Reprinted with Permission
From Telluride Watch, July 18, 2003
Neuromorphic Scientists and Others Create Academic
Atmosphere in Town
By Marian Smith
“Now when I ran this office it was neat as a pin,” laughed
Nana Naisbitt as she unlocked the door to the back of the
Telluride Elementary School, where 60 neuromorphic
engineers had set up their workshop for the summer.
Computers, wires, and robots littered the halls and classrooms
and scientists bent over their projects. The scientists, who
herald from the four corners of the world, have been coming to
Telluride through the Telluride Science Research Center for
about nine years.
While the neuromorphic engineers' workshop runs for about
three weeks, other groups of scientists generally meet for one
or two weeks over the course of the ten-week center,
according to Naisbitt, TSRC Coordinator and Executive
Director of the Pinhead Institute. "The neuromorphic
engineers are unique," she said, "because they actually build
things whereas the others mostly just have PowerPoint
presentations and a Q and A discussion after it."
Matt Cheely, one of the neuromorphic engineers from the
University of Maryland, agreed wholeheartedly and explained
the basis of neuromorphic engineering.
"Some people want to learn about engineering through biology,
and some people want to learn about biology through
engineering. It's the practical and the scientific approaches," he
said. "We make these guys so that we can study processes
that we take for granted, like our motor skills and senses."
The "robot room," as Cheely called it, was filled with robots
that moved eerily like animals at the command of their
creators. Among the robots were "kheperas," which looked
like mini pool-cleaners on wheels and zipped randomly around
an enclosure. When they approached the enclosure's walls,
they responded to built-in sensors and rolled away so they
wouldn't hit the walls. In another corner a snake writhed on the
floor in a continuous wave, and "Marilyn" walked like a real
person (or at least was meant to). She lifted one leg, released
her mechanical muscles, and let her foot to fall to the ground
the way we do.
"This workshop is lots of fun," Cheely said. "People bring
equipment and crazy ideas, and then we collaborate." The
neuromorphic engineers are all about sharing, he insisted.
"We're happy and we have fun!" All one has to do is recall
their appearance in the Fourth of July Parade as the bizarrely
dressed "Neuromorphs" to believe that.
And what makes them choose Telluride? "I actually came for
the first time three years ago driving a truck of equipment,"
said Cheely. Many of the other students come on
recommendation from their advisors and professors, he said,
and then they fall in love with Telluride and keep coming back.
"The two main organizers of this specific workshop are the
University of Maryland and the Institute for Neuroinformatics
in Zurich, so a lot of us are from there," he added.
Stephen Berry of the University of Chicago started TSRC with
the idea of breaking away from the traditional academic setting
of professor and student and remaking the hierarchy. He
wanted an environment that included graduate students,
post-docs, research students, and professors from universities
all over the world where they would meet as equals in
discussion. He also wanted to base TSRC in Telluride's
informal setting
Naisbitt described the process: "A faculty member from some
university decides that they want to hold a workshop and
applies to centers like the TSRC to hold it. Ten board
members and one president reviews the request and then, if
approved, they invite everyone else."
The workshops are growing in popularity, said Naisbitt, as
evidenced by the 280 scientists in town this summer for ten
different workshops. That number has grown from 180 last
year and seven in the first year of the center's operation.
With the Pinhead Institute in charge of TSRC's operation for
the first time this summer, Naisbitt is hopeful that the
collaboration will yield more of an academic atmosphere in
Telluride. "When people are looking for a place to retire or
own a second home, they usually choose Aspen because of
the intellectual life," said Naisbitt who grew up in the backyard
of the University of Chicago and attended the university
herself. Scientists in Telluride are in the process of enriching
the community and instigating the beginnings of a campus-like
ambiance. "There really is a lot of potential here," she
continued, noting the abundance of "people with global
capabilities."
To integrate the scientists into town life, this summer Naisbitt
started "Town Talks," which holds lectures by TSRC scientists
in the Wilkinson Public Library once a week.
“I’d like the Pinhead Town Talks and TSRC to be an indicator
that a campus-like setting could be successful here,” she said.
The talks are aimed at a highly educated lay audience and are
presented like an introductory class along the lines of those
presented at elite universities like Naisbitt's own alma mater.
Since their debut on June 24, each talk has attracted audiences
anywhere from 65-100 people, and are proving to be the
perfect means by which the community can interact with the
scientists. Although it is only the first year, Naisbitt anticipates
the beginnings of more campus-like activities that will draw a
different tourist audience to Telluride.
"Also," she chuckled, "the time frame of 6 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. is
perfect mind candy before dinner. It would make a perfect
date – a perfect early date – and would get people talking
about interesting things."
And with other scientists from TSRC attending lectures, the lay
audience is in for quite an experience. "It's like a peer-review,"
Naisbitt explained. "With the lecturer's equals in the audience,
everyone else gets to see the back-and-forth, the challenge,
and the argument in much more depth."
This intellectual activity will grow to be motivating, predicted
Naisbitt. "Someone with the funds and the wherewithal will be
inspired to start something up here in Telluride," she said.