Dave Touretzky's Page

Who, what, where?

I'm a Research Professor in the Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University.
Research interests: Neural representation of space in the rodent brain (e.g., hippocampus). Computational neuroscience. Cognitive robotics.
Addresses and phone numbers
Recent publications

Personal: Commercial pilot and certified flight instructor. I own a twin-engine Piper Seneca II, nicknamed "The Beast". As a volunteer pilot I occasionally transport organs or patients for local hospitals. Fly acrobatics when an acro plane is available. I'm also a parrot lover, and currently live with a yellownape amazon and a cockatiel.

See my appearance on CNN Headline News (May 23, 2007), talking about Scientology's infiltration of the Baton Rouge public schools. I also appeared on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann on April 17, 2006 and again on July 23, 2007, explaining the Scientology cult's wacky beliefs.

Courses and Software

Class 15-883: Computational Models of Neural Systems (running now)
Class 15-494: Cognitive Robotics (Spring 2009)
Class 15-486/782: Artificial Neural Networks (Fall 2006)
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition graduate training program
HHsim: Hodgkin-Huxley simulator program
Tekkotsu: a software framework for mobile robots See the new tutorial here, and our new Chiara robot.

Research Projects

Cognitive Robotics: a new approach to robot programming that draws inspiration from ideas in Cognitive Science. We are implementing these ideas in Tekkotsu, a robotics application framework under development in my lab for programming mobile robots.
ARTSI: Advancing Robotics Technology for Societal Impact, an alliance of 7 research universities and nine historically black colleges and universities to recruit more African Americans to robotics research. Tekkotsu is a major component.
The Chiara, a new platform for teaching robot programming to CS undergraduates.
Computational modeling of the rodent hippocampus: investigating how space and experience are encoded and stored in the brain. (See publications list.)

The DMCA and other First Amendment Issues

DeCSS decryption software for DVDs: should private economic interests be allowed to override the First Amendment?
Visit the Gallery of CSS Descramblers, the Gallery of Adobe Remedies, and the Gallery of DMCA Abuses.
Do-It-Yourself DMCA Counter Notification Letter
What the FBI doesn't want you to see at RaisetheFist.com.
CPSR/Pittsburgh, our local chapter of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
Keith Raniere, leader of the NXIVM cult, has a problem with free speech.

NIPS Conference

I serve on the board of directors of the NIPS Foundation. Visit the NIPS web site for information about this and past years' NIPS conferences.

Lisp-Related Stuff

Common Lisp: A Gentle Introduction to Symbolic Computation (Addison-Wesley / Benjamin Cummings, 1990), is unfortunately now out of print. But the book is available on this web site, at no charge. I also have some free software for Lisp educators.
I serve on the editorial board of Higher-Order and Symbolic Computation, which carries lots of material related to Lisp and Scheme.

Ethics, Aviation, and Other Stuff

Ethics and Etiquette In Scientific Research (updated for 2007): notes from a lecture to computer science graduate students. Rules of conduct for persons in authority. How to avoid improprieties; how to tell if you're being screwed.
American Technologies Group: What are they up to? Dubious scientific claims, charges of consumer fraud...
Some information about BioFriendly Corporation.
CP4break and the decryption of CyberPatrol's ban list.
Business travel using GA aircraft: an information resource
Information of interest to CMU aviators
Garmin Gotchas: GNS-530 GPS. Stuff I learned the hard way. (I love my 530 and hope to understand every nuance of the device -- eventually.)
Tutorials on various subjects. (Currently: information theory, and MATLAB programming.)

The Church of Scientology's Wacky Secrets

Sure, Scientology is a rich and vengeful religious cult based on a bizarre form of psychotherapy and a belief in reincarnated space aliens. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun with them.

Secrets of Scientology. Xenu the space alien, subtle thought control techniques, sacred lie detectors, and more. Everything the Church of Scientology (and Tom Cruise) don't want you to know. I am currently receiving legal threats from Scientology lawyers over this site, and was even picketed at work once.
Looking for Scientology's "we can kill you" release forms? Click here.
The Secret Library of Scientology, founded by Dean Benjamin. The books L. Ron Hubbard would not want you to read.
Stop-Narconon.org: protecting the vulnerable from Narconon/Scientology.
A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed, by Jonathan Atack. Read it online.
Amway Sucks! Includes a mirror of Amway: the Untold Story, by Sidney Schwartz. Amway/Quixtar is a multi-level marketing scam with interesting cult-like aspects. (And Scientology is often called "the Amway of religions".) Amway's lawyers have promised to sue me over this page.
The Gentle Wind Project is another cult that has actually poked fun at Scientology, but with their holy healing hockey pucks (designed by space aliens!), they're just as nutty.

Who is Barbara Schwarz (see article, cached Wikipedia entry, and Supreme Court Decision), and why is this former president of the Church of Scientology of Germany obsessed with me? Could it be because Scientology hates my Razor article?

Here's why you should boycott the lowlife spammers and liars at Bentham Science Publishers.

David S. Touretzky

Computer Science Department & Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3891

dst+@cs.cmu.edu