Logistics

This is an individual assignment, so you should complete it on your own, though you are able to get help from many sources as detailed in the syllabus.

This assignment has several intermediate due dates. The first is the topic choice, which is due Oct 12th at 10pm. See the full list of dates below. As with all assignments, you will have the opportunity to revise this assignment based on the feedback that you get.

AI Use

You may use Gemini to assist you in any aspect of this assignment. However, you are responsible for verifying the complete correctness of everything you submit. Remember that generative AI tends to hallucinate facts and citations and produces text in a tone that is inappropriate for this assignment.

Goal

Being able to explain scientific and engineering concepts is equally as important as being able to discover new knowledge. The Encyclopedia of Artificial Life is a resource that aims to explain all facets of artificial life to the general public and newcomers to the field. For this assignment, you will research and write a potential contribution to the encyclopedia. If you want, you will even be able to actually contribute it!

Assignment Specification

For this assignment, you need to write a section of text that could be contributed to the Encyclopedia of Artificial Life.

Length

Your section can be either a new page or a new section of an existing page, but should be at least four paragraphs focused on an artificial life topic. You could also do a video as part of your section if you want; reach out to me if that is of interest to you.

Topic

Your text should be on a topic or subtopic that would be a new contribution to the encyclopedia, meaning the page should not already exist, or your text should fit well within the content that is already there. There are many, many pages that still need to be written, and you can view a list here. All of the existing pages also could have more detail and sections added, so if you are interested in a topic that already has a page, look to see what about that topic isn’t already discussed.

You won’t be allowed to write on the identical topic as someone else in the class, though it is fine to write different sections on a related topic. Fill out the form (also linked on Moodle) to claim your topic; they will be first come first serve, so doing this sooner than later is a good idea. There is a running list of already claimed topics at the end of the page.

References

You will need to include at least two references to outside sources in your text. Note that for advanced, one needs to be a peer-reviewed publication from a reputable venue. These can be to scientific articles, software, books, or other resources. You can use any citation format in your assignment; if you end up submitting your text to the encyclopedia, they have a particular format that you’ll need to switch to later.

There is a list of resources below of places to look for references. I also strategically assigned you several papers earlier in the term that would be great references!

Tone

You should consult other articles on the encyclopedia for reference on the tone to use in this text. Generally, you should aim for your text to be understandable by a general audience while also being informative to people in the artificial life community. A good audience to think of is your peers in this course and/or your friends not in this course, depending on which section of an article you are writing.

In this age of generative AI text, I have a particular distaste for the certain “mic drop” and lists of 3 tone that generative AI models tend to output by default. Please write text in the voice that you have developed while at Carleton; I will point out any places where text reads like generative AI.

Submitting

Please do the following to submit your text for each draft:

  • Put your text into a Google Doc (or update your existing doc) with your Carleton account
  • Turn on link sharing for Carleton College as “Commenter”
  • Copy that link and submit it to the assignment on Moodle

Due Dates

Item Due Date
Topic and two references 10/12
First draft 10/21
Second draft 10/26
Final draft 11/18

Assessment

Your assignment will ultimately be assessed by the following criteria.

Core

The core requirements are that your submission:

  • Includes at least two references that are appropriate for the chosen topic
  • Be at least four paragraphs in length
  • Explains something about a topic within artificial life for a general audience
  • Demonstrates a proficient understanding of the topic
  • Uses appropriate grammar and tone

Advanced

The advanced requirements are that your submission:

  • Includes at least two references, one of which is a peer-reviewed scientific article from a reputable venue
  • Accurately summarizes information from both of the references for a general audience
  • Has at least four well-organized and clear paragraphs
  • Uses appropriate grammar and tone
  • Is ready to be a contribution to the Encyclopedia of Artificial Life that is useful to readers in the artificial life community (actually submitting is not necessary)
  • Demonstrates a clear understanding of the topic and conveys that understanding to the reader

Claimed Topics

These are topics that others are already approved to do, so you should make sure that you don’t overlap with them. If you want to do something related to one of these, feel free to talk to me about how you can make sure that your topic is different enough.

  • Xenobots - Introduction
  • Social Cognitive Robots
  • Alife in social sciences - Introduction

Resources

The following are potential references/places to look for references:

Examples

You can see examples of articles written and ultimately published from the previous iterations of this class here: