From MoHopedia

Human Computation Lecture

EVENT INFORMATION (Free and open to the public)
THURSDAY NOVEMBER 12, 2009 @ 7:30pm
Hooker Auditorium, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley MA

This talk is about harnessing human time and energy to address problems that computers cannot yet solve. Although computers have advanced dramatically in many respects over the last 50 years, they still do not possess the basic conceptual intelligence or perceptual capabilities available to most humans. By leveraging human skills and abilities in a novel way, Professor Luis von Ahn works on solving large-scale computational problems by collecting training data to teach computers many basic human talents. To this end, he treats human brains as processors in a distributed system, each performing a small part of a massive computation. Unlike computer processors, however, humans require an incentive in order to become part of a collective computation. Among other things, Professor von Ahn shows how to use online games as a means to encourage participation in the process.

BIOGRAPHY
Professor Luis von Ahn works in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University. His current research interests include encouraging people to do work for free, as well as catching and thwarting cheaters in online environments. He is the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, a Packard Fellowship, a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship, and a Sloan Research Fellowship. He has been named one of the 50 Best Minds in Science by Discover Magazine, one of the "Brilliant 10" scientists of 2006 by Popular Science Magazine, one of the 50 most influential people in technology by Silicon.com, and one of the Top Innovators in the Arts and Sciences by Smithsonian Magazine.

RESEARCH OVERVIEW
Professor Luis von Ahn is working on a new area of computer science called "Human Computation," which harnesses the combined computational power of humans and computers to solve large-scale problems. Some call this "crowdsourcing." You've seen his work: the images of squiggly characters on the Web that you have to type to obtain free email accounts, purchase tickets, etc. These "CAPTCHAs" prevent bots from abusing online services. His new reCAPTCHA project channels this effort into a dual purpose: transcribing books. To date, over 400 million people--6% of humanity!--have helped digitize at least one word through reCAPTCHA, making it perhaps the largest example of massive collaboration. He has also developed a number of "Games With A Purpose," or "GWAPs." These compelling games--some people play more than 40 hours per week--collect valuable information for training computer algorithms as a side effect of game play.