Dave Touretzky's Page I'm a Research Professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University. Research interests: Cognitive robotics. Computer science education. Computational neuroscience.. Addresses and phone numbers Recent publications

Personal: Commercial pilot and certified flight instructor. I own a twin-engine Piper Seneca II, nicknamed "The Beast". As a volunteer pilot I occasionally transport organs or patients for local hospitals. Fly acrobatics when an acro plane is available. I'm also a parrot lover, and currently live with a yellownape amazon and a cockatiel. I was interviewed about my robotics work by EEWeb Pulse in August, 2011. That's me with some Chiaras on the cover.

Courses and Software

• Class 15-494/694: Cognitive Robotics, running now
• Class 15-294: Rapid Prototyping Technologies, last offered Fall 2024
• Class 15-394: Intermediate Rapid Prototyping, last offered Fall 2024
• Class 15-883: Computational Models of Neural Systems, next offered Fall 2025
• Class 15-381/681: Artifical Intelligence: Representation and Problem Solving (finished)
• Class 99-353: SolidWorks and Laser Cutting, Fall 2016.
• Class 15-110 Principles of Computing (Fall 2012, with Dilsun Kaynar)
• Class 15-486/782: Artificial Neural Networks (Fall 2006)
• Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition graduate training program
• Kodu Resources for Teachers, including tile manipulatives and Kodu flash cards.
• HHsim: Hodgkin-Huxley simulator program
• Tekkotsu: a software framework for mobile robots.

Current Projects

Calypso, an intelligent robot programming framework for the Cozmo robot, with real computer vision, speech recognition, and AI.
The AI for K-12 initiative: defining national guidelines for what K-12 students should know about Artificial Intelligence.

The DMCA and other First Amendment Issues Mirror of George Hotz's PS3 jailbreak files presently under legal threat by Sony. Will they never learn? DeCSS decryption software for DVDs: should private economic interests be allowed to override the First Amendment? Visit the Gallery of CSS Descramblers, the Gallery of Adobe Remedies, and the Gallery of DMCA Abuses. Do-It-Yourself DMCA Counter Notification Letter What the FBI doesn't want you to see at RaisetheFist.com. CPSR/Pittsburgh, our local chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Keith Raniere, leader of the NXIVM cult, has a problem with free speech. NIPS Conference I serve on the board of directors of the NIPS Foundation. Visit the NIPS web site for information about this and past years' NIPS conferences. Lisp-Related Stuff Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation, is back in print as of 2013 thanks to Dover Publications, and also available as an e-book. The 1990 edition is free to read on this web site. I also have some free software for Lisp educators. I serve on the editorial board of Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation, which carries lots of material related to Lisp and Scheme. Ethics, Aviation, and Other Stuff Ethics and Etiquette In Scientific Research (updated for 2007): notes from a lecture to computer science graduate students. Rules of conduct for persons in authority. How to avoid improprieties; how to tell if you're being screwed. American Technologies Group: What are they up to? Dubious scientific claims, charges of consumer fraud... Some information about BioFriendly Corporation. CP4break and the decryption of CyberPatrol's ban list. Business travel using GA aircraft: an information resource Information of interest to CMU aviators Garmin Gotchas: GNS-530 GPS. Stuff I learned the hard way. (I love my 530 and hope to understand every nuance of the device -- eventually.) Tutorials on various subjects. (Currently: information theory, and MATLAB programming.) The Church of Scientology's Wacky Secrets Sure, Scientology is a rich and vengeful religious cult based on a bizarre form of psychotherapy and a belief in reincarnated space aliens. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun with them. See my appearance on CNN Headline News (May 23, 2007), talking about Scientology's infiltration of the Baton Rouge public schools. I also appeared on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on April 17, 2006 and again on July 23, 2007, explaining the Scientology cult's wacky beliefs. Secrets of Scientology. Xenu the space alien, subtle thought control techniques, sacred lie detectors, and more. Everything the Church of Scientology (and Tom Cruise) don't want you to know. I am currently receiving legal threats from Scientology lawyers over this site, and was even picketed at work once. Looking for Scientology's "we can kill you" release forms? Click here. The Secret Library of Scientology, founded by Dean Benjamin. The books L. Ron Hubbard would not want you to read. Stop-Narconon.org: protecting the vulnerable from Narconon/Scientology. Amway Sucks! Includes a mirror of Amway: the Untold Story, by Sidney Schwartz. Amway/Quixtar is a multi-level marketing scam with interesting cult-like aspects. (And Scientology is often called "the Amway of religions".) Amway's lawyers have promised to sue me over this page. The Gentle Wind Project is another cult that has actually poked fun at Scientology, but with their holy healing hockey pucks (designed by space aliens!), they're just as nutty. Here's why you should boycott the lowlife spammers and liars at Bentham Science Publishers.