Lorelei Kelly

Tapus, Mataric & Scassellati, “Grand challenges of socially assistive robots.” Sparrow & Sparrow, “In the Hands of Machines.” This is another set of robotics articles that had me mainly thinking about artificial intelligence, with talk about things like giving robots personalities, empathy, and the ability to adapt to complex long-term changes. The point of designing a socially assistive robot for patient care, of course, is for what it can do that human can't. In place like the US with a proportionally old population, there is a shortage of high-quality long-term caregivers, mainly because such work is difficult and demanding, as Sparrow and Sparrow point out. One caregiver may only adequately care for a small number of patients, and the work is often both emotionally and physically stressful. Robots don't feel emotional or physical stress like humans do, they can (assuming no accidental malfunction…) function for long periods of time and on demand rather than needing time to rest and care for themselves, they could stay in a person's home and offer more independence, etc...

This better be the last word on Twitter. If it's good enough for Margaret Atwood, it's good enough for you. Bitches...

I've been doing things, really I have. But it never feels like I've been doing enough things, and when I am feeling unproductive and useless I get stuck in a spiral of being unproductive and useless, and if that continues I will really be in trouble...

It's still Ada Lovelace Day for a few more hours, and I want to get something posted, but it's been a long day and it ended with an evening class, and I have this thing where evening classes sort of liquefy my brain. So I will present you with a wee link roundup of awesome ladies doing awesome stuff with awesome computer tech...

I started this post two weeks ago, but like I said, I've not been so good at finishing things lately. But all that's changing now! So here's part 1 of a series of posts about my capstone work so far...

To be honest I've been much better at starting than finishing things lately. I've been having some existential angst about graduating and leaving school for the first time in my life. I know I want to graduate and not be in school anymore, I believe it will be good for me. But it's also scary. I've been doing school for as long as I can remember. I know I'm good at school, that I can deal with the things I need to in order to succeed, while there are more than a few not-school life skills that I'm not very confident about...

I've been thinking about my "design philosophy" ever since I was asked to sum it up in 140 characters or less for that networking event I went to at the beginning of the semester. I'm sort of long-winded, so it was difficult. What I came up with there was "Everything is connected, every detail matters," which is without question true, but maybe inadequate. It's also not just my design philosophy, but the way I approach my life...

I've got several blog posts about my doings in the works (including a video of my current working capstone prototype!), but I slipped back into denial for a little bit there; I think I went 5 whole days without writing down a to-do list. I didn't open the Sims, but I did watch all six episodes of Our Mutual Friend on netflix instant viewing. Also my sleeping problems have been unusually bad lately, plus I've been unusually busy with meetings and presentations and such since last week. So those posts will have to wait. Tonight I'm just going to nerdgasm...

You know, I started blogging on my official professional website here with the intention of writing about my capstone. I have clearly failed to do so. But maybe, now that I am actually building fun little things relating to it, I will? I'm also starting a small independent study project that is related to my capstone, and I'm writing a proposal about that that should serve as a nice capsule introduction to my topic and work so far. Once I get that finished I will probably post it. For now I just have another list...

And Barbie will indeed become a computer engineer...