Artificial Intelligence Microelectronics Laboratory

 

Opened in June 1999, this is a small electronics laboratory established within the Artificial Intelligence Center to enable faculty and students to participate in research programs involving microelectronics.

In its initial configuration, the laboratory comprises two Pentium III workstations; one Sun workstation; basic electronic test, measurement, and breadboarding equipment; a universal device programmer; speech synthesis hardware and software; and circuit simulation software.

See also:
Questions and Answers about the AI Microelectronics Lab
Press release, July 1999

Research programs

  • Speech recognition and synthesis with special hardware

    This includes hands-on assignments in LING 6570 (Applied Natural Language Processing) and related courses. Several student projects are under way.

     

  • Defeasible logic on embedded microcontrollers

    Defeasible logic is a knowledge representation methodology in which specific statements automatically override general ones. It provides a convenient and concise way to describe the behavior of automatically controlled systems. Defeasible systems compiled on a Sun or PC can be used in microcontrollers as small as a PIC16F84.

    See Michael Covington's web page for preprints of research in progress.

     

  • Smart instrumentation

    The goal of this project is to deploy knowledge-based computing techniques in computers interfaced to, or built into, electronic test equipment and laboratory instruments.

    Two projects in progress for Hewlett-Packard:

    • Documenting how to do serial communication with HP instruments in various programming languages in DOS, Windows, and UNIX. This will probably include developing a Windows 95/98 DLL.
    • Developing a training exercise to teach students how to use an HP 54645D oscilloscope by examining the signals sent by a PC keyboard and figuring out the code.

    We are eager to team up with existing University of Georgia research projects that need smart instrumentation.

     

  • Robotics

    The robotics class is quickly gaining momentum and is being taught each fall by Dr. Don Potter. Several project kits are in use such as the Parallax Boe-bot, Palm Pilot Robot, and Lego Mindstorms. The design of "Archie" the UGA robot is underway.

     

  • Other electronics applications of artificial intelligence, such as interfacing to special sensors, electronic product selection, circuit design, and the like.

Initially, facilities are available for up to three or four experimenters. Although the Institute for Artificial Intelligence does not teach electrical engineering, many students arrive with an electrical engineering background, and this laboratory helps them put it to good use.

For more information contact Dr. Michael A. Covington.


Sponsors

The following corporations have provided material assistance in establishing this laboratory. Values of donations are rounded to 2 significant digits and are based on current selling price without educational discounts. If we have estimated incorrectly, please let us know!

We appreciate all assistance from industrial partners. The Institute for Artificial Intelligence has an Industrial Partners Program giving corporations access to our research and our graduates entering the job market. For more information about the Industrial Partners Program, contact Dr. Donald Nute.

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Photographs and web page design by Cathy Covington.