Over the last seven days we have had three amazing guest speakers at our luncheon lectures who all reminded me the importance of exploration in my learning.

The first was Miko Wilford, a professor in Psychology focused on the behaviors of defendants in legal cases. I am very interested in looking at people’s behaviors, but I tend to restrict myself to focusing on engineering related things given that I am a computer engineering major. What Miko reminded me of was that my interests span beyond engineering. She showed us all some incredibly insightful research in how these defendants behave when they are given a plea offer.

Second we had Merate Barakat, who I was really happy to finally hear from. She shared a portfolio of diverse yet extremely interesting projects that she has been involved with. I have some interest in audio so it was great to hear about her PhD work in simulating and mapping what part of an environment is “hearable”. Basically what you can listen to and understand, vs just simply perceive with your ears. Dr. Barakat also does a lot of more creative work which is something I always wish I could do more of, so seeing her visual and audio art pieces in different places (including the basement of a cathedral!) was very exciting. This talk once again reminded me to take a step back from whatever project I am doing to see my interests from a broader perspective.

Last, but not least, today we heard from Stephen Gilbert, one of the directors of the program. Stephen started by talking about his general work, which I picked up some curiosities about that I need to ask him about later related to HAT (Human-Agent Teaming) and mental models. He also shared what work he has been involved with over the span of his life, and his philosophy of being ready to accept the opportunities that come your way instead of trying to direct your own path (something that I think I do a lot). I need to think on this more. I want to have a positive impact with whatever I do in the long term, and so right now I am trying to define my own path, but I think there is a sense of exploration and freedom that you get from letting your opportunities define your path that I couldn’t get by trying to do what I am now.