IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSSIBLE PROBLEMSPROBLEMS

Are Good For UsAre Good For Us

Chris Brown

Graduation 2004

Appealing First Impression!

The Witch’s Cottage

Seems like fun at the time…

Louie’s Bar and Grill

Looking Back, It Was Great.

The University of Rochester

Looking Back, It Was Great.

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

Mabel the Mobile Table

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

Face Finding

Rehearsal

Edmonton

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Acapulco

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.

Photo CreditsPhoto Credits

• Marty Guenther• Jenine Turner• Tom Kollar• Michael Scott• Weilie Yi• Various Roboteers• Currents• UR Jnl. Of Undergraduate Research