UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE
		 COMPUTER SCIENCE RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM

			      presents

	   "Software Engineering and the Science of Developing
			Computational Models"

			   Dr. Peter Lane
       (School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire)


		      31 October 2007 (Wednesday)

			  Lecture Theatre E350
		       Hatfield, College Lane Campus
			       3 - 4 pm

	       Coffee/tea and biscuits will be available.

		    Everyone is Welcome to Attend



Abstract:

Scientists in many disciplines, from astrophysics to cognitive science,
use computers as tools for simulating phenomena in the real world; this
approach is called computational modelling. Although taking this
computational view of scientific knowledge is popular, few have
explored the implications to scientific method of having computer
programs as theories. In this talk, I shall explore the ways in which a
software development methodology can influence, indeed support, an
evolving scientific theory. I shall argue that scientific and program
development may be linked by using a form of agile programming, with a
specialised form of testing coupled with refactoring (Lane & Gobet,
2003, 2007).

As a case study, we consider the evolution of a cognitive architecture,
known as Chrest, which bridges the gap between low-level memory
processes and higher-level cognitive behaviour. Cognitive architectures
were proposed by Newell (1990) as a mechanism for bringing together
disparate psychological theories into a single conceptual framework.
The result has not been fully satisfactory, with architectures becoming
toolkits to support independent model development, with limited
connections between different groups; what is lacking is a suitable
development methodology. I shall show that the methodology proposed
here can support a distributed and diverse community of researchers in
developing a unified theory in a complex scientific domain covering
multiple kinds of phenomena.



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Hertfordshire Computer Science Research Colloquium
http://homepages.feis.herts.ac.uk/~nehaniv/colloq