Bryan Adams

Professional Work
I'm a graduate student at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT and a member of the Living Machines Group. (I am also a former member of the Humanoid Robotics Group.) My supervisor is Prof. Rodney Brooks, and Dr. Una-May O'Reilly advises my work as well.

My current work is the Synthetic Brains project, which involves building a model of the polyclad flatworm brain (see picture at right) to study questions about homeostasis and robotic control.

After 11 years at MIT, I finally graduated! I now work at iRobot as the lead for the Research and Innovation team. You can reach me at this address.

Social Service
I'm concerned with the impacts of poverty on public health, and I have worked to use technology to combat both. I founded CommuniTECH, an undergraduate service program that refurbishes used computers for low income families and provides training and support on how to use them. I would like to thank the MIT Public Service Center for financial and programmatic support over many years, as well as the countless undergraduates who have taken time out of their busy lives to to try to make the world a better place. For more information on the project, you can read articles here or here.

I am also a trustee on the Community Service Fund, an MIT organization that oversees the disbursment of over $150,000 every year to deserving MIT and Cambridge service organizations. Please consider lending your support.

Publications

Evolutionary, Developmental Neural Networks for Robust Robotic Behavior
My doctoral dissertation, describing how to apply genetic algorithms to real robot control using a hybrid system that incoporates tests in simulation with tests on real robots.
[.pdf (4.8MB)]
RoombaNet
Instructions for mounting a tiny little computer on your Roomba.
Learning Humanoid Arm Gestures
Submission to the AAAI Spring Symposium series regarding how a biochemical model can help a humanoid robot learn to use its arms more effectively.
[.doc (40K)] [.ps, gzipped (34K)] [.pdf (54K)]
Meso: A Virtual Musculature for Humanoid Motor Control
My M.Eng thesis describing a model of the energy metabolism in humans applied to a humanoid robot.
[.doc (686K)] [.ps, gzipped (640K)] [.pdf (1.96M)]
Humanoid Robots: A New Kind of Tool
For general questions about what we do with the robot and why, check out this article (published in the July/August 2000 issue of IEEE Intelligent Systems). It's aimed at a non-technical audience and answers many frequently asked questions. If you still have questions after reading it, send them to cdp@ai.mit.edu.

Copyright Notice: Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
Text only: [.doc (62K)] With figures: [.pdf (300K)]
Lab Abstracts From 2001 [.pdf (120K)], 2002 [.pdf (38k)], and 2004 [.pdf (2.54Mb)]

Extras

I was once the author of the Bryan Adams Blog (now dead and gone, but I'm sure you'll find it if you're clever). I stopped because there just aren't enough hours in the day.
My bow to the greatest web tradition: a list of quotes and links
My Roger Ebert Machine Learning Project
A (lighthearted) talk I gave at a 2002 lab retreat about civil rights for robots. [.ps, gzipped (119K)] [.pdf (110K)]
Some (big) pictures of me running the Boston Marathon
- [2000 picture 1] [2000 picture 2]
- [2002 picture 1] (note that I did actually run in the correct direction)
The God and Computers pages
The homepage for the "other" Bryan Adams. Seriously, don't even think about emailing me about my concert in the UK.

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) (directions)
32 Vassar St., Office 32-380
Cambridge, MA 02139

bpadams (email)
1.617.253.7471 (v)
1.617.253.0039 (f)