I've forgotten more than you'll ever know

Today I had the first meeting of the artificial intelligence course I'm taking this semester. I'm really psyched about it -- the professor is really personable and the material is of much interest to me AND relevant to what I plan on doing for my Div III. We had a nice talk in the few minutes before class began and I told him about my studies. Somehow, while talking to him, my Div III crystallized out of the half-vague ideas that have been floating around in my head and turned into something I was actually proud to be the creator of.

The project that I've been considering most strongly is an idea that came about in a large way because of a talk I had with Larry Abbott during the summer. I am interested in memory and learning, and I knew that I wanted to try and create a computer model of some aspect of those functions. Larry suggested that I look at recognition memory, which I can describe best as the brain's ability to determine from sensory information whether or not an object is familiar or novel. From what I've read, in the brain this is actually accomplished by a LOWERED response from certain neurons (I think they call them "novelty" neurons).

I like the idea of this project, but I've been feeling like something was missing from it. Something about it wasn't very me, that is it was something that I knew I could be proud of, but it didn't feel very personal. Last night I hit on what it was. I need to continue learning how to write, and so I have to have a strong writing component on my Div III. I've decided to write a research paper about memory in general, what our current models of human memory are and how we think the brain stores them. I think it will be illuminating and result in a product that will make me happy.

As long as I pull it of, of course.