Steve Omohundro
Encyclopedia
Steve Omohundro is an American scientist known for his research on Hamiltonian physics, dynamical systems, programming languages, machine learning, machine vision, and the social implications of artificial intelligence. His current work uses rational economics to develop safe and beneficial intelligent technologies for better collaborative modeling, understanding, innovation, and decision making.
and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley
.
, the first programming language for the Connection Machine
. Omohundro also helped create the data parallel
style of parallel programming and developed many parallel algorithm libraries and applications for the Connection Machine.
(ICSI) in Berkeley, California
, where he led the development of the open source programming language Sather
, which introduced a number of advances in object-oriented language design. Sather is featured in O'Reilly's History of Programming Languages poster.
analyses.
He showed that there exist smooth partial differential equations
which stably perform universal computation
by simulating arbitrary cellular automata
. The asymptotic behavior of these PDEs is therefore logically undecidable.
With John David Crawford he showed that the orbits of three-dimensional period doubling systems
can form an infinite number of topologically distinct torus knots
and described the structure of their stable and unstable manifolds
.
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
and cofounded the Center for Complex Systems Research with Stephen Wolfram
and Norman Packard
. While at the University of Illinois, he worked with Stephen Wolfram and others (D. Grayson, R. Maeder, H. Cejtin, D. Ballman and J. Keiper) to create the symbolic mathematics program Mathematica
. He and Stephen Wolfram
led a team of students that won an Apple Computer contest to design "The Computer of the Year 2000." Their design entry "Tablet" was a touchscreen tablet with GPS and other features that finally appeared when the Apple iPad was introduced 22 years later.
that was featured in Scientific American.
Education
Omohundro earned degrees in physics and mathematics from Stanford UniversityStanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
.
Efficient Geometric Learning Algorithms
Omohundro was one of the first to recognize the importance of machine learning for machine vision and started the "Vision and Learning Group" at the University of Illinois which produced 4 Masters and 2 Ph.D. theses. He developed a number of efficient geometric algorithms for speeding up neural network, machine learning, machine vision, and graphics tasks, several of which are widely used. Omohundro created numerous algorithms based on k-d trees, invented the powerful balltree and boxtree geometric data structures., and invented the powerful bumptree structure, which dramatically speeds up Gaussian mixture based neural network algorithms and produced a factor of 50 speedup on a robotics task.Manifold Learning and Lipreading
Omohundro invented the general and widely used manifold learning task and introduced several algorithms for accomplishing this task. Omohundro, Chris Bregler and others extended these ideas and applied them to a wide range of visual learning and modelling tasks.Model Merging and Grammar Learning
Omohundro invented the Best-first model merging approach to machine learning. Omohundro and Andreas Stolcke applied this model to learning stochastic grammars. Their approach was very successful in learning Hidden Markov Models and Stochastic Context-free Grammars and is now widely used.Family Discovery Learning Algorithm
Omohundro developed the Family Discovery Learning Algorithm, which discovers the dimension and structure of a parameterized family of stochastic models.Self-Improving Artificial Intelligence and AI Safety
Omohundro started Self-Aware Systems in Palo Alto, California to research the technology and social implications of self-improving artificial intelligence. He was an advisor to the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Lifeboat Foundation on artificial intelligence. He discovered that rational systems exhibit problematic natural "drives" that will need to be countered in order to build intelligent systems safely. His papers, talks, and videos on AI safety have generated extensive interest. He has given many talks on self-improving artificial intelligence, cooperative technology, AI safety, and connections with biological intelligence.*Lisp Parallel Programming Language
At Thinking Machines Corporation, Cliff Lasser and Steve Omohundro developed Star Lisp*Lisp
The *Lisp programming language was conceived of in 1985 by Cliff Lasser and Steve Omohundro as a way of providing an efficient yet high-level language for programming the nascent Connection Machine.-Prelude:At the time the Connection Machine was being designed and built, the only language being...
, the first programming language for the Connection Machine
Connection Machine
The Connection Machine was a series of supercomputers that grew out of Danny Hillis' research in the early 1980s at MIT on alternatives to the traditional von Neumann architecture of computation...
. Omohundro also helped create the data parallel
Data parallelism
Data parallelism is a form of parallelization of computing across multiple processors in parallel computing environments. Data parallelism focuses on distributing the data across different parallel computing nodes...
style of parallel programming and developed many parallel algorithm libraries and applications for the Connection Machine.
Sather Programming Language
Omohundro joined the International Computer Science InstituteInternational Computer Science Institute
The International Computer Science Institute is an independent, non-profit research organization located in Berkeley, California, USA. Since its founding in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley, where several of its members hold faculty appointments...
(ICSI) in Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
, where he led the development of the open source programming language Sather
Sather
Sather is an object-oriented programming language. It originated circa 1990 at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, developed by an international team led by Steve Omohundro...
, which introduced a number of advances in object-oriented language design. Sather is featured in O'Reilly's History of Programming Languages poster.
Physics and Dynamical Systems Theory
Omohundro's book Geometric Perturbation Theory in Physics describes natural Hamiltonian symplectic structures for a wide range of physical models that arise from perturbation theoryPerturbation theory
Perturbation theory comprises mathematical methods that are used to find an approximate solution to a problem which cannot be solved exactly, by starting from the exact solution of a related problem...
analyses.
He showed that there exist smooth partial differential equations
Partial differential equation
In mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables...
which stably perform universal computation
Turing machine
A Turing machine is a theoretical device that manipulates symbols on a strip of tape according to a table of rules. Despite its simplicity, a Turing machine can be adapted to simulate the logic of any computer algorithm, and is particularly useful in explaining the functions of a CPU inside a...
by simulating arbitrary cellular automata
Cellular automaton
A cellular automaton is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, physics, complexity science, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states, such as "On" and "Off"...
. The asymptotic behavior of these PDEs is therefore logically undecidable.
With John David Crawford he showed that the orbits of three-dimensional period doubling systems
Period-doubling bifurcation
In mathematics, a period doubling bifurcation in a discrete dynamical system is a bifurcation in which the system switches to a new behavior with twice the period of the original system...
can form an infinite number of topologically distinct torus knots
Torus knot
In knot theory, a torus knot is a special kind of knot that lies on the surface of an unknotted torus in R3. Similarly, a torus link is a link which lies on the surface of a torus in the same way. Each torus knot is specified by a pair of coprime integers p and q. A torus link arises if p and q...
and described the structure of their stable and unstable manifolds
Stable manifold
In mathematics, and in particular the study of dynamical systems, the idea of stable and unstable sets or stable and unstable manifolds give a formal mathematical definition to the general notions embodied in the idea of an attractor or repellor...
.
Mathematica and Apple Tablet Contest
From 1986 to 1988, he was an Assistant Professor of Computer scienceComputer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...
and cofounded the Center for Complex Systems Research with Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram is a British scientist and the chief designer of the Mathematica software application and the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine.- Biography :...
and Norman Packard
Norman Packard
Norman Harry Packard is a chaos theory physicist and one of the founders of the Prediction Company and ProtoLife. He is an alumnus of Reed College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Packard is known for his contributions to both chaos theory and cellular automata...
. While at the University of Illinois, he worked with Stephen Wolfram and others (D. Grayson, R. Maeder, H. Cejtin, D. Ballman and J. Keiper) to create the symbolic mathematics program Mathematica
Mathematica
Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...
. He and Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram is a British scientist and the chief designer of the Mathematica software application and the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine.- Biography :...
led a team of students that won an Apple Computer contest to design "The Computer of the Year 2000." Their design entry "Tablet" was a touchscreen tablet with GPS and other features that finally appeared when the Apple iPad was introduced 22 years later.
Neural Models of Attention
Subutai Ahmad and Steve Omohundro developed biologically realistic neural models of selective attention.Bayesian Image Database Search
Omohundro became a Research scientist at the NEC Research Institute, working on machine learning and computer vision, and was a co-inventor of U.S. Patent 5,696,964, "Multimedia Database Retrieval System Which Maintains a Posterior Probability Distribution that Each Item in the Database is a Target of a Search."Pirate Puzzle
Omohundro developed an intriguing extension to the game theoretic Pirate PuzzlePirate game
The pirate game is a simple mathematical game. It illustrates how, if assumptions conforming to a homo economicus model of human behaviour hold, outcomes may be surprising. It is a multi-player version of the ultimatum game.-The game:...
that was featured in Scientific American.
Gesture Based User Interfaces
Omohundro and 5 others invented U.S. Patent 7,775,439 B2 "Featured Wands for Camera Calibration and as a Gesture Based 3D Interface Device."Publications
- Christoph Bregler, Stephen Omohundro, Michelle Covell, Malcolm Slaney, Subutai Ahmad, David Forsyth, Jerry Feldman, "Probabilistic Models of Verbal and Body Gestures" in Computer Vision in Man-Machine Interfaces, eds. R. Cipolla and A. Pentland, Cambridge University Press, 1998.
- Christoph Bregler and Stephen M. Omohundro, "Learning Visual Motion Models for Lip Reading" in Motion-Based Recognition, eds. M. Sha and R. Jain, Kluwer Academic Press, 1997.
- Stephen M. Omohundro, "Family Discovery", in Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 8, eds. D. S. Touretzky, M. C. Mozer and M. E. Hasselmo, MIT PressMIT PressThe MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts .-History:...
, Cambridge, MA, 1996. - Christoph Bregler and Stephen M. Omohundro, "Surface Learning with Applications to Lipreading", in Cowan, J. D., Tesauro, G., and Alspector, J., (eds.) Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 6, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1994
- Stephen M. Omohundro, "The SatherSatherSather is an object-oriented programming language. It originated circa 1990 at the International Computer Science Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, developed by an international team led by Steve Omohundro...
Programming Language", Dr. Dobb's JournalDr. Dobb's JournalDr. Dobb's Journal was a monthly journal published in the United States by CMP Technology. It covered topics aimed at computer programmers. DDJ was the first regular periodical focused on microcomputer software, rather than hardware. It later became a monthly section within the periodical...
, Volume 18, Issue 11, October 1993, p. 42. - Stephen M. Omohundro, "Geometric Learning Algorithms" Physica D, 42 (1990) 307-321
- Stephen M. Omohundro, "Modelling Cellular Automata with Partial Differential EquationPartial differential equationIn mathematics, partial differential equations are a type of differential equation, i.e., a relation involving an unknown function of several independent variables and their partial derivatives with respect to those variables...
s", Physica D, 10D (1984) 128-134