I will be giving a presentation on cybernetics and (more specifically) artificial intelligence at the Faculty of Management and Computing (FMC) of the Maldives College of Higher Education (MCHE) on Monday 24th of September and will run from 11.30am - 1.30pm. I've titled the presentation "Cybernetics and Intelligent Search". Students at FMC (or elsewhere at the college, I suppose) are invited to attend.

My presentation will include a general introduction to cybernetics (and it's sub-fied of AI), notes on some important intelligent search methods and finally some information on the various aspects of my intelligent search-related project at uni this year. I (hope to) have some interesting demo's and simulations packed in as well. There'd also be a Q&A session at the end to wrap things up.

I am doing this presentation towards fulfilling a requirement for my study programme at the University of Reading where I am currently working towards a MEng in Artificial Intelligence and Cybernetics. I hope that I'd be able to take this opportunity to fulfil my university obligations and at the same time impart something of value to everyone who attends.

(Please feel free to pass the message onto any of your friends attending FMC or MCHE. Thanks!)

Well, my holidays are officially over today. It is back to the university and the year is more crammed than last year with 9 modules to go. There is the usual amount of classes to fill up most of the week and enough lab work to tire out the day. I am really curious about the "Neurocomputation" module. It is not something that is part of the usual computer/electronics line up and it is a subject area that probably will take me beyond my comfort zone. I am very hungry for neural networks and neural everything though. By the way, I am a firm believer that with the use of artificial neural networks, we may one day, be able to gain the level of "consciousness" that we deem its sentience as comparable to humans.

Anyway, I hope everything goes all "bubbles, flowers and candy" this year. Wish me luck! 2006-2007 academic year, here I come

Holy Gawka Moly! I had my first cybernetics lecture today and guess who the lecturer is? It is none other than Professor Kevin Warwick! I was totally stunned. I sure am glad that he is going to be taking the next 10 weeks of lectures on "Machine Intelligence". I've obsessed about cybernetics ever since I read about his cybernetic implant that got him titled Cyborg 1.0, back in 1998.

I can't say much on cybernetics for now but I surely am impressed by Prof. Kevin. He certainly is a brilliant lecturer. His lecture today just flew past - it was totally engaging, enjoyable and thought provoking. He also made more than enough jokes that made the entire lecture theatre erupt into laughter. My favourite one was one on bees. He was talking about the differences in "intelligence" displayed in animals and humans. Bees, he said, have intelligence of their own sorts and we shouldn't be human-centric in going off comparing it with human intelligence as a reference. Bees do not need to have the same capabilities as a human, for it has its own abilities - like flying - which is not something humans can do - except for those who take certain drugs. Hehe. Not funny? Well, it made me laugh out loud!

Cybernetics at Reading University is quite big. The University cybernetics department is well stocked with skilled staff and the research being carried out is numerous and walks the bleeding-edges of science and technology. The department also got a 5 out of 5 at the latest UK government Research Assessment Exercise.

I hope everything continues on to be atleast on the same par as these first impressions...