Nancy T. Smith, Ph.D., AI and VR Research and Development

The main lesson of thirty-five years of AI research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard. -Steven Pinker
Machines will follow a path that mirrors the evolution of humans. Ultimately, however, self-aware, self-improving machines will evolve beyond humans' ability to control or even understand them. -Ray Kurzweil, 2010
The best programmers are not marginally better than merely good ones. They are an order-of-magnitude better, measured by whatever standard: conceptual creativity, speed, ingenuity of design, or problem-solving ability. -Randall E. Stross
A great lathe operator commands several times the wage of an average lathe operator, but a great writer of software code is worth 10,000 times the price of an average software writer. -Bill Gates
Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live. -Martin Golding
In Mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them. -John von Neumann
Man is much more than a tool builder... he is an inventor of universes. -Alan Kay

Experience

17 years of telecom experience in embedded real-time programming, 10 years of mobile development, 1 year of voice interface development, 7 personally published apps, 2 professionally published apps, 2 years teaching undergraduate graphics, 3 years developing VR and AR applications, 5 years of graduate level research, and 1 successfully defended dissertation!

Education

I received my Masters in Computer Science from FAU in 1995. I went back to school in 2008, to learn the latest developments in A.I., and getting my Ph.D. in 2012. My dissertation on Evolving Credible Facial Expressions uses a genetic algorithm with a neural network acting as the fitness function. Papers can be found under the research tab. My education continues every day.

Inspiration

The Singularity Is Near by Ray Kurzweil. Some messages are so powerful they change your life. This book will change your view of the future, and make you excited about A.I., genetics, nanotechnology, and the promise of exponential technologies over the coming years. It's an exciting time to be alive.

My first inspiration was Isaac Asimov and Omni Magazine. They ignited my imagination with visions of a future that was about to be changed by computers, leading me to a life filled with the love of programming.

My Apps

Rhythm ID was launched January, 2013, and is designed to help drummers and dancers learn to recognize and remember middle eastern rhythms.

Puppy Dogs was launched January, 2013, and is an interactive children's bedtime story. It was written and illustrated by my very talented sister, who is a psychologist and mother.

Who's Who was launched March, 2015. It is an app for remembering names and faces.

Eye Train was launched January, 2016, and is targeted at training eye saccades for speed reading.

Estimate Maker was launched January, 2018, and enables small business owners to create, save, and send estimates to customers on the spot, using email, printing, or messages.

Pocket Invoice was launched January, 2019, and adds invoices and iCloud backup features to the basic estimating app.

Observatron was launched September, 2020. It is a pattern-matching set card game.

Nancy T. Smith, Ph.D. Shiresmith Publications

Experience

Education

Inspiration

My Apps

Nanbot