George Bekey
Professor Emeritus of Computer Science
Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering
University of Southern California
Chair, Computer Science Department, USC (1984-89)
Associate Dean for Research, School of Engineering, USC (1995-2000)
Primary Research Emphasis
My primary research emphasis for the past 20 years has been in the field of robotics, including work on walking machines, human-like hands for robots, and the development of robot helicopters. I have published numerous papers and (recently) a major book on robotics. Earlier in my career I was concerned with developing mathematical representations of biological processes, with emphasis on cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems, as well as a variety of problems in automatic control. In all these areas, my research was motivated by real-world problems, and, whenever possible, the results were validated in real world environments. I have published over 200 technical papers and several books in these areas.
At Cal Poly
As a Research Scholar, I hope to participate in the life of the University in the following ways:
- Assisting faculty members in the preparation of research proposals.
- I had more than 35 years of continuous research funding from a number of Federal Agencies, including NSF, ONR, NASA, DARPA, NIH and others, so I have a great deal of experience. In the past I have given seminars on proposal preparation, and I would be pleased to cooperate with Professor Ted Hill in such presentations. I would also be pleased to meet with faculty members individually to work with them on proposal preparation, particularly on interdisciplinary proposals.
- Disseminating information and research findings on robotics.
- During the past year I have given seminars on various aspects of robotics to students and faculty in both Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering. I recently completed a worldwide evaluation of robotics research for NSF and NASA and I would be pleased to present the results. I would also like to meet with graduate students and faculty in areas outside of engineering to discuss the social aspects of robotics, ranging from the effects of robots on the workplace to human-robot cooperation in work and philosophical issues arising from interaction with robots of greatly increased intelligence.
- Developing cross-disciplinary projects.
- I have devoted many years to the development of cross-disciplinary projects at USC and I believe that the greatest research challenges and the most interesting problems are found on the boundaries between disciplines. Hence, I would like to start a faculty discussion group, with the tentative title "Technology and Society", to explore such issues as the effect of the Internet on education, whether robots are likely to replace humans in positions of responsibility, and the effects of depletion of oil supplies on civilization. I would like to draw faculty members from the social sciences and humanities as well as science and engineering to this group.
Robots and Society
During the next few years I plan to concentrate on issues of robots and society, since I believe that there will be increasing interaction and collaboration between humans and robots. The modes of interaction will include cooperation as well as competition and perhaps altruism. Currently there are no credible models of interaction between large groups of robots and humans. I would like to study such issues, with emphasis on ethical issues. I plan to submit proposals to NSF for support of this work.
