The mission of the Yachats Academy of Arts & Sciences is to provide educational and entertainment opportunities for people on the central Oregon coast. Sponsored by Polly Plumb Productions, we encourage the residents of the village of Yachats, Oregon to work with Academy board members to organize those events that they judge to be most enjoyable.
Every time you rely on your phone to translate a foreign language, you ask your smart speaker to do something, or your car skids on black ice, you’ve taken advantage of artificial intelligence. While Hollywood may pose a fearful future in which humans battle wily robots, the reality is that this technology faces significant limitations. Initiatives to create self-driving cars and swarms of flying drones occasionally capture headlines, but daunting hurdles remain.
Dr. Julie A. Adams, the Associate Director of Research for the Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute at Oregon State University, will address these and other issues related to artificial intelligence and robotics. “My research is grounded in robotics applications for domains such as first response, archaeology, oceanography, the national airspace and the U.S. military,” says Adams.
Prior to joining OSU, Adams was a full professor of computer science and computer engineering at Vanderbilt University, where she founded the Human-Machine Teaming Laboratory. She has worked in Human Factors for Honeywell, Inc. and the Eastman Kodak Company. Her research interests include distributed artificial intelligence, swarms, robotics and human-machine teaming. Her work has been featured in international news outlets, including National Geographic, Scientific American Podcast, Der Spiegel, and BBC on-line.