Justin Hart is a postdoctoral fellow in the Collaborative Advanced Robotics and Intelligent Systems (CARIS) Laboratory in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of British Columbia, where he is supervised by Professor Elizabeth Croft. At UBC, his research focuses on enabling humans and robots to effectively communicate and collaborate with each other. As part of this he is working on enabling machines to make inferences and predictions about human behavior, and perform self-reflective reasoning processes in order to effectively collaborate on human-robot collaborative assembly tasks.
Dr. Hart received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from Yale University in November, 2014, where he was advised by Professor Brian Scassellati. For his dissertation, “Robot Self-Modeling,” he developed a system that enabled a robot to make inferences about its body and senses through data sampled during operation. This process is inspired by the process by which children learn about their sensory and physical capabilities and how they are able to interact with the environment; which represents one of the earliest forms of self-awareness to develop during infancy.
Dr. Hart’s work has appeared in New Scientist, BBC News, Business Standard, CBS SmartPlanet, El Mundo, GE’s Focus Forward Films, and at the Ideacity conference. More on Dr. Hart’s work can be found at http://justinhart.net.
1. How do you define creativity and apply it in your career?
There are many different kinds of creativity, but I think that the most honest answer I can give is that creativity is where hard work and imagination come together. People remember the brief flashes of insight that they have, but I think that most people who are successful in their creative endeavors recognize that success in their creative pursuits is the product of the effort and personal investment that they put into their work.In my work, creativity takes a unique shape. I have to know what work has been done on various robotics, human-robot interaction, and artificial intelligence problems so I know what the state of the art is. I then look for the gaps in our understanding. Honestly, when you’ve worked in my field for a while, the gaps jump right out at you. From here, I look to see how I can fill in these gaps, and what my unique take on these problems has to offer. The memorable “flash of insight,” “maybe we can take this approach,” is really somewhere in the middle of the process. Understand what the problem or question is first, have an insight as to a potential approach to its solution, then perform modelling, implementation, experiments to investigate the proposed solution.
2. Where do you find your best creative inspiration?
I have a few responses to this, but I’ll admit that they’re quite opposed. I have a lot of fun with creative inspiration when I have the opportunity to chat with my colleagues about ideas. Sitting in the laboratory, office, or at dinner at a conference and discussing what problems people find interesting provides a really great creative charge. Another time is late at night, in an empty lab, looking at code, designs, and experimental data. Often I’m alone, or with one or two colleagues and we’re just really dedicated to what we’re studying at the moment. Finally, I’m the sort who turns my mind to the next opportunity as soon as I’ve finished a project. I guess that the reason for that is that when I’m actually working on a project, I’ll have an idea for a related project, and then put it onto the back burner. By the time we’re celebrating a job well done, I’m thinking, “Okay, so which back burner idea do I get to pursue now?”
3. What’s the one creative advice or tip you wish you’d known as a young person?
Learn to write well. Learn to express yourself. I heard this advice over and over again when I was young, but it’s true. For many scientists and engineers, the idea that they are passionate about is 100% clear in their head and it’s good, but they have no clear, elegant way to express it. It’s absolutely imperative that people understand why what you are working on is interesting and important. The second part of this is learning to speak well, in terms of public speaking. The third is learning to speak well to your colleagues, one on one or in groups. Finally, you need to be able to speak to people outside of your area of study. Most of us get our charge out of learning things for our own benefit - I know that I do - but our job is to learn things for everyone’s benefit. The ability of our work to benefit others hinges on our ability to communicate it to others. I completely support expanding STEM (Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics) education, but the people who grow up to be scientists, programmers, and engineers need to listen to their educators regarding how very important it is that they learn to write well.
4. Who would you like to hear speak at CreativeMornings?
I have many colleagues who would do just an amazing job at this, but when I saw this question, a couple of friends of mine leaped into my mind, because I know that they’d have fun with it and speak well to the Creative Mornings audience. Their names are Matthew Krause and Matthew Johnson, and they did their PhDs alongside me, but in the neuroscience program at Yale. They have a science podcast called the Super Science Happy Hour with Matt and Matt, and it’s just fantastic. They remind me of people who, when I was very young, inspired me to do what I do now.
5. Where was the last place that you travelled?
My last trip out of Vancouver was to the 2015 ACM/IEEE Conference on Human Robot Interaction, better known as HRI. HRI is a really excellent conference where many of the top projects in Human-Robot Interaction are presented. It’s also a community that I’ve been active in for many years, so I have the opportunity to reconnect with many friends and colleagues. The conference was held in Portland, Oregon. Conferences are often held in interesting places, and it is fun to see a new place, but, honestly, the things that I remember most from conferences are the conversations that I have, the talks that I see, and the connections that I make.
6. How would you describe what you do in a single sentence to a stranger?
I build robots in order to understand how humans think and how they communicate with each other.
