Spring 2003
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On Monday David Etherington can sit before a screen and build an aircraft carrier. On Tuesday he can construct a passenger plane. Wednesday he helps rush hour drivers in Los Angeles find the quickest way home. Thursday he routes aircraft so they save on fuel expenses. And he still has Friday left.
Etherington isn't alone in these and other efforts being made through the University of Oregon's Computational Intelligence Research Laboratory (CIRL). Located in the UO's Riverfront Research Park, CIRL is a university research center loosely affiliated with the Department of Computer and Information Science.
With four faculty members and the assistance of two graduate students and nearly a dozen alumni, CIRL is developing sophisticated artificial intelligence to solve such complex problems as finding the most cost-effective allocation of tasks and workers for construction of naval ships, or determining the quickest approach to building a passenger jet—or even helping one driver make it through L.A.'s notorious rush-hour traffic.
Of course, the ship "building" is on a computer, and actually represents the culmination of a search for the most timely or cost-effective solution to these and other extremely complex problems. It's not a simple task.
"For any interesting problem," Etherington says, "there can be more possibilities than there are atoms in the universe."
In such cases, Etherington explains, many of the bad solutions have to be eliminated before the good ones can be explored. Through this process, CIRL team members have developed algorithms—step-by-step problem solving procedures capable of narrowing that universe of possibilities. Out of that research has emerged solutions—and On Time Systems.
Since CIRL is a research laboratory, it doesn't undertake development projects per se. However, On Time Systems Inc. (OTS) is a start-up company spun out of CIRL and housed in adjacent offices at the Riverfront Research Park. OTS develops the practical applications of CIRL's technology.
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OTS's three main products to date are ARGOS, the ship production scheduling system; the Worldwide Aeronautical Route Planner (WARP), a system that finds the most fuel-efficient routes for aircraft flights; and TrafficDodger, a route-planning system for drivers in high traffic density cities.
OTS's solutions to real-world problems faced by military and industrial clients are resulting in, among other things, an expected 10 to 15 percent reduction in labor costs for ship construction and an estimated 2 percent reduction in fuel costs for U.S. Air Force cargo aircraft, projected to be nearly $15 million a year in savings.
"It's fun," Etherington says, "to be holding technology that is so much better than anything else out there. You know you can make a difference, change the way things can be done for the better."
"It's also nice," adds Matthew Ginsberg, CEO of On Time Systems, "to know that twenty million gallons less of fuel are being burned in the upper atmosphere."
While ARGOS and WARP have been sold to the government, TrafficDodger is being offered free to drivers in Los Angeles. Using the same basic search principles developed by CIRL, it gives an up-to-the-second analysis of the route between the driver's point of origin and destination, taking into account real-time traffic data.
Long term goals for On Time Systems are ambitious.
"We'd like to see all the shipyards in the world using ARGOS in five years," Ginsberg says. "In five years we want everyone using WARP to select their flight routes."
Ginsberg thinks TrafficDodger could turn into a subscription service, noting that those who have started to use it have stayed with it.
"It must be adding value," he says, "or they wouldn't be bothering."
| Inquiry © 2003; University of Oregon Office of Research, Eugene OR 97403
Questions? Commments? Contact Jim McChesney, (541) 346-3017 |
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