George E. Mobus

Education

• Ph.D. Computer Science, University of North Texas, 1994
• M.B.A. Information Systems and Management Science, San Diego State University, 1983
• B.A. Zoology, University of Washington, 1973
• Upsilon Pi Epsilon Honor society member

Professional Experience Summary

• Associate Professor, Computing and Software Systems Program, University of Washington, Tacoma, 2001 to present.
• Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Western Washington University, 1998 to 2001.
• Interim Director, Internet Studies Center, Western Washington University, 1999 to present.
• Visiting Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Western Washington University, 1995 to 1998.
• Research Scientist and Adjunct Assistant Professor, Dept. of Computer Science, Western Washington University, 1994 to 1995.
• Lecturer, Dept. of Computer Science, University of North Texas, 1989 to 1994
• Associate, Center for Research in Parallel and Distributed Computing, University of North Texas, 1990 to 1994
• Vice President, R & D, Chandas Corporation, Escondido, CA, 1987 to 1989.
• Executive Vice President & General Manager, Technetics, Inc., El Cajon, CA, 1983 to 1987.

Academic Experience

•  Courses Taught
• Undergraduate

Introduction to Computer Science, Systems Software, Data Structures, Data Communications and Internetworking, Algorithms Analysis, Systems Architecture, Mobile Autonomous Robotics
• Graduate

Pattern Recognition, Neural Networks, Survey of Computing Problems in Internetworking , Autonomous Internet Agents, Mobile Autonomous Robotics


• Achievements
• Named Mentor for 1998-99 Outstanding Graduate, Jennifer Gregor (WWU)
• Voted Outstanding Faculty, 1999-00, by the Student Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)


• Curriculum Development
  • CS1 & 2
  • Practicum in Computer Programming
  • Computer Architecture
  • Internet Studies
  • Software Engineering with Java
  • Behavior-based Robotics (using Lego's Mindstorm kits)
  • Embedded Systems design and implementation


• Undergraduate Research
  • NSF RUI IIS-9907102 Foraging Search in a Mobile Robot, supporting four undergraduate research assistants
  • Independent Studies: Personal Web Search Agent, three students


• Outreach and Development Service
  • Organized a departmental Industry Board of Advisors
  • Coordinated organization of the Internet Studies Center (WWU) with half of the funding from non-state sources
  • Coordinated receipts of scholarship funds from various companies
  • Coordinated alumni events
  • Coordinated alumni newsletter production
  • Conduct a Programming Clinic for beginning programmers in CS

Research Interests

• Computer-mediated Communications and Structured e-Discourse Systems

I became interested in the problems of supporting very large-scale electronic discourse for purposes of allowing global-scale problem solving. Several authors working on methods to solve problems such as global warming have hit on the notion of using a form of networked governance to first develop solutions to the problems and then implement those solutions. These networks of people and organizations, operating across the globe, need electronic communications support tools. Web-based approaches are not scalable in the sense that no one organization will be able to financially support the server farms needed to support thousands of participants. A peer-to-peer network built on the JXTA platform has been proposed. One of the tools in development at this time is ConsensUs, a structured discourse system that allows deliberative, collaborative discourse.
This work is just getting underway, but already four undergraduates and two graduate students have started projects to develop a proof of concept of the discourse structure using Web tools. They are producing a code base which will be placed in open-source development by the end of this academic year. I and several other students are working on porting the Web-based version to the JXTA environment.
• Real-time, on-line, life-time learning algorithms.

This work has led to the development of a learning algorithm that provides a solution to the destructive interference problem in life-long learning systems. A patent for the Adaptrode mechanism has been issued. The work was funded, in part, by Caterpillar, Inc. and the patent is held jointly with that company.
• Autonomous agents in dynamic, nonstationary environments.

I have been investigating the application of the above learning algorithm to improve the search performance of agents in highly dynamic and indeterminate environments. The research program is investigating how agents can encode causal relations between object cues and sought resources so that the cues can act as heuristic guides in future searches. Both physical and software agents have been the subject of investigations. This work has been funded, in part, by grants from Caterpillar, IBM and Ark Interfaces, a subsidiary of Packard-Bell NEC. A grant from the National Science Foundation is being used to extend the work using a robot platform.
• Applications of machine learning/AI techniques to exploratory data analysis and data mining.

This is an exploration of the use of Adaptrode-based neural networks to discover possible causal (time-delayed) correlation between variables in a hyper-variate time series.
• Object-oriented and Model-based software engineering methods in agent applications.

This work involves the use of agent models in developing interoperable, Java sensor, actuator and 'brain' objects to fit into a variety of agent architectures.

Grants and Consulting Contracts

Publications, Scholarly Works and Patents

• Mobus, G.E., (2002). Lessons Learned from MAVRIC's Brain: An Anticipatory Artificial Agent and Proto-consciousness, Computing Anticipatory Systems, D. Dubois (Ed.), in press. This paper is an expanded version of the invited talk below.
• Mobus, G.E., (2001). Lessons Learned from MAVRIC’s Brain: An Anticipatory Artificial Agent and Proto-consciousness, Invited Talk: 5th Intl. Conf. on Computing Anticipatory Systems, CASYS'01, Liege, Belgium
• Mobus, G.E., (2000). Adapting Robot Behavior to a Nonstationary Environment: A Deeper Biologically Inspired Model of Neural Processing. International Society for Optical Engineering, Photonics East, Sensor Fusion and Decentralized Control in Robotic Systems III, Boston, MA. [Refereed]
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P., (2000). Edge-of-chaos search.  In D.S. Levine, V. Brown and V.S. Shirey (Eds.), Oscillations in Neural Systems, Chapter 16, pp 309-325, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
• Mobus, G.E., (2000). Foraging Search: Prototypical Intelligence, in Computing Anticipatory Systems, D. Dubois (Ed.), American Institute of Physics 517, pp 592-605.
• Mobus, G.E., (1999). Foraging Search: Prototypical Intelligence, Invited Talk: 3rd Intl. Conf. on Computing Anticipatory Systems, Liege, Belgium, [selected as Best Paper for the Symposium].
• Mobus, G.E. and Caterpillar, Inc., (1995). A patent, #5,504,839, "Processor and Processing Element for Use in a Neural Network", has been awarded for the Adaptrode leaning mechanism and a neuromimic processor in which it is used.
• Mobus, G.E., (1994). Toward a theory of learning and representing causal inference in neural networks. In Neural Networks for Knowledge Representation and Inference, D.S. Levine and M. Aparicio (Eds.), Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
• Mobus, G.E., (1994). A multi-time scale learning mechanism for neuromimic processing. Ph.D. Dissertation (unpublished), University of North Texas, Denton, TX.
• Mobus, G.E. and Aparicio, M. (1994). Foraging agents. In Proc. Center for Advanced Systems Conf., IBM Toronto Laboratory, Toronto, Canada. [Refereed]
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P. (1994). MAVRIC's Brain. In Proc. Seventh Intl. Conf. on Industrial & Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems, Austin, TX. [Refereed]
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P. (1991). Conditioned response training of robots using adaptrode-based neural networks. In Proc. Intl. Joint Conf. on Neural Networks, IEEE & Intl. Neural Networks Society, Seattle, WA. [Refereed]
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P. (1991). Conditioned response training for robot control: I - Continuous adaptive learning. In AMSE Proc. Intl. Conf. on Neural Neworks., San Diego, CA.
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P. (1991). Conditioned response training for robot control: II - Simulation results. In AMSE Proc. Intl. Conf. on Neural Neworks., San Diego, CA.
• Mobus, G.E. and Fisher, P. (1990). The adaptrode neuristor: a spatio-temporal memory encoding mechanism for neurocomputing. Techical Report CRPDC-90-5, University of North Texas, Dept. of Computer Science, Denton, TX.
• Mobus, G.E. (1990). The adpatrode learning model: applications in neural network computing. Techical Report CRPDC-90-6, University of North Texas, Dept. of Computer Science, Denton, TX.
• Mobus, G.E. (1983). A cybernetic model for use in the development of formal information systems. Master's Thesis (unpublished), San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.
• Mobus, G.E. (1982). The hierarchical control model basis for structured analysis. In, Proc. Joint National Meeting, ORSA and IMS., San Diego, CA. [Refereed]
• Mobus, G.E. (1981). Harvesting the sun's energy. Byte.

Working Papers in Progress

• Mobus, G.E. & McLane, D. (2004). ConsensUs: Computer Moderated, Structured Discourse. Web site that describes the ConsensUs project and how this structured discourse system will be used to support scalable discussions to solve wicked problems. Available at: http://faculty.washington.edu/gmobus/consensus.html
• Mobus, G.E. & McLane, D. (2005). ConsensUs Web Discourse System: Purpose and Uses. This document describes the uses of the ConsensUs system and provides instructions for deploying it.