Larry Yaeger
Faculty Title
Professor of Informatics
Research Statement
Having studied aerospace engineering, with a focus on computers, Yaeger carried out pioneering computational fluid dynamic flow studies over the space shuttle and submarines. As director of software development at Digital Productions, he used a Cray X-MP supercomputer to generate the first photo-realistic computer graphics in a feature film, The Last Starfighter, as well as providing CGI effects for 2010, Labyrinth, and a number of Clio Award-winning television commercials.
While with Alan Kay’s Vivarium Program at Apple Computer, he designed and programmed a computer “voice” for Koko the gorilla, helped introduce Macintoshes into routine production on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and created a widely respected artificial life computational ecology (“Polyworld”) that evolves neural architectures resulting from the mutation and recombination of genetic codes, via behavior-based, sexual reproduction of artificial organisms. He also co-authored the multiple award-winning book & CD-ROM title Visualization of Natural Phenomena. As part of Apple’s Advanced Technology Group, he was technical lead in the development of the neural network-based hand-print recognition system in second generation Newton PDAs and Mac OS X’s “Inkwell.” He is currently exploring complexity measures of neural architectures and activities in artificial life systems.
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