It’s hard to write a story quickly enough to keep up with Luis von Ahn. Within the past year, the assistant professor of computer science was profiled in the April issue of Carnegie Mellon Today for the innovative work that in 2006 earned him a “genius grant” from the MacArthur Foundation and a spot on Popular Science’s “Brilliant 10 Scientists” list. With that issue barely in print, von Ahn received a Microsoft New Faculty Fellowship. Now he has just been named one of Technology Review’s Top 35 Innovators Under 35.
Von Ahn’s attention-grabbing research isn’t always sparked in a computer lab. In fact, a few years ago, he found himself crammed into a packed flight from Pittsburgh to Seattle, and, as he looked around, he noticed something curious—the people stuffed beside him intently working on crossword puzzles. It occurred to him that those hardworking puzzlers were enjoying themselves but producing absolutely nothing. Worse yet, they were squandering precious human talent on work that even a computer might not be able to duplicate. He couldn’t help but conclude that there were “probably millions of hours a year wasted on crossword puzzles!”
Not long after, von Ahn launched The ESP Game, in which he puts the ingenuity of crossword puzzlers to work online. Contestants receive points by labeling images that stump computer programs. Thus, more images become available for Web searches, one example of why von Ahn makes headlines. — Melissa Silmore (TPR’85)
