Proposal Number: 6
Should be considered for best Project Proposal: No
Organization/Clarity of the proposal: 8
Overall Project Idea: 8
        The project proposal was overall clear and well organized but it was very open-ended and did not provide a complete idea of the effects to be tested for the project
itself.  The project spent extensive amounts of text space providing equations, examples, and results pertaining to the notion of uncertainty-driven methodology in Developmental
robotics.  The end product of a project as basically explained as “To complete a project and to write about it”.  For that reason, the proposal itself is quite vague and is itself
uncertain (at least there is a notion of consistent irony).
        The best thing about this project is probably the progress already underway.  This project has the advantage of both being a continuation of a variety of previous works
and that of having the main topic somewhat advanced in its inherent research (equations and the like).  The paper is, itself quite well populated with developed and apparently
tested equations pertaining to uncertainty and information gain.  As far as my understanding goes, these equations are all well developed and accepted in information theory but
this project proposal a reasonably novel use for them.
        I also thought that the organization of the proposal was very well done.  The beginning of the paper was an impressive story that did not directly relate to robotics.  The
paper then became increasingly technical as it went on and included a large amount of relevant and, often sufficiently explanatory figures.  The goals, although not perfectly
precise, were well stated and mentioned in the beginning and much explained later on.
        As I previously mentioned, the project itself seems somewhat without guidance.  The title itself implies some form of inherent representation in robotics where, clearly,
none is present.  The project is an exploration of a suggested internal representation dealing with the reduction of uncertainty.  The apparent lack of a perfect direction will
not likely, hinder the project progress itself, i Imagine.
        I don’t really understand the relevance of the references to the bible and related artwork that is highly present.  As I understand the reference and the biblical
passages, there was a story of a man who needed physical evidence of a rebirth in order to assert his faith.  The proposed connection is that this individual (Saint Thomas)
required evidence to decrease his certainty.  As is, this is a rather extreme stretch of the intellectual concepts proposed in this paper.  I would say that the use of biblical
art is inappropriate and is somewhat of a grave overindulgence.
        The apparently and described skills of the two participants will likely suffice to achieve and acceptable level of success.  I, therefore, do not think that the project is
too difficult.  At the same time, however, I do not think that the project is too simplistic for Vlad and Ryan and will, in fact, supply a challenge that is proportional to the
scope of the project requirements.
        The stated measure of success is, probably intentionally, entirely nonsensical.  the thought of making a function invovling a smooth function and a measure of success for
which the options are apparently the discrete values 0%,100%, and larger values really does not make a lot of sense.
        Although I’m not sure whether or not this is a good or bad thing, this proposal seems to have a large amount of unique humor.  Although I personally find the bible verses
excessive and inappropriate, it could no doubt provide considerable amusement to a reader.  There are also scattered references of math jokes and what i can only assume are
rejections of the personalities of the two authors.  Some of the jokes were quite humorous while others were beyond my understanding.
        Another thing I noticed along the way was the reproduction of a number of previous works mentioned by the author.  As presented in class, the entire works related to the
pushing of doorbell buttons has been previously published and presented with somewhat minimal variation.  This is, perhaps, a good thing as it is common practice to reuse previous
works and is perhaps redundant to redo some of that work.
        The project will, no doubt, be great fun.