[pdp-discuss] PDP++ Proposal

[Randall C. O'Reilly]

PDP++ Users,

Here are our preliminary specific aims for the grant proposal to support the 
renovation of the software, and a more detailed description can be downloaded 
from the following address:

ftp://grey.colorado.edu/pub/oreilly/misc/pdp_grant_detail.pdf

Please provide us with any feedback about these goals, and add anything that 
you think would make an important improvement in the usability of the 
software.

The grant proposal is due by May 15, but we would like to have it ready to go 
by early next week, so please send comments asap, and definitely on or before 
Monday May 9th.  Also, if you haven't yet sent me your publication and/or 
teaching information (see email below), please do so asap, and again by that 
deadline.  Thanks!!

- Randy

The specific aims are to:

\item Update the software in a number of critical ways:

  \item Replace the existing obsolete graphical framework library
    (Interviews) with a modern well-supported toolkit (Qt) (this will
    also provide a more ``native'' interface on Windows and MacOS).
    
  \item Enhance usability for both novices and experts through a
    fundamental interface redesign, including a tabbed-browser
    framework, integrated 3D visualization workspace, automatic
    toolbars and specialized configuration dialogs, better integrated
    help functions, and more wizards to help create and expand
    simulations.
    
  \item Develop expanded and more usable facilities for specifying
    ``environments'' of input and output stimuli to the networks,
    including new media types (e.g., images, video, sound), and an
    experimental design interface modeled after the widely used
    E-Prime software for designing behavioral experiments.  This will
    also result in more surface-valid ways of visualizing and
    understanding the model's behaviors.

  \item Develop enhanced visualization and analysis tools, including
    simplified mechanisms for viewing network state over time, and
    more flexible ways of tabulating and aggregating performance
    data.
    
  \item Develop enhancements to help research models be more
    accessible to other users, including built-in tools for
    documenting models and constructing automated demos, a new and
    more convenient ``plugin library'' method of extending the
    software, a facility for directly saving and retrieving models
    from online model databases (including the support for XML
    file formats), and tighter integration with other modeling and
    data analysis tools such as MATLAB/Octave, R, SPSS, SAS, etc.

  \item Support additional neural network algorithms, and add
    facilities for more efficiently representing larger-scale neural
    structures (e.g., cortical hypercolumns, brain areas).
    
  \item Make other technical improvements, including support for
    larger models, 64-bit operating systems, and making the software
    easier to install and compile.
  
\item Improve the documentation and user education.  We will rewrite
  the user manual to reflect the above changes, and integrate this
  manual as on-line help in the application itself.  The changes made
  to the software, and its documentation, will also facilitate writing
  the second edition of a widely adopted textbook based on PDP++
  \cite{OReillyMunakata00}.  This textbook includes over 40 different
  models covering a wide range of cognitive neuroscience phenomena,
  and the PDP++ simulations play a critical role in its educational
  value by enabling hands-on exploratory learning.
  
\item Provide ongoing user support.  Maintenance and support of
  software is an integral aspect of its existence.  The senior
  programmer will also fix bugs in existing releases, and help users
  with issues they may encounter.  We will also hire a more junior
  programmer/user support person, who will provide more extensive user
  support, documentation, etc.  The team will maintain a web portal
  (e.g., a wiki) and the existing email list, to provide interactive
  support.

On Thursday 31 March 2005 09:15 pm, Randall C. O'Reilly wrote:
> We are planning to write a grant proposal to support major enhancements to
> the PDP++ neural network simulation software, and need to collect some data
> on publications, teaching, and other usage of this software.
>
> If you have used PDP++ for simulations published in any form, please email
> me the reference(s) to these publications (APA format preferred, but any
> format will do).
>
> If you have used PDP++ for teaching, please send the name of the course,
> years taught, number of students, etc. (any information would be
> appreciated, the more the better).
>
> If you have used PDP++ for other purposes (e.g., business, forecasting,
> etc) please send any relevant information.
>
> Finally, if you have any feedback on the software for things that we should
> improve in the future, we would like to hear it. We have already begun the
> revisions and have a fairly detailed plan, which we will be announcing
> within a few weeks on the pdp-discuss email list, so your feedback would be
> most beneficial if it could be given in the context of these plans, but if
> you would rather just send feedback now, that would also be appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> - Randy