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Joseph D. Ramsey

Projects

This is an incomplete list of projects I work on (or have worked on recently). The link are mostly to our server, "philserv" (short for "philoserver").

Tetrad IV (CMU Philosophy, Richard Scheines, Clark Glymour)

Tetrad IV is a graphical program for assisting causal reasoning. It allows one, among other things, to construct a causal graph, build a parameterized model from that graph, instantiate that model, simulate data, run search algorithms on the data, and estimate instantiated models from data and parameterized models. The project has been in the works for many years; I've been working on the latest version, a Java version of Tetrad with a graphical user interface. A description of how the entire Tetrad project has changed through the years (together with links to the various versions) can be found here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/tetrad

Causal Structure of Gene Regulatory Pathways (NASA/CMU, Clark Glymour)

The goal of this project has been to develop statistical and algorithmic techniques for analyzing causal relations among the expression levels of various genes, proteins and other factors within a genome. One part of the project I've been particularly involved in is developing a simulator (in Java) for genetic expression levels given causal graphs among genes and other factors. This simulator is part of the Tetrad package; you can try it out using the link above for Tetrad. The website for our gene group is here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/genegroup

Mineral Class Identification from Rock Spectra (NASA/CMU, Clark Glymour)

The main issue for this project has been to determine how accurately one can predict the mineral class content of rocks from their visual to near infrared spectra using different computer algorithms. One motivation is to find machine learning algorithms that Mars Rovers can use in the field to determine whether rocks are carbonates or not. After doing plenty of this work by hand, I wrote a Java application to automate several aspects of it. The download page for this Java application ("Rockspec") is here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/rockspec

I've also written a Ph.D. dissertation on this topic at the University of California, San Deigo (mostly while working in the Philosophy Department at Carnegie Mellon University).

Joseph Ramsey (2001). "Mixture and Expertise in Automatic Causal Discovery." Ph.D. diss., University of California at San Diego. [ps]

AProS (CMU Philosophy, Wilfried Sieg)

The goal of AProS ("A Proof System") is to generate natural deduction (ND) proofs in sentential and first order predicate logic. S4 modal logic is also included, as is some meta-reasoning, in the form of automatic proofs for the Goedel Incompleteness Theorems. This work is a revision of an earlier project, CPT ("Carnegie Proof Tutor").

The AProS generator can be interacted with through a cross-platform application (Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OSX) called ProofDisplay, which can be launched using Java Web Start.

The website for the APROS project (rewrite of the generator) is here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/projects/apros/

CMVALID, Logic and Proofs, and CPL (Wilfried Sieg)

CMVALID is an edited online version of the original Stanford VALID course that uses an older version of the CPL ("Carnegie Proof Lab") as a proof environment for students. The website for the latest version of CMVALID course is here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/courses/valid/

Logic and Proofs is a newly written online course in sentential and first order logic that uses a newer version of the CPL based on the AProS logic apparatus. This is being offered currently to a pilot group of students at CMU and will be offered in the future through CMU's Open Learning Initiative (OLI).

CPL is a Java applet that allows students to interactively construct proofs in both the forward and backward directions.

Courseware in Causal Reasoning (Richard Scheines)

The goal of this project is to develop online courseware for causal reasoning. The design of the course itself is primarily due to Richard Scheines. This is offered currently through CMU's Open Learning Initiative (OLI). My association with the project is mainly through my work on the Tetrad 4 application. You may browse the course as a guest here:

http://www.phil.cmu.edu/courses/csr/


Last updated 7/2/06