INFORMATICS and COR TALK

WILLIAM J. CLANCEY, Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition

Date:Friday, October 25, 2013

Talk:3:00 PM

Location: *1500 Donald Bren Hall*

Title: “Working on Mars: The Mars Exploration Rover as a Collaboration
Tool for Interdisciplinary Field Science”
ABSTRACT: The Mars Exploration Rover missions have shown over nine years
how people can scientifically explore another planet using a
programmable, mobile scientific laboratory. Through the combination of
constraint-based planning and virtual reality tools, the scientists
project themselves into the robot’s body—and so rather than replacing
them, the rover’s automation makes them agents in a remote landscape.
Following the synergistic design principle of “one instrument, one
team,” the robotic laboratory becomes a tool that promotes
collaboration, enhancing the integrative study of the planet’s geology,
climatology and possibly biological history.

BIO: Dr. William J. Clancey is Senior Research Scientist at the Florida
Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. He was previously on
assignment to NASA Ames Research Center as Chief Scientist for
Human-Centered Computing, Intelligent Systems Division (1998-2013). He
received his Computer Science Ph.D. from Stanford University and his
Mathematical Sciences B.A. from Rice University. A founding member of
Institute for Research on Learning (1987-1997), he also created Brahms,
a multi-agent system for modeling and simulating work practices. He is a
Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, AAAI, and the
American College of Medical Informatics. His seven books include
Situated Cognition and Working on Mars, and he has presented invited
tutorials and keynote addresses in over 20 countries.