Dr. Michael Herrmann

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Michael Herrmann will be joining the School as a Lecturer, in September this year.

J. Michael Herrmann received a Diploma in Mathematics in 1988 and, in 1993, a doctoral degree in Computer Science, both from Leipzig University.

He has held post-doctoral positions at NORDITA, Copenhagen, and at RIKEN's Laboratory for Information Representation in Japan. From 1996 to 2001, he was with the Max-Planck Institute for Fluid Dynamics at Goettingen, Germany. In 2002 he became an assistant professor at Goettingen University.

Dr. Herrmann is currently an associated researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization and a principal investigator at the Goettingen Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience.

His research is focused on learning theory in autonomous agents and behavioral neuroscience, machine learning, and dynamics of neural systems.

Dr. Subramanian Ramamoorthy (Ram)

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Subramanian Ramamoorthy will be joining the School as a Lecturer, in September this year.

Ram comes to us from the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin, where he recently obtained his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, under the supervision of Prof. Benjamin Kuipers. Previously, he graduated with an ME degree from the University of Virginia in 1999, and a BE from Bangalore University in 1996.

From 1999 to 2007, Ram was a member of the research and development team at National Instruments Corp. in Austin, Texas, working in the areas of computer vision, motion control and dynamic simulation.

He is primarily interested in the use of intelligent computing and machine learning to solve problems involving complex dynamical systems. He has made contributions to robotics and autonomous agent design. He is also interested in using similar techniques to address questions involving integrative and systems approaches to biology.

Jonathan Edwards looks at ... us!

Olympic triple-jumper Jonathan Edwards has recently completed a series for BBC Radio 4, looking into the way science shapes and explains our world.

In the final programme in the series, Jonathan looks into Artificial Intelligence. A keen fan of science fiction, especially films like The Matrix, Jonathan wants to know how much science fact there is in fictional AI.

Jonathan visits the School of Informatics and gets a crash course on machine learning and voice synthesis.

He also discusses the convergence of biological and technological worlds, and hears about an intelligent system designed to help us deal more efficiently with emergencies.

After talking to Edinburgh philosopher, Andy Clark, about concepts of intelligence, he rounds off his day playing Connect Four with a talking, thinking, moving robot.

Having seen what AI can do, Jonathan emerges with renewed respect for a biological machine that’s all too often taken for granted - our own bodies.