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For immediate release:
February 23, 2001

Carnegie Mellon Students Dedicate Conference To the Memory of Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon

PITTSBURGH—Carnegie Mellon University master's of business administration students have dedicated their annual Interface technology conference to Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon, who died on Feb. 9 from complications following surgery.

Simon, the Richard King Mellon university professor of computer science and psychology at the university, was to be the keynote speaker at the student's upcoming technology conference March 16-17. The conference theme is based on Simon's pioneering work that computers can exhibit artificial intelligence that mirrors human thinking. Simon was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1978 for his new theories about human decision making.

In the spirit of Simon's work, the student-run Interface 2001 technology conference will feature speakers with the same kind of intellectual curiosity for the way computers are programmed to resolve problems compared with the way human decisions are made.

Some of the conference speakers include Ralph Merkle, a Xerox PARC research scientist noted for work in nanotechnology, the design and manufacture of systems that can inexpensively fabricate most products, and Hans Moravec, a principal research scientist in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon.

Other speakers at the Interface 2001 conference include Kevin Coleman, former chief strategist for AOL's Netscape division; Chip Walter, a Carnegie Mellon adjunct lecturer who is writing a book about future technologies with Star Trek actor William Shatner; and Carnegie Mellon alum Jim Swartz, general partner and co-founder of Accel Partners, a top-tier venture capital firm.

Between 60 and 70 companies will exhibit their latest technology products at a trade show March 17 at Carnegie Mellon's University Center. The trade fair is designed to offer participants and spectators a forum for networking and brainstorming. Some of the exhibits will include a living room of the future and a variety of wireless technology.