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C00005 00003	.LTR(Professor Jerome Feldman)
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%6S%5 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, STANFORD UNIVERSITY, Stanford, California 94305
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	Douglas B. Lenat
	Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
	Stanford University
	Stanford, California  94305
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Regards,
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Doug  Lenat
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.LTR(Professor Jerome Feldman)
Dept of Computer Science
Mathematical Sciences Bldg.
University of Rochester
Rochester, N.Y. 14627

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Dear Jerry,

I'm now in my fourth year as a CS grad student; I hope you remember me from
Cordell's group at the AI lab, or from your Lisp course.
For my dissertation,
I've been working on a program which can develop
simple mathematical concepts, which aims at
expertise in theorem %2proposing%* rather than theorem %2proving%*.
Each concept is represented as frame-like data structure whose facets or
slots contain procedural information. The activity of the system is to
fill in blank slots  (and occasionally create new concepts), which means
continually writing new little programs.
The system therefore uses
skills from %2automatic programming%* to tackle a %2theory
formation%* task. A  brief description of the project is enclosed.

My committee consists of 
Cordell Green,
Ed Feigenbaum, 
Bruce Buchanan, and Don Knuth. Cordell and Ed have suggested that I
write you, since I expect to receive my Ph.D. by next Fall. I am interested
in a faculty position for next year, and would welcome the opportunity to
discuss the matter with you. 
The young, growing nature of your department seems particularly appealing.
I could visit Rochester sometime this Winter,
perhaps in February or early March.
If there is sufficient interest, I'd be happy to
give a colloquium on my dissertation research.

.DBL