[Colloq] Thesis Proposal by Dan Schulman - Wednesday, November 3

[Rachel Kalweit]

The College of Computer and Information Science Presents a Thesis Proposal by:

Daniel Schulman

Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Time: 4:00pm
Location: 366 West Village H

Title:
Embodied Agents for Long-Term Discourse

Abstract:

An Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA) is a computer interface designed to simulate face-to-face conversation with users. A key research problem in the design and implementation of realistic ECAs is modeling generating the range of verbal and nonverbal behavior present in human conversation. ECAs are studied in a variety of applications, including education and counseling, in which an effective agent must have many interactions, over a long period of time, while building rapport with its users. Prior work on realistic conversational behavior for ECAs — particularly nonverbal behavior — has focused heavily on single conversations, isolated from any larger context.

I propose to study human conversational behavior in multi-conversation discourse, with the goal of modeling changes that occur within a single conversation, across multiple conversation, and in relation to changes in rapport between conversation partners. Toward that goal, I have collected a longitudinal corpus of health counseling dialogue, and have begun modeling the dynamics of conversational behavior in this corpus. To validate the findings from the corpus, I will implement the resulting models in an ECA, and conduct a longitudinal study of virtual health counseling dialogue, testing the effect of realistically changing conversational behavior on user engagement, rapport, and outcomes.

Committee
* Timothy Bickmore (advisor)
* Harriet Fell
* Carole Hafner
* Linda Tickle-Degnen (external; c.v.)





Rachel M. Kalweit
College of Computer and Information Science
202 West Village H
Northeastern University
phone: 617-373-2462
fax: 617-373-5121
rachelb at ccs.neu.edu