Ops, Failure and Artificial People

[malone@aerospace.utoronto.ca]

Nominal Lab Ops Without TAs
===========================

    I would like to thank the class for their patience in this week's 
marking.  Though the marking session will not be as long again until
final evaluation week with no TAs, until there are TAs, progress through
the groups on their primary lab day will be in the same fashion each 
week, aproximately 2 minutes per student.  Please prepare to make this 
process as fast as possible.  On Monday and Wednesday
this should leave about 1 hour at the end of each 3hr class to answer general
questions, test boards and such.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there will be
more such time.  The open hours directly before (M,T,W) the 3hr lab period 
will be devoted to questions.  The open hours directly after (M,W,R) will
be devoted to board testing (and other location specific tasks), and
questions that can be answered without leaving those tasks.  
During marking time, questions should be directed to Drs. Davis, Morison or
Youle, classmates or other supervisors, or held until marking is complete.  


On Design Failure
=================

   Today is the 13th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion.
Since our last lecture was on Design Failure, these links might be 
of interest.

http://tommy.jsc.nasa.gov/~woodfill/SPACEED/SEHHTML/explode.html
http://www.globalserve.net/~chandler/matt/05-210/a1/index.html



A Very Interesting Lecture
==========================

>Royal Canadian Institute for the advancement of science
>
>FREE PUBLIC SCIENCE LECTURES -- ALL ARE WELCOME
>
>JJR MacLeod Auditorium, Medical Sciences Building, UToronto
>Sunday 30 January at 3 p.m. 
>
>Artificial animals (and humans): From physics to intelligence. 
>Demetri Terzopoulos, B.Eng., M.Eng., Ph.D. 
>Dept. of Computer Science, University of Toronto 
>
>Research in Artificial Life, an emerging discipline that transcends the
>traditional boundaries between computational science and biological science,
>has yielded physics-based virtual worlds inhabited by realistic "artificial
>animals". These synthetic organisms possess biomechanical bodies, sensors,
>and brains with locomotion, perception, behavior, learning, and cognition
>centers. Artificial animals, including artificial humans, are of interest in
>computer graphics because they are self-animating creatures that
>dramatically advance the state of the art of character animation and
>interactive games. As biomimetic autonomous agents situated in realistic
>virtual worlds, artificial animals also foster a deeper, computationally
>oriented understanding of complex living systems. A multi-media presentation
>will render the technical material accessible to all.

 
-  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 
M.J. Malone,  Assistant Professor
University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies
4925 Dufferin St., Toronto, Ontario, M3H 5T6
Email Address: malone@aerospace.utoronto.ca     **** Email is best!
UTIAS Office: rm 183, phone: (416) 667-7942
Downtown Off: SF4003, phone: (416) 978-3130  Fax: (416) 667-7799
http://www.aerospace.utoronto.ca   http://www.utias.utoronto.ca