My answers to the questionnaire

10. My name is Jerod Weinman. For this course, I prefer to be called any of the following: Professor Weinman, Dr. Weinman, or (in egalitarian Grinnell College style) Mr. Weinman, whichever you prefer.

11. I studied Computer Science and Mathematics (double major B.S.) at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, a similarly-sized school in Terre Haute, Indiana that focuses on teaching engineering, math, and science.

    My PhD in Computer Science came from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I specialized in computer vision and machine learning. My dissertation research involved designing algorithms for a system to help the blind navigate by reading text from images (such as street signs and storefronts).

12. In addition to this course, I am teaching CSC151, "Functional Problem Solving in Scheme."

13. Unlike today, when I started with computers, it was still unusual to be first exposed to them as a one year-old, which I was when my dad brought home his first Apple ][. This is the same computer I first learned to program on in junior high. (My first was a quiz program about baseball trivia.) I was excited by the opportunity to practice creative thinking and problem solving that could be applied to whatever other interests were at hand. As an undergraduate, an introductory course on image processing led me to my research area where I am often faced with reverse engineering a different kind of "computer"--the human visual system.

14. As always, I look forward to getting to know my students and their approaches to learning about computation.

15. Even if you are not a Computer Science major or choose not to take any further CompSci classes, my biggest concern is that you will have a greater understanding of the fundamental problems faced by intelligent agents and their designers, and how to go about analyzing such problems and potential solutions.

16. You can ask me about the landmark of my hometown in Nebraska, my earlier involvement as a college radio DJ, my stint as a frontman for a punk band in a previous life, or whether I've managed to resuscitate my hobby of playing fingerstyle guitar, which has been dormant since writing my PhD thesis.

What questions do you have for me that have not already been answered?

What computer programming language do you believe will be most important in the future?

Wow, that's a deep question. However, I'm not sure I agree with the premise. Understanding the general notion of computation (i.e., algorithms and computability) is of course paramount, but coming back down, understanding the three paradigms we teach (functional, imperative, and object-oriented) will be most important for learning to solve any problem with a given programming language. You'll even pick up the fourth paradign (declarative) in this course. Languages come and go (except C, it's come but never gone), so knowing the common aspects and approaches is most important.

What were your parents'/parent's/siblings'/sibling's professions? (The simple explanation for this question is that I'm interested in how the professional interests of parents influence the professional interests of their children.)

My father majored in English at a liberal arts college and spent a year doing social work before becoming a real estate broker (eventually starting his own brokerage). My mother started as a middle school special needs reading instructor before budgets required her to become a grade school teacher (with a science endorsement), which she did for most of her career. I suspect her trade had little direct influence on me, as it was not until late in my graduate career I decided to become a teaching-oriented academic. However, I am positive there must have been something there.

Who is your favorite Pokemon (of the original 151)?

I have no idea. I can, however, tell you that some of my college friends played games under the clan "Pikafoop," which is a word I like to say. (foop having an AI-related etymology.)

What made you interested in Artificial Intelligence? What advancements in the field particularly excite you?

I find the idea of flexible computing artifacts that are able to help humanity to be quite compelling. That so many things are still unknown about what makes intelligence and how to make it is inspiring. The continued development of AI as a science (of the artificial, as Herb Simon says) that is amenable to the scientific method is exciting.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I read a lot. Whether it's non-fiction (which I'm not as fast at -- most recently it was John Bright's Kingdom of God and G.K. Chesterton's Orthodoxy), or fiction (I'm currently reading The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier, which was an honorarium for speaking at U. of Iowa, but Paul Aster is my favorite fiction writer), or the newspaper (typically the Christian Science Monitor or the local Grinnell Herald-Register), that's what I spend much of my evening hours doing (when I'm not gardening, or fishing, or XC skiing, or other seasonally appropriate activities).

What is your main concern for this semester?

First, making sure you all meet the objectives for this class! Second, unifying several strands of my research (two previous papers, a new algorithm, and a new dataset) to write a new journal article.