Post on 21-Dec-2015
A Testimonial
“Where other undergraduate programswould avoid assigning `impossible' problems to its undergraduates. Rochester uses them as tools in its curriculum to teach students how to approach a problem that is truly hard.
As a graduate of this department, I know how to reduce a problem to its most elemental components... I know how to ask the right questions about a problem...where precisely is the complexity of this problem? What assumptions does my approach make and are these reasonable? Is this problem reducible to something I can solve? Can I generalize this phenomenon?
Learning to ask these questions... learning how to approach overwhelmingly difficult problems... these are all skills that I use constantly in my career, that I find invaluable to my career, and that I developed solely as a result of the kind of curriculum implemented in the Department of Computer Science.''
--- K. Ross 2001
Impossible Computer Problems*• Understand stories & word problems.
• Use natural language for questions and answers to www.
• Surveillance video: detect food consumption in computer lab (use sound too?)
• Tell person’s age from image.
• Build robot to answer questions, serve hors d’oeuvres, read nametags, and locate disaster victims. In Edmonton. And in Acapulco.
* © Randal Nelson
Timeline
• Spring 2001: Schmid proposes idea; I say “Impossible!”
• A.Y. 2001-2: Mabel I hardware($20K), IBM loan, course.
• Summer 2002: NSF REU, Resnet support, Edmonton Competition. (Host, Rescue)
• A.Y. 2002-3 Mable II hardware ($30K), Abbyy gift, Dean’s travel grant, course.
• Summer 2003. NSF REU. Resnet support, Acapulco Competition. (Host, Rescue)
• Fall 2004: Robot Rivals, Presentation to Trustees
• Spring 2004: Robocup track in Art. Int. course
Publications
• American Assoc. of Artificial Intelligence 2004
• Int. Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence 2003
• UR Journal of Undergraduate Research
• Rochester Review Article
Current and Future Placement
• Schmid ---USC• Meisner ---RPI• Turner ---Brown• Sweetser ---Brown• Elsner --- UR Sr.• Calarese --- UFl• Purav --- UR grad• Peramunage --- UR Sr• Altekar --- Berkeley
• Kollar -- MIT• Feil-Seifer ---USC• Camara --- Take 5, UR
‘04• Atwood ---EMC• Cragg --- UR ‘04• Isman --- UR ‘04
Then What Happened
• At this point we saw the Edmonton Video,
• Then a few seconds of the Acapulco Video,
• Then two spreadsheets detailing the joint faculty and undergraduate research projects that have happened since 1991. A huge number, and growing every year to 52 in 2003.
Finally, the Mandatory “Advice to Graduates”
• In your future, research skills are survival skills.
• Pain is the feeling of weakness leaving the body AND mind.
• Don’t be too quick to dismiss problems as impossible -- you may be selling someone else short. Or worse, selling yourself short.