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FIRST FORTNIGHT REVIEW
| INTRODUCTION |
This is the first review out of seven along my 15 week-placement in British Steel.
The aim of this project is to try and develop a new software that would possibly improve the performances of the one currently used. During the last two weeks, my main occupation was to understand what I have to do and how, and to learn how to use the tools that are available to me.
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| THE RESOURCES |
A computer is at my free disposal with everything I may need during this project. I am connected to the local network which allows me to follow the news about the company and to use the printers. NeuroShell 2 and Visual Basic 5 are the two main programs I will use during this project.
The library inside the company provides all the books I need about its activities and an access to the Internet allows me to look for any documentation dealing with Neural Networks. I also regularly go to the Teesside University Library to borrow books on this subject.
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| THE DIFFICULTIES |
The main problem I encountered until now is that I knew very little about the tools I�m using. I spent a good deal of time learning, trying the tutorials, testing some programs and reading books to acquire at least the basics I needed to start the project.
I have already used Visual Basic Application before, with Microsoft Access, but it was a lot different. Indeed, the version with Access is much easier to use as there is no application produced, only an interface inside Access. But with the full version I�m using now, I have some trouble.
I�m fairly new in programming under Windows, and I�m used of developing in C++ under Linux. Everything is different from Linux to Windows, even the logic changes.
I began using Borland Delphi, which provides a wide range of controls allowing the developer to create a standard Windows interface just like Visual Basic. But there are several differences that makes me disappointed of VB. At the first use of Delphi, I have been able to create custom lists and to read files very easily without any documentation, which is good since I could concentrate on my algorithm problems instead of spending time trying to figure out how to read a file automatically. Each time I�m looking for a specific function in VB, it appears to me that it was much easier with Delphi.
I hope now that it won�t be too much a matter. VB is famous for its easy handling and standard look-and-feel, but after a first look, with some earlier knowledge of what other languages offer, I think that Visual Basic is more a limit than a help.
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| INTERESTING ELEMENTS |
What I find really interesting is the concept of Neural Networks. While reading some books, I have been able to get an idea of the real function of NNs. It appeared several times that people often mistaken on the usage of this technology and often launch a project that would never be completed because they thought NNs were the solution but in fact it would not be applicable to their problem.
That is why, first of all, it has to be decided if NNs are really applicable to our problem before we begin.
Neural Networks, as it seems to be believed, are not "intelligent programs", they�re mainly like functions, taking an input and producing an output without any reflection and decision. But they have several particularities that make them really interesting. For example :
- They don�t need a mathematics rule, unlike functions which need to know exactly what to do and how.
- They don�t need exact input data, it is possible to get good results even with corrupted or missing data.
- They have a "memory", they can "remember" patterns and deal with them when encountered later, they have an "experience".
In this project, I will certainly mainly use the fact that they are able to learn from live data and deal with noisy data.
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| SOME DOCUMENTATION |
I�m also maintaining a web site up-to-date to be able to keep a track of what has been done, to make it easier for me to report afterwards and to let other people follow the project step by step. This site will contain all the sources, screenshots and the documentation of the programs, it will contain the ideas of improvements and the changes that are made, it will also contain basic information to understand what is done and why, and I will try to keep to Links page as useful as possible. I will include a lot of references that will hopefully help the reader to extend his knowledge on different subjects but mainly dealing with Neural Networks and Software Development.
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| CONCLUSION |
During the first two weeks, I have been able to get enough knowledge about NNs to conclude they were certainly one solution to the problem. I have also bee able to get an idea of what is waiting for me in the near future dealing with the User Interface in Visual Basic.
I have also been able to learn about the company I�m working for, and the people around me, which is a good experience since it is very different from what I�ve been used too in the summer jobs I did and from the organisation in the Army.
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| LOOKING FORWARD |
In the next two weeks I will certainly begin to study the Input part. The Neural Networks needs to be trained in order to learn the rules that apply to the data we manipulate. The company data files will certainly need to be pre-processed before the training to fit the constraints. I will also be part of my better-understanding of the Neural Networks training.
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