Conversational interfaces have received much attention as a promising natural communication channel between humans and computers. A typical conversational interface consists of three major systems: speech understanding, dialog management and spoken language generation. In such a conversational interface, speech recognition…

In the traditional small community, people learned how to maintain their own homes by watching activities in which the elements of their physical environment were made. This work was done out in the open, where everyone could see it as…

by Lori Faith Lamel., Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1988., Bibliography: leaves 140-150.

This thesis focuses on the search for a more equitable urban environment. In Western Europe, the hope that cities are relevant forms of living and interacting, still exists. In Brussels, in the last fifteen years, the inhabitants formed a unique…

Current methods for bipedal walking control include playback of recorded joint motion and the derivation of dynamic equations to map desired forces at the body to the required torques at the joints. Both methods require a significant amount of up-front…

This thesis examines the evolution of Internet based knowledge networks (e-knowledge networks) in the domain of sustainable development. The objective of this thesis is to use an engineering systems approach to understand knowledge networks, identify the barriers to their sustainability…

Knowledge networks have received a significant amount of attention in the past few decades as people look beyond corporate governance and resource-based approaches to uncover sources of competitive advantage. While this area of research is useful for organizations in general,…

If we are to understand how we can build machines capable of broad purpose learning and reasoning, we must first aim to build systems that can represent, acquire, and reason about the kinds of commonsense knowledge that we humans have…

by Guru Prasanna., Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2001., Page 123 blank., Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-122).

This thesis is based on the premise that small nations face unique challenges in the quest for economic prosperity. They have a small domestic economy and are more dependent than larger economies on international trade. Smallness typically entails a lack…