Professor Core Faculty of Cognitive Science View my website

Bio

Larry Yaeger has used computers to solve a wide variety of problems throughout his career. Having studied Aerospace Engineering, with a focus on computers, he carried out pioneering computational fluid dynamic flow studies over the space shuttle and submarines. As Director of Software Development at Digital Productions, he used a Cray X-MP supercomputer to generate the computer graphic special effects for Hollywood films The Last Starfighter, 2010, and Labyrinth, as well a number of Clio Award-winning television commercials. While with Alan Kay's Vivarium Program at Apple Computer, he designed and programmed a computer "voice" for Koko the gorilla, helped introduce Macintoshes into routine production on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and created a widely respected Artificial Life computational ecology ("Polyworld") that evolves neural architectures resulting from the mutation and recombination of genetic codes, via behavior-based, sexual reproduction of artificial organisms. He also co-authored possibly the first book+CD-ROM title, the award-winning Visualization of Natural Phenomena. Also at Apple, in the Advanced Technology Group, he was Technical Lead in the development of the neural network-based hand-print recognition system, the world's first genuinely usable hadwriting recognition system, showcased in second generation Newton PDAs and Mac OS X's "Inkwell". He currently resides in scenic Beanblossom, Indiana, and teaches and performs research in Artificial Life at Indiana University.