Extensive Olin Library expansion under way

By Jessica N. Roberts

The John M. Olin Library is now well into Stage I of a comprehensive renovation to repair, expand and enhance the building to meet the needs and expectations of students, faculty and visiting scholars for many years to come.

The renovation process began in May and is expected to take approximately 30 months. Because Olin is the University's main library --attracting some 3,000 visitors a day --it will remain open throughout the renovation process.

The renovation will make Olin Library a more high-tech, user-friendly facility; add 12,000 square feet to the main level; create a cybercafŽ and 24-hour study space; reconfigure interior spaces for increased conveniences and efficiency; move the main entrance to the south side of the building; and upgrade the electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, all while preserving the architectural integrity of the award-winning building.

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Bipolar disorder in children worse than in adults

Child psychiatry researchers from the School of Medicine report that bipolar disorder --formerly called manic-depressive illness --can occur in children as young as 7 years old and that the illness in young bipolar children resembles the most severe form of bipolar disorder in adults.

The findings were presented recently at the Fourth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder. The conference, held in Pittsburgh every other year, is the only venue in the world devoted exclusively to highlighting new research into bipolar disorder

"Typically, adults with bipolar disorder have episodes of either mania or depression that last a few months and have relatively normal functioning between episodes," said Barbara Geller, M.D., professor of child psychiatry and the study's principal investigator. "But in manic children we have found a more severe, chronic course of illness. Many children will be both manic and depressed at the same time, will often stay ill for years without intervening well periods and will frequently have multiple daily cycles of highs and lows. These findings are counterintuitive to the common notion that children would be less ill than their adult counterparts."

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Loui: Artificial intelligence could change legal profession

In the past decade, computers have crept into the legal profession, facilitating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) --computation used for intelligent decision-making. Lawyers encounter AI systems in fairly mundane applications such as information retrieval, expert systems and the management of complex documents.

Thus far, AI has neither "killed all the lawyers" nor automated the death penalty appeals process. But Ronald P. Loui, Ph.D., associate professor of computer science, says it is on the brink of changing the legal profession; the introduction of a "new math" into AI incorporates the ability to argue into computer programs.

Loui has written the definitive article on the modeling of argument, consolidating the research results from the mid-1980s to the present in his paper, "Logical Models of Argument," in ACM Computing Surveys.

According to Loui, AI argument systems permit a new kind of reasoning to be embedded in complex programs. He says the reasoning is much more natural, more human, more social, even more fair.

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