David S. Touretzky

"I came to Carnegie Mellon in 1978 as a graduate student. The robotics institute started in 1979. I was here from the beginning, but I did not do robotics then."

"I am slowly trying to learn quantum mechanics. Right now I’m reading Noson Yanofsky and Mirco Mannucci’s Quantum Computing for Computer Scientists, and Manjit Kumar’s Quantum: Einstein, Bohr, and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality. Both are excellent books."

"I take a constructivist approach to understanding. When I study something, I ask “How could I build this, or how can I build things with this?” This is opposed to, for example, “Where might I observe this in nature?” I also tend to ask right away,"

"One interesting experience I had as a computer scientist occurred when the Motion Picture Association filed a lawsuit to suppress publication of computer code for decrypting DVD movies."

"I designed a hexapod robot called the Chiara (see photo), which some students of mine have used to do really cool things. One programmed two Chiaras to play chess on a real chessboard. Another got a Chiara to walk up to an electronic keyboard and play Ode to Joy."