I am a PhD candidate in the UCSD ECE Department specializing in the interdisciplinary fields of intelligent systems, robotics, and control. An "intelligent system" can be broadly defined as a system that adapts to a changing environment. This is not different from a biological organism that is able to constantly adapt in nature and is able to maximize its survival: 500 million years of vertebrate dominance has proven this strategy to work.

Due to the success of the design developed by evolution, I believe developing artificial intelligence based on the lessons learned from biology will lead to revolutionary advancement in the development of technologies that will change industry and our lives. As The Economist reports, the growth of data is at an unprecedented rate due to Moore's law in reducing hardware costs and the abundance of sensors and other data collection "agents" (such various social networking and search engine websites) that surround us. Our brains quickly and efficiently sift through a plethora of heterogenous forms of data and generate fast responses and behaviors. Hence, it is natural to study perhaps the most advanced system on Earth to develop "intelligent" systems.