Brian Michael Slator

The Computational Linguistics research involves analyzing on-line dictionary texts for the purpose of automatically constructing knowledgebases for AI systems. This work was done in collaboration with Dr. Yorick Wilks at the New Mexico State University Computing Research Laboratory, a leading AI center, and was funded by the National Science Foundation. This research is principally concerned with word sense disambiguation and the representation of lexical and semantic relations and led to the publication of the definitive survey of that area: Electric Words: Dictionaries, Computers and Meanings, published by MIT Press in 1996.

The Case-based Reasoning research is primarily involved with the design and development of multimedia applications for education. This work was done at the direction of Dr. Roger Schank at the Northwestern University Institute for the Learning Sciences and was principally funded by Andersen Consulting and Ameritech Corporation. This research involved taking a leading role in the development of ASK-System technology, story retrieval systems for education and performance support, multi-user virtual environments for educational games, and software tools for building AI systems.

Currently at North Dakota State University, Dr. Slator pursues an integrated research program that concentrates on multi-user virtual environments, software agents for intelligent tutoring, and tools for building educational media which has culminated in the publication of his second book, Electric Worlds in the Classroom by Teachers College Press in 2006.

Dr. Slator's work is principally supported by the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Education.