are using fuzzy rules based system for automating the decision-making process in different areas.
During the afternoon, I attended a second plenary talk and I was surprised to know that my paper was selected as one of the top-five students papers. So I was invited to the banquet to receive my award (a nice certificate and a US$ 100 check). Later that afternoon, I gave my talk and it was well received. I had lots of questions and people wanted to continue commenting and discussing our approach 😉
In the evening, I went to the Ubuntu release party at the Cafe L'Utopik. I met really nice people, several employees from Canonical (the organization behind Ubuntu) and Fabian Rodriguez from FACIL (a group that promotes Free Software in Quebec). Fabian invited me to visit the FACIL headquarters and I agreed with that. Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I had to attend the banquet (remember, to get my US$ 100 cheque 😉 ).
I went to the banquet and sit with a Prof. from Regina and one from the Canadian East Coast. The dinner was great and the company was too.
After the banquet, I went back to the residence to rest and prepare for Monday. Monday morning, I went to the conference again, attended a couple of talks and then I went to meet with the Venezuelan General Consul. We talked about Free Software and what we are doing in Venezuela to promote it. The General Consul is a person really committed to help Free Software becoming part of Venezuela's reality. His radio station is the one you can see in the video Free Software: Venezuelan Chapter that I promoted some time ago. After meeting with the General Consul, I had a meeting with one of the Consuls and I had lunch with him. These guys at the Venezuelan Consulate really understand Free Software and the social implications of it.
After my meetings at the Venezuelan Consulate, I went back to the conference venue. There, I attended a couple of talks and later I went to meet with the people of FACIL. I had a wonderful time thanks to Marc Angles and Fabian Rodriguez. They did a small interview in which I explained what is happening in Venezuela with the discussions for the new Free Software Bill.
Fabian gave me a ride back to the residence around midnight.
On Tuesday morning, I came back to Edmonton. I arrived in the Afternoon. And I have been spending most of the time trying to find accommodations in Europe where we go this weekend. Wish me luck!
Lino
Intelligent Data Analysis 
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