I am a Master's student in Computer Science at Georgia Tech's College of Computing, specializing in artificial intelligence and cognitive science. Alongside my coursework, I am also a research assistant in Dr. Ashok Goel's Design Intelligence Lab, where I work on the Biologically Inspired Design team. As a Master's student, I am taking this opportunity at Georgia Tech to learn about the broad spectrum of modern and historical AI work and the various paradigms within this discipline. It is my goal that by the end of my degree I will have found a specific topic within AI to focus on for future doctoral studies.

I view AI as a means to try and determine the principles behind intelligence. Not only will understanding these principles help us build more effective machines, but I believe this knowledge is vital to expanding what we know of ourselves and of the universe.

It is my opinion that an excellent place to start when pursuing this path of study is by analogy to human thought and, possibly, the cognitive abilities of other animals. Although it may not be necessary to copy all the details of our minds (such as the chemical underpinnings), I think that by ignoring modern understanding of human cognition we make a terrible blunder. Why, if there is already a prime example of a robust, general intelligence, should we not use this example as guidance? I say we absolutely should!

In Dr. Goel's lab, project I'm involved in is taking our lab's knowledge of mental representations, analogical reasoning, and creativity and applying it to the very difficult problem of biologically-inspired design. How can we help people make the mental leaps required to take a difficult engineering problem and discover a sustainable and environmentally friendly solution? How do biologists, engineers, and designers understand complex natural systems? We are trying to answer these questions and others in this project.

I am also profoundly interested in the philosophical issues artificial intelligence raises. From the mundane ("will work in AI remove jobs from the market and hurt the economy?") to the futuristic ("will a human-level artificial intelligence change civilization?") to the spiritual ("will a human-level artificial intelligence be religious?"), all these questions are fascinating to me. I am very excited to work and study in a field that has the potential for such far-ranging consequences, and I only hope that whatever the answers to these questions, my work and the work of my discipline benefits humanity and broadens our understanding of the universe.