Wow! This proposal is now super out of date!!
Dear Panel Members,
For my Senior Project, I plan to study Social Psychology. I have chosen this area of study because the career I want to pursue (AI research and Robotics) requires a deep understanding of social behaviors in humans. I currently have quite limited knowledge on this topic, so this is an excellent opportunity to learn more. My major challenges will be working with a mentor and keeping up with a tight schedule, as my inconsistent education has left me with some bad habits.
My paper will be about how and why a terrorist organization was able to seize control over an entire nation, and how the United States failed to ease its way out. This is a topic that I am currently not highly informed about, but I would really like to be. I will be able to use research from how this happened to form a better hypothesis for my product.
For my product, I will produce an experiment involving a computer simulation of virtual agents in a world with limited resources. These agents will be granted the ability to claim land, join factions, harvest resources, and fight. By using a computer simulation, I will be able to modify parameters and simulate thousands of years with ease, but I will lose some of the depth that a real human experiment would bring. I should not require any extensions to the deadline of either the project or the paper.
This project will be presented in the form of an interactive demonstration program running on a laptop computer. This will allow observers to change parameters and see what changes within the simulation. This, along with the traditional tri-fold will allow me to give any observer a greater understanding of what work went into making the simulation, while also making it accessible.
I have had some difficulty in obtaining a mentor. I had a meeting with Dr. Corbin of Norwich University, but she is unable to help me with my project as she does not specialize in computer programming. She has referred me to her colleague Dr. Battig, Norwich University’s Director of Computer Science. I am currently awaiting his response.
Thank you for taking the time to consider my Senior Project. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
-Eliot Troop