Fall 2022
Smarter orchards
The promise and progress of intelligent automation at Washington State University » More ...
Machine learning
Summer 2017
Left turns
I recently learned that drivers for UPS make 90 percent of their turns to the right. Since 2004, the package delivery company has had a policy to avoid left turns. They save millions of gallons of fuel and dollars each year because there’s less idling.
While I applaud the UPS effort to save gas and reduce emissions, there’s still something adventurous about the left turn, the unexpected veer in a new direction. We often refer to a left turn as a complete shift in our lives. Some of us even change our entire careers, such as Washington State University alumni Berenice Burdet, Richard Larsen, and … » More …
Summer 2017
AI
One of the most memorable moments of Matthew Taylor’s life so far would look to most people like just a jumble of numbers, brackets, and punctuation strung together with random words on a computer screen.
IF ((dist(K1,T1)<=4) AND
(Min(dist(K3,T1), dist(K3,T2))>=12.8) AND
(ang(K3,K1,T1)>=36))
THEN Pass to K3
And so on. Line after line of computer code flowing like a digital river of expanding possibilities.
Although sophisticated and wonderfully complex, it wasn’t so much the code itself that made this such a pivotal moment.
It was what came next.
Taylor, a graduate student in Texas at the time, … » More …