UPCOMING SEMINAR

Hod Lipson Analysis by Synthesis: From Cognitive Robotics to Computational Biology Monday 6th of September 2010, 12:00 AM, INM202

Abstract:

Over the last few decades, evolutionary algorithms have become increasingly popular as a tool for automatically synthesizing solutions to open ended problems. The same process, however, can be reversed for analysis: Starting with an existing solution, evolutionary processes can be used as a reverse engineering tool: We evolve models rewarding those that exhibit behavior that is similar to an observed behavior. The resulting evolved models then essentially provide hypotheses about the hidden target object.

This talk will discuss this process, known as "analysis by synthesis", and demonstrate its application across a number of fields ranging from robotics to biology, where analysis challenges are plentiful. In particular, co-evolving tests can serve to disambiguate competing candidate models, essentially "asking questions" that help guide the analysis. Ultimately, can the machine generate new knowledge? We will see what happens when the machine discovers models that we cannot yet explain, giving a glimpse of what might be the future of science.

Biography:

Hod Lipson is an Associate Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and Computing & Information Science at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He directs the Computational Synthesis group, which focuses on novel ways for automatic design, fabrication and adaptation of virtual and physical machines. He has led work in areas such as evolutionary robotics, multi-material functional rapid prototyping, machine self-replication and programmable self-assembly. Lipson received his Ph.D. from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology in 1998, and continued to a postdoc at Brandeis University and MIT. His research focuses primarily on biologically-inspired approaches, as they bring new ideas to engineering and new engineering insights into biology. For more information visit http://www.mae.cornell.edu/lipson.

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