Interview with David E. Smith

Abstract

David E. Smith is a senior Researcher in the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center. He received his Ph.D. in 1985 from Stanford University, and spent time as a Research Associate at Stanford, a Scientist at the Rockwell Palo Alto Science Center, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Washington before joining NASA in 1997. Beginning in 1999, he served as the lead of the 18 member planning and scheduling group at NASA Ames for 6 years before abdicating to devote more time to research. Much of his research has focused on pushing the boundaries of AI planning technology to handle richer models of time, concurrency, exogenous events, uncertainty, and oversubscription. Smith served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research (JAIR) from 2001–2004, and as Guest Editor for the JAIR Special Issue and Special Track on the 3rd and 4th International Planning Competitions. He served on the JAIR Advisory Board 2004–2007. Smith was recognized as a AAAI Fellow in 2005, and served on the AAAI Executive Council 2007–2010. KI Would you like to tell us about your journey to NASA and your personal motivation for this?