Design Perceptive

    

 

 

 

 

zeno-cute-at-nextfest

I don’t remember the origins of my desire to become a college professor.  Yet I know that the thought first crossed my mind when I was a sophomore in high school around the age of sixteen.  I speculate now that there was a congruence of influences that resulted in a life vector oriented towards academia.  I suppose these influences would include a deep respect for my teachers versed in the magical aspects of mathematics, a profound admiration for certain people in my life who had attained their graduate degrees and an exposure to and affinity for science fiction which often drove my dreams and inspired me toward science and technology.  By that time I had gravitated towards computers.  The Apple IIe was new in our school’s administration office and a family friend was teaching me RPG on an IBM running System/360.  I was reading about Marvin Minsky, about Artificial Life and about using genetic algorithms to solve problems.  I had experienced the proliferation of robots in the popular media and I was hooked.  I knew that artificial intelligence and robotics were the two topics that I wanted to study.  So, if my admiration and respect for those in academia can be called the strength of my vector at that point in my life, then AI/Robotics was certainly my orientation.  Unfortunately, other life choices were made in my early adulthood and my studies in that area became more of a hobby than anything else.

Today, about twenty-four years later, my motivations (strength) are more concrete and my objectives (orientation) are more defined.  My life circumstance has allowed me to re-enter school and pursue my undergraduate degree in Computer Science.  I cannot thank my wife enough, herself a graduate with a Doctorate in Medicine.  She has encouraged and supported me over the past three years.  She also supports my pursuing a graduate degree and without such endearing support and her ability to put up with me, I wouldn’t have had such a wonderful opportunity.  Over the past few years, I have been able to stretch, explore and gain an appreciation for various areas in AI.  I have been happy to have had a chance to work with Drs. Huber, Zeruba and Ahmad in the summer REU program for Intelligent and Secure Environments.  That experience alone has shown me that I enjoy research.  I have also had the opportunity to work with Dr. David Hanson and others at Hanson Robotics, Inc.  helping developing protocols for complex behaviors for social robots; HumanKind and RoboKind.  Though we often had the goal of theatrical performance, our approach was inclusive of the contemporary concepts in social robotics.  Specifically, I created a complex set of behaviors and multimodal interactions by using a rules- engine to map input triggers (verbal, visual and internal cues) to output actions (speech, movement).  In effect, these behaviors constituted the robot’s persona.  The explicit intention, on my part, was to induce the belief, by some audience, that the robot has some intentionality.

The result of these experiences has been to narrow my interests to areas of machine cognition and social robotics with emphasis in human robotic interaction.  Now, my viewpoint on robotics is utilitarian, meaning that I believe form follows function.  A welding robot has little need for pink bows and ribbons.  However, a social robot has need of a face and a persona.  A social robot benefits by giving the appearance of intentionality.  Further, a social robot must be able to detect the intentionality of the humans with which it interacts.  I have a drive to explore this edge of research; a drive that is born of a need to have answers to questions.  Dr. Yale Patt, at his so-called lecture here at UTA, was asked “where [in the B.S., M.S., Ph.D. series] do you stop?”  In answering that question, he said that if you have “fire in your belly” you go for your Ph.D.  I have a big, roaring fire in my belly for AI.  There are so many questions to answer and I need those answers.  I have long suspected I’d have to seek those answers myself.  I don’t want to be a simple programmer working on form screens and report dashboards.  I want to push the envelope and be part of something that reaches further.  This is one of my motivations to help start a local chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence at the University.  Currently, I proudly serve as president of this student organization and hope that it flourishes into a self-sustaining group.

I also have a desire to teach.  I have had the opportunity to work as a corporate trainer and was certified to teach Lotus Notes development and Windows NT/95 administration support.  I enjoyed teaching.  But also, I have become worried about the current state of the American educational system.  Through the eyes of my step-sons, I have seen a system different from that of my own secondary education.  It seems watered-down and failing in comparison to the systems of other countries.  Therefore, I feel compelled to teach.  Given that I have the capability, I believe I also have the responsibility.  That is a personal conviction that is compatible with my beliefs that my purpose in life is to aid my fellow man and that the most enduring thing you can do to help someone is to support and encourage their education.

I recently watched “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” and subsequently have read The Last Lecture both by Randy Pausch, the late professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.  While the circumstances of his Last Lecture were engaging, what inspires me the most is that he was truly enjoined in the practice of lifting others up.  I seek to do the same and believe that this, the B.S. to Ph.D. program at UTA, can give me the foundation from which I can help push.

In summary and support, I intend to apply and excel in the B.S. to Ph.D. program at UTA.  My purpose will be to study Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, with a particular interest in machine learning/cognition and social robotics.  I am determined to build the depth of knowledge needed to make a strong contribution to the field and to mankind in general.  I also aim to apply myself to research assistantships as well as teaching assistantships so that I may balance my experience.  I wish, therefore, to be considered as an eligible and desirable candidate.