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Rosalind W. Picard is director of the Affective Computing Research Group at the MIT Media Lab, and co-director of the Things That Think Consortium, the largest industrial sponsorship organization at the lab. Picard is the author of Affective Computing, published in 1997. In 2005, she was named a Fellow of the IEEE.

The Affective Computing Research Group develops tools, techniques, and devices for sensing, interpreting, and processing emotion signals that drive state-of-the-art systems which respond Picard has served on many science and engineering program committees, editorial boards, and review panels, and is presently serving on the editorial board of User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction: The Journal of Personalization Research, as well as on the advisory boards for the National Science Foundation's division of Computers in Science and Engineering (CISE) and for the Georgia Tech College of Computing.intelligently to human emotional states. Applications of their research include improved tutoring systems and assistive technology for use in alleviating Autism.

She holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology, and master's and doctorate degrees, both in electrical engineering and computer science, from MIT. She has been a member of the faculty at the MIT Media Laboratory since 1991, with tenure since 1998.She is recipient (with Tom Minka) of a best paper prize for work on machine learning with multiple models (1998) and is recipient (with Barry Kort and Rob Reilly) of a "best theory paper" prize for their work on affect in human learning (2001).

She is recipient (with Tom Minka) of a best paper prize for work on machine learning with multiple models (1998).

Her book, Affective Computing, (MIT Press, 1997) lays the groundwork for giving machines the skills of emotional intelligence.

Darwin Dissent Controversy

In February 2006, the New York Times reported that Dr. Picard was one of 300 professonals who signed the Discovery Institute's controversial petition, "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism". This one-sentence petition has been widely exploited by its sponsor, the Discovery Institute, and some of their supporters in a national campaign to discredit evolution and to promote the teaching of intelligent design in public schools. It has it the subject of criticism and parody.

Picard's field of computer science is unrelated to evolutionary biology. Writer Ed Brayton, co-founder of "Michigan Citizens for Science" and the The Panda's Thumb website, writes that, "the majority of the people on that list have no training or expertise in evolutionary biology at all. Now that doesn't necessarily mean that they don't know what they're talking about, but it does mean that putting them on a list that is used solely as an appeal to authority is ridiculous, since they have no authority in the field."

References

1. Media Lab Faculty Biography
2. Publication of Affective Computing
3. IEEE Fellows of the Class of 2005
4. Research Projects of the Affective Computing Research Group
5. Affective Computing Group Web Page
6. Current and Past Projects
7. MIT Faculty Biography Page
8. Affective Learning Companion
9. Affective Learning Companion
10. MIT Press Publication of Affective Computing
11. Few Biologists but Many Evangelicals Sign Anti-Evolution Petition
12. Signatories of 'A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism'
13. Doubts Over Evolution Mount With Over 300 Scientists Expressing Skepticism With Central Tenet of Darwin's Theory
14. Neurosurgeon Challenges Evolution, PZ Myers, Pharyngula, Science Blogs, February 19, 2007 9:32 AM

External links

• Affective Computing Group Web Page
• Things That Think Consortium Web Page
• Rosalind (Roz) W. Picard Homepage
• MIT Course on Autism Theory and Technology

• 1962 births
• Living people
• American computer scientists
• Women computer scientists
• Electronics engineers
• Artificial intelligence researchers
• People from Massachusetts
• Georgia Institute of Technology alumni
• Signatories of "A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism"