Hod Lipson (born 1967) is an Israeli - American

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrat ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

. He is the director of

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

's Creative Machines Lab. Lipson's work focuses on

evolutionary robotics Evolutionary robotics is an embodied approach to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in which robots are automatically designed using Darwinian principles of natural selection. The design of a robot, or a subsystem of a robot such as a neural controller, ...

, design automation,

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D printin ...

artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

, and creating

machine A machine is a physical system using Power (physics), power to apply Force, forces and control Motion, movement to perform an action. The term is commonly applied to artificial devices, such as those employing engines or motors, but also to na ...

s that can demonstrate some aspects of human

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

. His publications have been cited more than 26,000 times, and he has an

h-index The ''h''-index is an author-level metric that measures both the productivity and citation impact of the publications, initially used for an individual scientist or scholar. The ''h''-index correlates with obvious success indicators such as winn ...

of 73, . Lipson is interviewed in the 2018 documentary on artificial intelligence '' Do You Trust This Computer?''

Biography

Lipson received

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

(1989) and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(1998) degrees in

Mechanical Engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, and ...

from Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Before joining the faculty of

in 2015, he was a professor at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

for 14 years. Prior to Cornell, he was an assistant professor in the Computer Science Department at

Brandeis University , mottoeng = "Truth even unto its innermost parts" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = NECHE , president = Ronald D. Liebowitz , pro ...

's, and a postdoctoral researcher at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

's Mechanical Engineering Department.

Research

Lipson has been involved with machine learning and presented his "self-aware" robot at the 2007 TED conference. Beginning in 2009, he and his

graduate student Michael Schmidt developed a software named

Eureqa Eureqa is a proprietary modeling engine originally created by Cornell's Artificial Intelligence Lab and later commercialized by Nutonian, Inc. The software uses evolutionary search to determine mathematical equations that describe sets of data in ...

capable of deriving equations, mathematical relationships and laws of nature from sets of data: for instance, deriving

Newton's second law of motion Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in motion ...

from a data set of positions and velocities of a

double pendulum In physics and mathematics, in the area of dynamical systems, a double pendulum also known as a chaos pendulum is a pendulum with another pendulum attached to its end, forming a simple physical system that exhibits rich dynamic behavior with a ...

. In 2011, it was reported that Eureqa had succeeded at a much more complex task: re-deriving seven equations describing how levels of various chemical compounds fluctuate in oxygen-deprived yeast cells. In research on robotic self-awareness he advocates "self-simulation" as preliminary stage. Lipson has been involved with teams that have created a number of machines including: * Fab@Home

fabber 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the Manufacturing, construction of a three-dimensional object from a computer-aided design, CAD model or a digital 3D modeling, 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is ...

s—low cost "3-d printers" * Self replicating robots—simple structures capable of reproducing themselves given the appropriate parts. * "Self Aware Robots"—machines capable of compensating for damage that would otherwise impede movement. * Molecubes self-reproducing robots.

References

External links

Columbia Creative Machines Lab homepage
* ** (TED2007) * Live broadcast of Hod Lipson on The Agenda with Steve Paikin discussion panel, "Robotics Revolution and the Future of Evolution"with

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog ''Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

, Michael Belfiore, and

Eliezer Yudkowsky Eliezer Shlomo Yudkowsky (born September 11, 1979) is an American decision theory and artificial intelligence (AI) researcher and writer, best known for popularizing the idea of friendly artificial intelligence. He is a co-founder and research ...

at the Quantum to Cosmos festival. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lipson, Hod 1967 births Living people American roboticists Cornell University faculty Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science faculty People from Haifa Researchers of artificial life