CSCE 475/875

Topic Summary Assignment 12:

Learning in Multiagent Systems:

Communication and Learning

Assigned: November 12, 2007

Due: 10:30 a.m. November 19, 2007

(Assignment 5 minutes late will not be accepted)

Summary

This summary is required to have the following sections:

· an overview of the topic – motivations and underlying principles, etc.,

· a list of praises: a description of what you think are the important/useful aspects of the topic,

· a list of critiques: a description of what you think are the weaknesses of the topic,

· a list of wishes: what areas of the topic do you think that should be improved,

· a list of questions on material that you did not understand from the lectures and textbook,

· a response to the stupid question.

NOTE: These lists should be about the topic, not about the way the topic is presented in the class.

Some ideas: What is the relationship between communication and learning? Learning to Communicate? Communicate to Learn?

Stupid Questions

Dance performers or team sports athletes often train rigorously in order to establish among them a non-communicative teamwork: A knowing exactly when, what, and how B is going to do something, and knowing exactly that B also knows when, what, and how A is going to respond. This saves time and also reduces communication traffic. Usually, to learn how to achieve this kind of teamwork, the team communicates among itself over time through a lot of practice sessions. Now, the stupid question is: It seems that these teams are learning to eliminate communication, but at the same time, they communicate in order to learn. What if they are not allowed to communicate to begin with? Will they still be able to achieve non-communicative teamwork? Explain.

Requirement

You are required to use the software I-MINDS to carry out this collaborative writing activity. There is a limit on the number of words allowed for this assignment: 750 words. Summaries not satisfying this requirement will not be graded. Your topic summary will be graded based on: (1) 10% Overview, (2) 15% Praises, (3) 15% Critiques, (4) 15% Wishes, (5) 15% Questions, (6) 10% Response to Stupid Question, (7) 10% Grammar and Errors, and (8) 10% Requirements.

Your individual assignment score will be graded according to that outlined in the course syllabus.