I have an undergraduate degree in electronic engineering and PhD in computer science. I have never lost an interest in digital design from my hardware background and so computer architecture and robotics are long term interests. On the computer science side, I find most of the field interesting. I did my doctoral work in software development environments with minors in AI and parallel computer architecture.
I have a wide set of interests and this page reflects a current set related to computer science. I put it here to help graduate students seeking capstone projects. However, don't assume that if your interest is not reflected here that I have no interest in helping you with the project! I believe exposure to ideas helps us to understand the world more deeply.
A major area of interest is the field of Artificial Intelligence! This is a broad field. In particular, I want to understand what intelligence is and how it arises in a human or animal. Some of the topics I am currently interested in are:
I am also starting to look at intelligent systems for instruction and learning aids. This is a natural combination of AI and teaching!
Related to AI is robotics. I separated them here, but I really look at them as totally intertwined. There are several features that define my interest and specialize it to a subset of the overall field. I am interested in robotic creatures, not in current industrial robots. I am strongly influenced by Rod Brooks and the “behavioral” school of robotic design. In part this means one can't ignore the effect of the environment the robot is in. It also implies working with biological inspiration, not using mathemtical modeling. I think we are engaged in a process of human controled evolution which will produce intelligent entities in the near future (by 2050?).
At a more applied level, I am interested in work relating to software architecture and design. I have been a software architect in my past work career and I teach the Comp 650 course.
Languages and compliers are another topic area I enjoy. This can include language design and implementation of compliers. Many problems can be reduced to a language problem, often yielding an elegant solution.