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Covenanter New Director of Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute
PITTSBURGH, PA (June 2, 2001) - Dr. Chuck Thorpe, a member of Stoneridge Covenant Church in Allison Park, has been named full-time director of the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
A Principal Research Scientist at Carnegie Mellon, Thorpe has served as acting director of the Robotics Institute during the 2000-2001 academic year. He replaces Takeo Kanade, the U.A. Helen Whitaker University professor, who will return to his research work at Carnegie Mellon. Thorpe founded (in 1998) and directs the master's degree program in Robotics at CMU. His interests in computer vision, planning and designs for outdoor robot vehicles have translated into
numerous advances in technology.
"We have the greatest respect for Chuck as a scientist, educator, and administrator," said Jim Morris, a dean at the school. "His previous work as a project leader and acting director have convinced us all that he will do an excellent job."
Thorpe grew up as the son of missionary parents Dr. Roger and Eileen Thorpe in Africa and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Natural Sciences at North Park University (then College) in
1979. He earned his Doctorate in Computer Science from CMU in 1984. Since then, Thorpe's Navlab group at the Robotics Institute has built a series of 11 robot cars, trucks and full-sized passenger buses for military and civilian research.
The Navlab group has pioneered new methods in stereo vision, laser range finding, 3-D terrain modeling, neural nets for perception, route planning, driver performance modeling, traffic simulation, teleoperation, vehicle control on rough terrain and system architectures. Dr. Thorpe has also been involved with automated helicopters, walking robots and underwater robots. He is a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence.
Copyright © 2008 The Evangelical Covenant Church. |
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