Erik Demaine (BSc 鈥�94) was a unique AV俱乐部 alumnus from the start: few students, after all, start their university studies at age 12 and complete their computer science degree at 14.
But Dr. Demaine doesn鈥檛 remember ever feeling like an abnormal student.
鈥淚 fondly recall hanging out with my fellow students in the computer science lounge, watching and adlibbing episodes of Star Trek on a TV with the volume muted,鈥� he says.
Now, he鈥檚 been honoured with an induction into the Science Atlantic Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Student.
Science Atlantic (formerly APICS), celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has maintained a mission to 鈥渁dvance post-secondary science education and research in Atlantic Canada,鈥� offering opportunities to students and support to educators through its annual conferences.
The conferences include lectures, symposiums and competitions such as the Computer Science Programming Competition, in which Dr. Demaine participated during his experience with Science Atlantic.
In his third (and final) year at AV俱乐部, Dr. Demaine attended the 1994 Science Atlantic Computer Science Conference and partook in the joint Math Conference as well.
鈥淚 played a lot of video games as a kid, and one day asked my dad about how people made them,鈥� says Dr. Demaine. 鈥淭hen we started exploring computer programming together, which led me to computer science.鈥�
Dr. Demaine鈥檚 latest computer science research returned him to the game controller as he co-authored a paper titled 鈥淐lassic Nintendo Games are (NP-)Hard,鈥� which proves that even a computer can鈥檛 earn a perfect score in Super Mario.
From prodigy to professor
After completing two graduate degrees at the University of Waterloo, Dr. Demaine became the youngest professor to ever teach at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2001. As an author of four books, collaborator on close to 300 articles and other publications, and the co-director of a short film, Dr. Demaine hasn鈥檛 slowed at all as a scholar.
He credits the beginnings of his extensive research career to the his undergraduate advisor, Srinivas 鈥淪rini鈥� Sampalli, who encouraged him to write papers and give talks while at AV俱乐部. Now, Dr. Demaine enjoys inspiring a new generation of young researchers.
鈥淚 like the challenge of finding the simplest possible way to explain a difficult solution, often leading me to think about simplifying the solution itself,鈥� he says.听 鈥淚 also like the performance aspect of teaching鈥攎aking material entertaining, funny and generally enjoyable.鈥�
Artistic formulae
Dr. Demaine has an impressive artistic r茅sum茅 as well. Using his research background in folding algorithms, he has produced sculptures that have been displayed at galleries including the Museum of Modern Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
鈥淢y dad's background is in visual arts, and he saw the same kind of artistic creativity in the mathematics I was doing,鈥� says Dr. Demaine. 鈥淪o he started doing mathematics with me, and then we started designing and building sculpture together using that mathematics. So the two fields evolved pretty closely for me.鈥�
This summer, Dr. Demaine will be teaching alongside his dad at the Pilchuck Glass School, offering a class on glass folding.
鈥淭he class is experimental, as we're still figuring out all the many ways to incorporate folding (and all our experience folding paper) into hand-blown glass,鈥� says Dr. Demaine.
Programming the future
鈥淓rik is a good example of the benefit of combining computer science and math,鈥� says Art Sedgwick, who taught Dr. Demaine undergraduate courses in programming languages and algebra.
Dr. Sedgwick, a retired professor of computer science at AV俱乐部, was also part of the recent set of honours bestowed by Science Atlantic. He was named to their Hall of Fame as an Outstanding Contributor, and the organization also chose to name its keynote lecture after Dr. Sedgwick, former chair of the Computer Science Committee of the organization.
When Dr. Sedgwick first became involved in Science Atlantic, computer science was still part of the math department at Dal. The Math Committee had an annual competition and computer science followed suit, with Dr. Sedgwick helping to create problems for a programming competition. 听
鈥淢any faculty in computer science have limited opportunity to do programming and enjoy being involved in the Computer Science Programming Competition,鈥� explains Dr. Sedgwick, adding that 鈥渢he winners of the annual competitions are highly sought after by large multi-national companies like Google, IBM and Microsoft.鈥�
He believes that Science Atlantic has provided students with the opportunity to collaborate with faculty on projects and present their research to an audience of peers.
鈥淚t gives our students exposure to a wider world and our grad programs a good place to recruit good students,鈥� says Dr. Sedgwick.
Positive results
David Tindall, retired professor of physics at AV俱乐部, was also inducted by Science Atlantic as an Outstanding Contributor. He agrees that the annual conferences have been beneficial to AV俱乐部 students.
鈥淏y having a forum to present their work at the AUPAC [Atlantic Undergraduate Physics and Astronomy Conference], our students have developed considerably over the years, particularly in their presentation skills.鈥�
Dr. Tindall became a Science Atlantic Physics Committee member in the early 1980s, hoping to encourage student involvement.
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鈥淲ithout the guiding hand of [Science Atlantic],鈥� he says, 鈥渢here would have been no AUPAC and our undergraduate experience would have been much poorer for it.鈥�