Look Who's Talking!

SCS web team member Renee Rivas, conducted this phone interview with married couple and CSD Alumni, Yolanda Gil and Kevin Knight, who met right here as PhD students in CSD.

For them both Carnegie Mellon has a unique quality... where knowledge is exchanged at such high levels, you learn so much about so many different areas. "And I think Newell and Simon, among others, should be recognized for creating that great atmosphere."

Dr. Yolanda Gil (Y) CS PhD, 1992 Associate Division Director for Research Intelligent Systems Division/ISI and Research Associate Prof. Dept. Computer Science, USC

Dr Kevin Knight (K) CS PhD, 1992 Project Leader, ISI/USC Research Associate Prof. Department of Computer Science, USC

Where are you from?
Y: Madrid, Spain

K: Baton Rouge, Louisiana (as of two weeks ago, the largest city in Louisiana!)

What attracted you to Carnegie Mellon?
Y: During my undergraduate classes in Madrid, I had a class on AI mostly focused on logic. I became curious on how to use logic and its relationship to thinking and began reading articles. I read a lot of Newell Simon’s work, and many other articles that came from Carnegie Mellon. That’s where my initial interest started.

K: I was very interested in computers and how they process language, and the Computational Linguistics Program and research here.

What was your favorite class and why?
K: These are the old days, we didn’t have classes.

Y: We had classes…

K: Well, I didn’t go to those! But they were AI, software, and theory. They gave you readings at the beginning of the semester so you didn’t really need to go to class.

Y: The rest of us did go to class. Actually he did go to at least one, that’s where Kevin made his first impression on me. In a lecture about logic, Kevin was sitting next to me and looked totally out of it. At some point someone asked about parallelizing reasoning algorithms and the professor didn’t know the answer. Kevin raised his hand and gave this lengthy, detailed and very informative answer. I was impressed.
My favorite class was and still is, I actually still look up the class readings, Herb Simon’s “Cognitive Processes and Problem Solving” class. I loved his style, and the way he made every aspect related to human thinking interesting. He was very engaging in lectures and in his answers to questions. I felt I learned a lot about the topic, as well as about teaching, and how to love the data you have and turn it into a science.

What club/sport/activity were you most active or most interested in?
K: The pretty good race, held by the CS department. I loved cross country running.

Y: I was not very big on clubs, but while writing my thesis…I remember it was a very hard process, working maybe 20 hrs a day on it…we would go running on the new track at midnight or 1am. It would be so peaceful and deserted, one of the few times in my life that I enjoyed doing physical activity. It would clear my mind, and I have a very solid memory of the track at night, it was beautiful.

Most memorable event/adventure?
Y: …(pause)…I have hundreds; one of the things is that CMU has so many interesting people. I just visited CMU a few days ago, and as I was walking through the hallways I would recall many conversations and people. Also, there was a seminar on Cognitive Architectures. And during it I had this feeling I was at a very special place and time that would never be reproduced.

K: I can’t pinpoint anything.

What was the best thing about living in Pittsburgh?
Y: Coming from Spain it was a culture shock. It was either too hot or too cold and people don’t like to stroll in the streets, and I was never too fond of it.

K: It was the Squirrel Cage (a bar in Squirrel Hill)…that’s about it.

What opportunities do you feel you had at Carnegie Mellon that you wouldn't have had at another university?
K: There was such a wide variety of students and topics I haven’t seen since anywhere else. Looking back at the conversations I had with senior grad students and officemates were at such high levels that it allowed me to learn so much about many different areas. And that’s a very unique thing.

Y: Similarly, I remember not many specific events, but an overall constant stream of great conversations like Kevin described. There’s a special thing that happens there where knowledge is exchanged at high rates, and I haven’t seen that or any other place. And I think Newell and Simon, among others, should be recognized for creating that great atmosphere.

How do you think Carnegie Mellon helped prepare you to meet your professional challenges?
K: One thing I learned was how to be very reasonable in a research context. Whenever I run into a CMU grad, they always have a very easy going manner and they have this special way of working with each other. The research culture was very open in conversation and conflicts, and encouraged us to be reasonable.

Y: Allen Newell said to me that he spent a lot of time on his personal research but spent at least the same amount of time helping the research community.” And I have certainly taken on that sense of service from him. He taught me that no matter what talk or research you listen to, even if you don’t quite understand it or don’t think they are looking at it in the right way, you should never dismiss it. Always try to help them because it benefits everyone.

From your experience in research, what do you think will be the next technological revolution?
K: Language translation, conversing with people on the phone even if you don’t speak their language or browsing a webpage that would automatically be translated into English, despite the original language.

Y: I don’t know whether it will be the next one or not, but when all computation becomes user centered computing. Where the center of everything is not the computer and us working around a spreadsheet or program to get anything done, but when there is no computer on the desk. When you think of something at work, it will digitally appear on the desk or pop up. If I’m in the kitchen and I’m thinking about taking my kids somewhere on Saturday, a calendar will pop up on the counter or on my watch. So basically when we are the center, and not the computer.

Moving on to less academic areas…
What is your favorite food?
K: Poptarts!!…cinnamon with frosting.

Y: I enjoy a good meal, I’d rather have a steak than a cake.

What are your passions/hobbies?
K: Surfing and pool.

Y: Enjoying my kids every minute I have and keeping them out of trouble.

What is a place you always dreamed about visiting in college? … have you gone there?
K: Japan, and I went there a couple years ago for business and pleasure. A good thing about our job is we can go to conferences and meetings all over the world.

Y: In grad school I always dreamed of a place where I would go to work and have a lot of fun, come home to a nice family and have a lot of friends/neighbors to enjoy life with. The latter is what I experienced more in Madrid, and I think the place I always dreamed of is where I’m in now.

Where did you two meet?
K: I asked Yolanda if she knew if I could buy a bike using the CMU bboard.

Y: We were in the same PHD entering class, 1986, in the CS department. And I remember him asking me, and I knew how to do it and I was really happy that I knew something he didn’t. But I found out later that he knew.

Describe your current position and its roles and responsibilities.
Y: We work in the same place and have similar jobs only on different topics and projects. I lead projects, write proposals, organize work. I’m always interested in new areas and challenging topics so I enjoy formulating topics and organizing the work that gets carried out. I also work with students and their theses. A lot of my projects are collaborative. 10 yrs ago I would work solo or only with one group. Now I work with 8 or 10 other groups throughout the country.

K: We’re basically research entrepreneurs, we come up with an idea, figure out how to get it funded, make teams of researchers and solve problems. Then deliver theorems, or pieces of software, or breakthroughs that other scientists can use to advance their own work.

What research projects are you currently working on?
Y: My recent focus, or passion, is trying to help scientists in many areas conduct large and complex experiments and analysis by composing many software models. We formulate scientific workflows that represent those scientific computations. This is a very user centered problem where scientists can simply specify the components they want and the system can then make sense of these new workflows. It’s very multi-disciplinary and challenging, and in turn very fun.

K: I’m working on machine translation, both written and spoken. Now, you can watch a newscast in some language, and the machine gives you a written translation with a couple minutes delay. So it helps people who want to watch foreign newscast.

Favorite thing about California?
K: The beach.

Y: Everything! The landscape is very similar to Spain, the whether is fantastic, and the beach being so close is just unbeatable. Also, all the people love to stroll in the streets.

Favorite quote:
K: "When I was young, I would rather give a lecture on mathematics than
listen to one. Now that I am older and more mature I would rather
give two lectures on mathematics than listen to one." -- R. H. Bing, Mathematician

Y: “I have a microwave fireplace, I can stand in front of the fire all night in only five minutes.” That’s sort of what I do all the time, I love to squeeze the most out of everything I do in the least amount of time.

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