Peter Drake has joined the The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™ (LFHCfS). He says:
I have a BA in English from Willamette University, an MS in Computer Science from Oregon State University, and a PhD in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. My dissertation was on how very young children come to understand numbers. After arriving at my current institution, Lewis & Clark College, I worked on creating artificially intelligent programs to play the classical Asian game of Go. (My work was cited in the AlphaGo paper.) With that problem conquered (not solved — that has a technical meaning), I have since moved on to using deep convolutional neural networks to analyze photos of clouds and creating video games to teach people about earthquake preparedness.
I am now the chair of the Department of Mathematical Sciences. Fortunately, due to my work as faculty advisor for the college’s Fire Arts club, I have experience juggling flaming knives.
My hair used to be much shorter, but I have grown it out during the pandemic. When a student mistook me for Steven Pinker, I knew it was time to join the LFHCfS.
Peter Drake, Ph.D., LFHCfS
Associate Professor of Computer Science
Chair, Department of Mathematical Sciences
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, Oregon, USA
