Bio

After finishing his bachelor’s degree in applied physics at the Saxion Hogeschool (Saxion University of Applied Sciences) in the Netherlands, Freek started to study a master’s degree in applied physics at the Univerzita Palackého (Palacký University) in the Czech Republic.

Project: Computational Humor

One of the very distinct differences between man and machine at this moment in time is a subcategory of linguistics: humor. Since the 1990s, several efforts have been made to produce algorithms which were able to either recognize jokes or generate them.

Instead of immediately creating a true joke generator, two simple programs will be made that are test cases to develop the most basic programming skills required for this project. The first step will be a simple database with static jokes which will be chosen by a random generator. The second version will generate simple sentences with a comical effect rather than true jokes. For example: “An elephant that flies.”

The first focus of this project is to create an algorithm that can generate jokes, more specifically puns. The literature suggests two possibilities for generating jokes. The first is to use a database of jokes, from which the joke generator can “learn” the way jokes are constructed and create jokes accordingly. The second possibility is to use a text generator and a database—an extended dictionary with .ea links for similar sounds, as well as links between related words. The latter is—taking into account the first two preparation steps—the type of algorithm which will be attempted in this project. Evaluation of the outcome of the algorithm—judging whether the jokes generated are funny—will be done by humans. In the case that this goal appears to be too high, the focus of the project will be adjusted to make an algorithm that can recognize jokes instead.

Favorite Outer Totalistic r=1, k=2 2D Cellular Automaton

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