CS&E Colloquium: Larry Jackel

The computer science colloquium takes place on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. This week's speaker, Larry Jackel (North C Technologies, Inc.), will be giving a talk titled "Taking the Long View: From Early Neural Nets to Self-Driving Cars".

Abstract

This talk presents an overview of the path from early research in Neural Networks at Bell Labs in Holmdel NJ that led to a current approach for enabling self-driving cars. We will discuss various DARPA programs that advanced autonomous driving, and an unconventional method that learned how to steer by observing human drivers. We will also discuss obstacles to achieve Level 5 autonomy, that is, driving as well as a human in all conditions. The talk will be at a high level, with numerous illustrative videos.

Biography

Larry Jackel is President of North C Technologies and has been consulting with NVIDIA since 2015. For most of his scientific career Jackel was a manager and researcher at Bell Labs and then AT&T Labs. He has created and managed research groups in Microscience and Microfabrication, in Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition, and in Carrier-Scale Telecom Services. Jackel’s Bell Labs department was instrumental in pioneering much of the machine learning technology in use today. From 2003-2007 Jackel  was a DARPA Program Manager where he conceived and managed programs in Autonomous Ground Robot Navigation and Locomotion. Jackel holds a PhD in Experimental Physics from Cornell University with a thesis in superconducting electronics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the IEEE.