ETC Executive Producer Don Marinelli announced today that MK Haley, currently Director, Product Design and Development, Digital Media at Disney ABC Television Group, will be joining the ETC as of August 1, 2009 as Associate Executive Producer.
With 15 years of experience at the Walt Disney Company, Mk has served in various managerial, technical, and creative roles across Virtual Reality, R&D, Special FX, and production teams while at Walt Disney Imagineering. From Imagineering Mk Haley moved to the Corporate New Technology team to manage Communication and Collaboration technologies, before moving on to the television group to oversee the BlueSky R&D team.
“MK Haley has been a tremendous friend of the ETC since its inception ten years ago, “ said Marinelli. “Randy Pausch would talk often about how fortunate he was to share an office during his faculty sabbatical at Disney with MK Haley and Jesse Schell. We were successful in getting Jesse Schell to become part of the ETC back in 2002. It was a long sought strategic move to reunite MK Haley with Jesse and the ETC. Happily, things just aligned beautifully of late to make this happen.” Marinelli said.
Mk Haley currently serves as a faculty member for Carnegie Mellon's Master of Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM) program in Los Angeles. She has also been very active with SIGGRAPH (the Special Interest Group for Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) for the past 22 years, primarily overseeing conference programs related to Interactive and Emerging technologies and installations. Mk currently serves as Director of Encounters for the SIGGRAPH 2008 & 2009 Conferences. She has also served as the Director of Communications for ACM SIGGRAPH, the Emerging Technologies and Student Volunteer Chair.
Says ETC-Pittsburgh Program Director Drew Davidson, “"Having worked with MK through SIGGRAPH, I know she'll not only bring great energy and enthusiasm, but also all of her experience and expertise."
MK Haley did her undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts- Amherst where she earned a BFA in Design with a Computer Graphics and Graphic Design Emphasis. She received her MFA in Design with a Computer Graphics emphasis from California State University – Los Angeles.
As Associate Executive Producer, MK Haley will work alongside Marinelli to set and realize strategic and tactical objectives for ETC-Global. MK will also work closely with the ETC initiatives in Silicon Valley, California; Osaka, Japan; and elsewhere around the globe.
ETC faculty member Jesse Schell summed up the excitement surrounding Mk’s appointment when he said, "Mk Haley's name is well-known and respected in both industry and academia, and her wealth of experience, insight, and connections will be a tremendous boon to the ETC."
At the close of every year, The Tartan reassesses the year’s events. They present a list of the people and happenings that are worthy of recognition. Thistles go to people and events that had a positive effect on the campus community and general community at large; thorns go to those that have negatively impacted the community.
Get in Line Games and Evil Genius Designs was awarded a Thistle along with President Cohen, Facebook and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
http://www.thetartan.org/2009/4/27/forum/thistles_thorns
Congratulations!
Robot Hall of Fame announcement
April 21, 2009
MSNBC.com
http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/04/23/1904994.aspx
Real robots rock!
Posted: Thursday, April 23, 2009 6:33 PM by Alan Boyle
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From left: Intuitive Surgical, iRobot, NASA The latest Robot Hall of Fame inductees include the da Vinci Surgical System, the Roomba floor-cleaning robot and NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers. |
The Robot Hall of Fame may sound like a science-fiction museum, but the latest inductees actually include more real robots than fictional ones. Among the stars of the show are a couple of contraptions that have surpassed science-fiction expectations: NASA's twin Mars rovers.
The other robots on the honor roll are also worthy of recognition:
- iRobot's Roomba floor-cleaning machine, arguably the first robot to do useful work in the living room (and pay off on the technological promise of "The Jetsons").
- Intuitive Surgical's da Vinci Surgical System, which helps doctors do precision surgery in operating rooms (including prostate gland removal ... yow!).
- Huey, Dewey and Louie, the cute robotic gardeners from the classic 1972 environmental sci-fi movie "Silent Running" (just in time for Earth Day).
- The T-800 Terminator, the killer robot from the future that was featured in the 1984 movie "The Terminator" (a role that arguably boosted Arnold Schwarzenegger's career as California's "Governator").
But could any of those other honorees work on the radiation-blasted surface of another planet, sending back science for more than five years without a single service call? I didn't think so!
The "Class of 2010" inductees were announced on Tuesday in Pittsburgh by the Carnegie Science Center and Carnegie Mellon University, during a preview of the science center's Roboworld exhibition. Starting in June, Roboworld will serve as the permanent home for the Robot Hall of Fame.
The Hall of Fame was created in 2003 to pay tribute to the fictional and real robots that have "inspired and embodied breakthrough accomplishments in robotics." Inductees are selected by a jury of scholars, researchers, writers, designers and entrepreneurs. The latest batch of robots will officially take their place next year.
Matt Mason, director of Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, noted that the real robots outnumbered the fictional creations for the second time in a row. "We in the robotics field believe this is the beginning of a trend, as robots such as Spirit and Opportunity, Roomba and da Vinci are approaching or even exceeding performance levels that once were only imagined," he said in the university's news release.
The Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, are all about "exceeding performance levels": NASA's original mission plan called for the six-wheeled, golf-cart-sized probes to last 90 days on the Martian surface - but they're still in business more than five years after they bounced to their landings on opposite sides of the planet.
It hasn't always been easy. In fact, as the years went on, the two rovers have developed different "personalities" in the minds of their controllers back here on Earth.
Cornell astronomer Steve Squyres, who heads up the rover science team, has often called Opportunity "Little Miss Perfect": Sure, she sometimes gets into scrapes, like the time she was hung up on a Martian sand dune, but overall she's had an easy time of it and tends to grab the headlines.
Spirit, on the other hand, is like the heroine in one of those dark Dickensian novels. "Spirit had to work for everything - literally had to climb a mountain on Mars," Squyres once said. You might say she's been working her fingers to the bone ... if she had fingers, that is. As it is, she's got one wheel out of commission and has to drag it behind her, rolling backwards over rough terrain. Lately, she's also been suffering recurring bouts of amnesia.
But Spirit is still on the march, investigating an intriguing plateau named "Home Plate" (the name refers to the rock formation's resemblance to a baseball diamond's home plate). Opportunity, meanwhile, is breezing along on its way to its next big photo op: the 13.7-mile-wide (22-kilometer-wide) Endeavour Crater.
The other robots have their emotional appeal as well: To the outside world, Roombas may be nothing more than faceless floor-cleaning machines - but some owners have been known to give nicknames to their gizmos, erect Web sites in their honor and trade Roomba tips on online discussion groups.
As for da Vinci ... well, how can you not invest some emotional capital in the device that's doing the cutting during your hysterectomy, prostatectomy, heart-valve repair or weight-loss surgery?
When it comes to fictional robots, the Terminator has already gained immortality in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, and the T-800's Hall of Fame status only adds to its status as a robo-icon.
"The Terminator represents humankind's greatest fear of robots: that they may one day turn on us, their creators, and seek to exterminate the human race," Don Marinelli, executive producer of Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center, said in Tuesday's news release. The worry about a robot "nerdocalypse" has long been a part of the debate over the coming singularity.
Huey, Dewey and Louie are robots of a different color: In "Silent Running," they're the ones who help preserve Earth's species - even after the humans decide they're no longer worth preserving.
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Universal Space oasis crewman Freeman Lowell (Bruce Dern) teaches gardening skills to the robots Huey and Dewey in the movie "Silent Running." |
If that sounds familiar, that may be because Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute is involved in a $10 million Agriculture Department program that uses autonomous robotic vehicles to help tend apple orchards and orange groves. Or it may be because the "Silent Running" storyline resonates in a more recent robot movie, "WALL-E."
Speaking of "WALL-E," I'd have to say that the movie's cute robot star should be on the list for a future spot in the Hall of Fame (even though some still debate whether WALL-E was a rip-off of Johnny 5 in "Short Circuit"). Every time the Robot Hall of Fame comes up for discussion, I like to open up the nominations for our "Robot People's Choice" award. So now is the perfect time to nominate your favorite yet-to-be-honored robot - or take issue with the selections so far.
To refresh your memory, here's the list of past Hall of Fame inductees. These robots and the newly named Class of 2010 are ineligible for the "People's Choice" prize:
- 2003: HAL 9000, Mars Pathfinder Sojourner rover, R2-D2, Unimate.
- 2004: ASIMO, Shakey, Astro Boy, Robby the Robot, C-3PO.
- 2006: AIBO, SCARA, David (from "A.I."), Maria (from "Metropolis"), Gort (from "The Day the Earth Stood Still").
- 2008: Raibert Hopper, NavLab 5, LEGO Mindstorms, Lt. Cmdr. Data (from the "Star Trek" saga).
I'll run through the comments you leave below, get a sense of the leading candidate and post the People's Choice as an addendum to this item. In case you're wondering, previous People's Choice winners have included Robby the Robot (2003), NASA's Spirit and Opportunity rovers (2004), B9 from "Lost in Space" (2006) and the NASA rovers again in 2007-2008.
PC magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2345724,00.asp
Roomba, Terminator Elected to Robot Hall of Fame
04.21.09
Pop open the champagne and pour your hardworking robot vacuum a glass--it's now a Robot Hall of Fame Inductee.
iRobot's seven-year-old Roomba is one of five in the class of 2010 inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, along with NASA's Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the DaVinci Medical Robot System, Huey, Dewey and Louie from the 1971 Bruce Dern film Silent Running and the T-800 Terminator from James Cameron's 1984 film The Terminator. A brainchild of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, the Hall of Fame, according to a university spokesman, "recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and embodied breakthrough accomplishments in robotics."
Previous inductees include "Star Wars'" C3PO, "The Day the Earth Stood Still's" GORT and Lego Mindstorms NXT. This year's class is the second in a row where real robots outnumber fictional ones. While Hall of Fame organizers see this as an encouraging sign, the announcement comes just one day after one of the more promising consumer robots, Ugobe's Pleo robot dinosaur, disappeared from the market for good..
Selected by a team of scholars, researchers, writers, designers and entrepreneurs, the Hall of Fame inductees represents a broad-range of capabilities, including some that still far exceed what real robots can do today. Perhaps the most far-fetched of the new Hall of Famers is the T-800 Terminator, played in the movie by current California Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger. This robot looked human, but was pure metal underneath. It was also an unstoppable killing machine. Hard to imagine another Hall of Fame that would welcome a member like this. The other film robots were adorable "drones" that helped Bruce Dern maintain an interstellar garden. Perhaps they won admittance because of their ability to play poker and perform surgery (see actual film for more details).
On the more inspirational side are NASA's Mars Rovers and DaVinci. The former are two land rovers that NASA sent to Mars five years ago for a 90-day mission. The two tenacious bots continue to function and deliver data to this day. DaVinci is a small, doctor-guided surgical device that, while lacking autonomy, can translate a surgeon's gross movements into precise surgical procedures.
iRobot's Roomba, though, is perhaps the Hall's most practical entrant ever. It's not flashy, doesn't water plants, perform surgeons or explore the universe. It does, however, clean a mean rug.
All honorees will be formerly inducted on June 13. They'll be the first inductees installed in the Hall's permanent home at Carnegie Mellon's Science Center.
Robots.net
http://robots.net/article/2810.html
CMU just announced this year's inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame. They are: NASA Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity; the iRobot Roomba; the DaVinci Medical Robot; Huey, Dewey, and Louie, from the 1971 film “Silent Running”; and the T-800 Terminator, from the 1984 film “The Terminator”. The robots will be officially added in a 2010 induction ceremony. Matt Mason of CMU notes, “As with our last group of inductees, real robots again outnumber the fictional ones. We in the robotics field believe this is the beginning of a trend, as robots such as Spirit and Opportunity, Roomba, and DaVinci are approaching or even exceeding performance levels that once were only imagined.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09112/964506-115.stm
Robot invasion: Science Center exhibit features the future
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
By David Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Bob Donaldson
"Andy Roid," the RoboThespian, will greet visitors entering the roboworld exhibit at the Carnegie Science Center.
What sounds like a trailer for a science-fiction flick soon will become reality at the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore.
Prepare for the future. Robots to invade Pittsburgh. Or as the science center might prefer saying, "Welcome to roboworld."
The science center held a preview tour yesterday of $3.4 million roboworld, which will open June 13 as "the world's largest and most comprehensive permanent robotics exhibition."
Name a famous robot -- Hal 9000, R2D2, Gort or C-3PO -- and a life-size replica likely will be on display in the 6,000-square-foot permanent exhibit. At the second-floor entrance stands Andy, the RoboThespian -- an interactive humanoid robot with dexterous metal fingers and high-energy monologue brimming with robot jokes.
Roboworld also will double as home of the Robot Hall of Fame and its 28 inductees.
During the preview, the science center featured Anthony Daniels, the British actor who played C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" movies and displayed the same fussy quirks, voice and personality as the golden robot he played.
"Robots will be as commonplace in the future as the Internet and computers are today," Mr. Daniels said in his famous King's English. "Get used to it."
Roboworld will display entertainment, industrial and household robots with the mission of exploring how robotic technology has changed our lives. The focus is the next wave of robotic breakthroughs with the hope that roboworld will inspire a whole new generation of roboticists and researchers who will create new technologies.
Science center co-directors Ann Metzger and Ron Baillie said roboworld also will inspire children to develop skills in science and mathematics and become roboticists of the future. The center is planning classes and outreach programs tied to roboworld.
Other features include games and demonstrations of how robots think, move and sense the world around them. Displays detail the many roles robots serve in the modern world. A Robot Workshop will provide companies and roboticists an opportunity to test their inventions while interacting with the public.
People also can compete against a robotic StarKick Foosbot soccer game and HOOPS, a skilled robotic arm that shoots foul shots. AARON the Cybernetic Artist will create daily works of art, while ROBOT-Rx, developed by McKesson, will display technology used by hospital pharmacies to ensure the safe storage, dispensing and accounting of medications.
A robotic obstacle course, a sketch robot and other displays will round out the exhibit.
Yesterday, the science center also announced the 2010 inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, which the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science created in 2003. The new inductees are the NASA Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity; iRobot Roomba; the DaVinci Medical Robot System; Huey, Dewey and Louie, from the 1971 film, "Silent Running;" and T-800 Terminator, from the 1984 film, "The Terminator."
Ms. Metzger said local universities and high-tech companies have turned the region into a world center for robotics. "Pittsburgh is Roboburgh," she said. "So what better place to have roboworld?"
Or as Mr. Daniels said of this new world of robotics: "When I go home, I look at my appliances in a new way. Maybe they have a secret life."
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/s_621668.html?source=pghlivefront_top
Science Center introduces 'roboworld' exhibit
By Michael Machosky, TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Photos
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Andy
Keith Hodan/Tribune-Review
click to enlarge
Anthony Daniels
Keith Hodan/Tribune-Review
click to enlarge
'Roboworld'
Keith Hodan/Tribune-Review
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Step into the Carnegie Science Center's new "roboworld," and it's not hard to see the future.
It's right there, laughing, telling a corny joke about getting stuck on a plane with an iPod that wouldn't shut up.
Andy (short for Andrew or Android?) the RoboThespian Greeter Robot is a quite friendly, human-shaped robot stationed at the entrance to "roboworld," a $3.5 million new exhibit on the second floor of the Science Center, billed as "the world's largest comprehensive robotics exhibition."
The exhibit officially opens to the public on June 13 and will feature interactive exhibits based around actual working robots, as well as hands-on demonstrations of how robots sense, think and move. It also will be the physical home of the Robot Hall of Fame, currently just a virtual institution.
Introducing "roboworld" Tuesday morning was the human behind one of the world's most famous robots, actor Anthony Daniels -- a trim, droll Englishman with just a few of the fussy mannerisms of his famous character, C-3PO, the gold-suited protocol droid from "Star Wars."
"I suppose I should apologize to those who thought I would be a live, living gold man walking among you," said Daniels, who also is a visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center. "Coming back to Pittsburgh is like coming home -- though it would be nice if you'd leave the roads where they are."
Pittsburgh is the perfect place for "roboworld," because of its cluster of forward-thinking robotics companies and cutting-edge research universities, noted Ann Metzger, co-director of the Carnegie Science Center.
"Pittsburgh is Robo-burgh -- what better place in the world to showcase robotics than here?" she said.
Exhibits include everything from a robotic foosball game -- never been beaten on the "medium" or "hard" settings -- to AARON the Cybernetic Artist, which explores whether robots actually can be creative. There are Hazard Bots that work in hostile environments, from Pittsburgh's own Redzone Robotics, and a Sketch Robot that re-creates images submitted by visitors using 1,600 marbles, by Pittsburgh-based Integrated Industrial Technologies.
There's a robotic obstacle course, featuring Cye, a compact robot made by Pittsburgh's Educational Robot Co., which uses a mathematical grid and algorithm to help chart its way past obstacles to its goal. Visitors will be able to see how the algorithm helps these robots process their environment and change course.
There's also Hoops, an automobile-welding robot that now uses its arm to shoot basketballs. Hoops long has been a fixture on this floor of the Science Center -- but now visitors can test their own free-throw ability against him. A scoreboard keeps track of humans-vs.-robots scores for each day.
Along the wall are life-size replicas of the Robot Hall of Fame, like Hal 9000 from "2001: A Space Odyssey" and C-3PO and his sidekick, R2D2.
The Robot Hall of Fame's class of 2010 includes NASA Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the iRobot Rooma, the DaVinci Medical Robot System, the T-800 Terminator -- played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1984 movie -- and a squat, primitive trio of robots named Huey, Dewey and Louie, from the film "Silent Running" (1972).
Daniels stood next to the robotic suit that made him famous. After 30 years of being a robot, "I have a very easy relationship with dishwashers and microwaves," he said.
The "roboworld" exhibit was created through a unique partnership between the Carnegie Science Center, local universities and the robotics industry. Partners include Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, California University of Pennsylvania, Robert Morris University, McKesson Automation, Aethon and Redzone Robotics.
"Much of what you see in 'roboworld' is the product of regional innovation," said Ron Baillie, co-director of the Carnegie Science Center.
The key to keeping Pittsburgh as a center for innovation is to get its future workforce, the students of today, interested early, Baillie said.
"Robotics is a gateway to higher-level math and science," he noted.
Crunch Gear
Mars Rovers, Roomba and the Terminator enter the Robot Hall of Fame
by Devin Coldewey on April 21, 2009
I think congratulations are in order! The official Robot Hall of Fame is inducting several new members into its illustrious ranks. Along with Spirit, Opportunity, Roomba, and the original Terminator, the terrifying Da Vinci surgical bot and Huey, Dewey and Louie, some old-school droids from Silent Running will number themselves among the elite.
The announcement by Carnegie Mellon University details their accomplishments and says there will be a ceremony, but not till 2010. Let’s hear it for these brave bots, even though they are indicative of the growing reliance upon machines that will be our downfall in the coming Robocalypse.
Anthony Daniels is back for his semester visit and hosting of the annual Robot Hall of Fame induction ceremony. And this year will see the opening of roboworld at the Carnegie Science Center, which will house the Robot Hall of Fame.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09112/964506-115.stm
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/s_621668.html
The Get in Line team was a huge hit at this year's Carnival. The Tartan has a nice article providing a great overview of the weekend's success. http://www.thetartan.org/2009/4/20/news/carnival
