I spent 27 years in the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. I helped build a state of the art automated manufacturing system for bent sheet metal parts. (Sort of origami in metal.)
For many years I was an elected member of CMU's Staff Council and was appointed to serve on the University's Human Relations Commission. I played a significant role in winning domestic partner healthcare benefits for staff and faculty. I was unsuccessful in trying to get the university to care about light pollution. They lit a large, silly outdoor sculpture from the ground. In October 2007 I moved back to Texas.
I grew up in Port Arthur, Tx, and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1965. Until the end of 1968 I attended Lamar State College of Technology in Beaumont, majoring in Mathematics and Physics. I was at the University of Houston 1968-71. I got my B.A. in Philosophy in '69 and stayed to do graduate study for a couple of years. I was in the Ph.D. program in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia from 1971 until I left to become a research computer programmer in CMU's Robotics Institute in 1980.
The Iowa Supreme Court has unanimously ruled that denial of marriage to same-sex couple violated the equal protection provision of the Iowa Constitution. Same-sex marriages could begin taking place as soon as 21 days from now.
A copy of the decision is available here: Varnum, et al., vs Brien.
