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Rosalind Picard

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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 intelligently to human emotional states. Applications of their research include improved tutoring systems and assistive technology for use in alleviating Autism.

Picard is the author of over a hundred peer-reviewed scientific articles in multidimensional signal modeling, computer vision, pattern recognition, machine learning, and human-computer interaction, and is known internationally for pioneering research in affective computing and, prior to that, for pioneering research in content-based image and video retrieval. 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). Her award-winning book, Affective Computing, (MIT Press, 1997) lays the groundwork for giving machines the skills of emotional intelligence. She and her students have designed and developed a variety of new sensors, algorithms, and systems for sensing, recognizing, and responding respectfully to human affective information, with applications in human and machine learning, health, and human-computer interaction.

Dr. Picard has served on dozens of national and international 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 Committee for the National Science Foundation's division of Computers in Science and Engineering (CISE) and the Advisory Board for the Georgia Tech College of Computing.

Picard has worked as a consultant for companies such as Apple, AT&T, BT, HP, i.Robot, and Motorola. She has been the keynote presenter or invited plenary speaker at over fifty science or technology events, and has delivered distinguished lectures and colloquia at dozens of universities and research labs internationally. Her group's achievements have been featured in national and international forums for the general public, such as The New York Times, The London Independent, Scientific American Frontiers, NPR's Tech Nation and The Connection, ABC's Nightline and World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Time, Vogue, Voice of America Radio, New Scientist, and BBC's "The Works" and "The Big Byte." Picard lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her husband and three energetic sons.

Unrelated 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". To the undying chagrin of many of the original signatories, 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. This viral controversy bears little relation to the subject of this biography, other than to reveal an example of the interplay of emotions and learning, one of the areas of theoretical study in Affective Computing.

Picard's field of computer science is unrelated to evolutionary biology. It's also unrelated to controversies about Intelligent Design, Panspermia, and the origins of the first DNA molecule. 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." What's even stranger is that most of the editors here have no authority in the field of the biography of the subject of this article, which is supposed to be about Rosalind Picard, not about some unrelated idiotic controversy that gets nearly everyone's panties in wad.

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. Few Biologists but Many Evangelicals Sign Anti-Evolution Petition
  8. Signatories of 'A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism'
  9. Doubts Over Evolution Mount With Over 300 Scientists Expressing Skepticism With Central Tenet of Darwin's Theory
  10. Neurosurgeon Challenges Evolution, PZ Myers, Pharyngula, Science Blogs, February 19, 2007 9:32 AM

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