Carnegie Mellon University

About: Carnegie Mellon University is a education organization based out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Robot. The organization has 36317 authors who have published 104359 publications receiving 5975734 citations. The organization is also known as: CMU & Carnegie Mellon.

Self-Improving Reactive Agents Based on Reinforcement Learning, Planning and Teaching

Abstract: To date, reinforcement learning has mostly been studied solving simple learning tasks. Reinforcement learning methods that have been studied so far typically converge slowly. The purpose of this work is thus two-fold: 1) to investigate the utility of reinforcement learning in solving much more complicated learning tasks than previously studied, and 2) to investigate methods that will speed up reinforcement learning. This paper compares eight reinforcement learning frameworks: adaptive heuristic critic (AHC) learning due to Sutton, Q-learning due to Watkins, and three extensions to both basic methods for speeding up learning. The three extensions are experience replay, learning action models for planning, and teaching. The frameworks were investigated using connectionism as an approach to generalization. To evaluate the performance of different frameworks, a dynamic environment was used as a testbed. The environment is moderately complex and nondeterministic. This paper describes these frameworks and algorithms in detail and presents empirical evaluation of the frameworks.

The Emergence of Edge Computing

Abstract: Industry investment and research interest in edge computing, in which computing and storage nodes are placed at the Internet's edge in close proximity to mobile devices or sensors, have grown dramatically in recent years. This emerging technology promises to deliver highly responsive cloud services for mobile computing, scalability and privacy-policy enforcement for the Internet of Things, and the ability to mask transient cloud outages. The web extra at www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmrZVvFtthdP3fwHPy_4d61oDvQY_RBgS includes a five-video playlist demonstrating proof-of-concept implementations for three tasks: assembling 2D Lego models, freehand sketching, and playing Ping-Pong.

A technical, economic, and environmental assessment of amine-based CO2 capture technology for power plant greenhouse gas control

Abstract: Capture and sequestration of CO2 from fossil fuel power plants is gaining widespread interest as a potential method of controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Performance and cost models of an amine (MEA)-based CO2 absorption system for postcombustion flue gas applications have been developed and integrated with an existing power plant modeling framework that includes multipollutant control technologies for other regulated emissions. The integrated model has been applied to study the feasibility and cost of carbon capture and sequestration at both new and existing coal-burning power plants. The cost of carbon avoidance was shown to depend strongly on assumptions about the reference plant design, details of the CO2 capture system design, interactions with other pollution control systems, and method of CO2 storage. The CO2 avoidance cost for retrofit systems was found to be generally higher than for new plants, mainly because of the higher energy penalty resulting from less efficient heat integration as well ...

Affect, Generalization, and the Perception of Risk.

Abstract: Experimental manipulations of affect induced by a brief newspaper report of a tragic event produced a pervasive increase in subjects' estimates of the frequency of many risks and other undesirable events. Contrary to expectation, the effect was independent of the similarity between the report arid the estimated risk. An account of a fatal stabbing did not increase the frequency estimate of a closely related risk, homicide, more than the estimates of unrelated risks such as natural hazards. An account of a happy event that created positive affect produced a comparable global decrease in judged frequency of risks. As a society, we have never been more concerned with the assessment, the management, and the regulation of risk. Because public reaction to hazards from pesticides, nuclear power, or food additives appears to influence the regulation and management of these technologies, it is important to understand how the lay person perceives and evaluates risks. This is particularly true for hazards such as terrorism, nuclear power, or genetic engineering for which the available statistical data are very limited and where the assessments of the risks are based on subjective and intuitive judgments. Indeed, psychologists and other researchers have shown increasing interest in the manner in which people perceive and estimate the severity of various risks. Lichtenstein, Slovic, Fischhoff, Layman, and Combs (1978) asked lay people to estimate the number of deaths per year that are due to various hazards. These investigators found that the subjective estimates were consistent across several methods of elicitation and correlated reasonably well (median r = .7) with actuarial estimates of frequency. A comparison of objective and subjective estimates revealed two

The structure of random utility models

Abstract: I am grateful to Joseph B. Kadane for numerous constructive suggestions offered during discussions of this research. The financial sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Transportation through grant DOT-OS-4006 is also acknowledged. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the author.