After class on Wednesday, I went by a lab in the basement of the Fourth Avenue Building that I had run across awhile ago on the web. I couldn't see much, but I wanted to see more. I emailed the director, Marek A. Perkowski, to see if he would give me a tour. We met on Friday. His office looks a lot like some other Engineering offices I've seen - binders and books floor to ceiling. We went downstairs to the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory and it is amazing. There are robots, bins of electronics, charts, stuffed animal parts, masks, computers, books, and a lot of other cool stuff too. I wish there were windows. We talked about his work, and he gave me the low down on robotics today. It seems like he is interested in quantum computing as it relates to robotic control, which would theoretically be superior to any probabilistic model. He told me about robot theatre and about a lot of things really. It was great. He wants robot theatre, and it hasn't happened. The PhD people start with robots, do amazing things, but gravitate towards software, and don't have the artistic ambition to keep with it. He also works with high school kids (which is really cool), but they are science types and they also gravitate to the tech. The theatre and art people who have come to him conversely get scared off by the tech. I want to work with him, and I am really excited about it. And honestly, I was always more interested in working with op-amps than analyzing their optimal operational capacities using differential equations. PS lab pictures coming soon
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