Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.02.2004, Blaðsíða 4

page 4 • Lögberg-Heimskringla • 13 February 2004
My Career as an lcelandic North American
This column recognizes people oflcelandic descent who have made or are making a contribution to the Icelandic/North American community. Please let us know ifthere is someone
you would like to see featured. Contact (204) 284-5686 or email us at logberg@mts.net
Hannaði forrit fyrir geimfarið á Mars
Programmed the Exploration Rover on Mars
Dr. Ari Kristinn Jónsson
works at the laboratory at
NASA in California and excit-
edly followed the procedures
on Mars. Björn Jóhann
Bjömsson spoke with Ari on
the phone and asked him about
his part in this project.
Ari Kristinn Jónsson is one
of those who created the artifí-
cial intelligence computer pro-
gram used for the exploration
rovers on Mars. For the last
three years Ari’s main project
has been working on the prepa-
rations for space travel on
Mars. He has managed the
designs and the creation of the
computer software for the proj-
ect, and worked along with
“Mixed-initiative activity plan
generator” or MAGPEN, and
was based on two other soft-
ware programs. One is a plan-
ning program that creates and
changes schedules for explo-
ration rovers, and the other is
an artificial intelligence pro-
gram that is an active planning
tool. Ari said that the basic idea
This is what unmanned exploration rovers look like, Spirit and Opportunity, which have been
traveliing on the surface of Mars
Government of
Iceland Scholarship
North American students of
lcelandic descent studying
language and literature are
invited to apply for a Scholarship
to study lcelandic language and
literature at the University of
lceland in Reykjavík for the
2004 - 2005 term.
The scholarship is approximately
$9700.00 CAD and covers tuition,
room and board.
For applicationforms and
further information
please contact:
Icelandic National
League of NA
Head Office
103-94 1 st Avenue
Gimli, MB ROC1B1
Tel: (204) 642-5897 '
Fax: (204) 642-9382
E-mail: inl@mts.net
Deadline for submissions of all
application material is
Monday, March 29,2004
other NASA personnel who
work on artificial intelligence.
Ari said in an interview
with Morgunblaðið that the
employees at NASA had wait-
ed impatiently to see Spirit
start working on the surface of
Mars. And he also said that it
would be just as exciting to
watch Opportunity, which will
land in a different location than
Spirit.
The software program that
Ari helped create is called
behind MAGPEN is to use arti-
ficial intelligence to help
NASA’s specialists put togeth-
er a better initiative planning
scheduling tool that will hope-
fully come up with greater and
better information during the
space mission. The software
will be used to decide what is
to be done the next day and in
what order.
He has worked for NASA
for the last seven years, since
he was twenty-nine years old.
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Ari finished his BAS in mathe-
matics at the University of
Iceland in 1990 and BAS in
Computers at the same univer-
sity a year later with the high-
est grades from the institution
in that discipline. He then went
to further studies in the United
States and finished an MA pro-
gram in computer science from
Stanford University in 1995.
Two years later Ari finished his
Doctorate from the same uni-
versity and his thesis was on
artificial intelligence. As soon
as he finished university he
applied to NASA in that area
of computer science and was
accepted right away.
Soon after Spirit had land-
ed on the red planet the news
was out that President Bush
has plans to build a Space
Station on the moon and send a
manned space ship to Mars.
Bush informed the media that
this will come about in 2015 to
2020. When Ari was. asked
about his reaction to the news,
he said he could not express
himself as an employee of
Hvað er gerfigréind?
What is artificial intelligence?
On the University of Iceland science web page Dr. Ari
Kristinn Jónsson answered the above question about arti-
ficial intelligence from a young man:
“In computer science artifícial intelligence is a research
area where techniques are developed which enable computers
to understand information and to use it to make decisions in a
similar way to people. The basic research can roughly be
divided into two parts that are closely related. The first is equal
to rational thinking, and has to do with the way knowledge is
stored so that the computers can use this knowledge to solve
problems, make decisions and add new knowledge. The other
revolves around how computers can perceive their surround-
ings, including people, and add to their knowledge.”
/ A \
www.icelandnaturally.com
Visit our website to
find out more about lceland
Dr. Ari Kristinn Jónsson
NASA. Personally he thinks
that these plans, if they come
about, will funnel a new life
into space travel and people’s
interest in science and techno-
logical developments. “There
is an urgent need for a project
that does that,” said Ari, who is
expecting an exciling time in
the future at NASA and more
than enough projects in sight.
There are plans to send an
unmanned spaceship to Mars
in 2009.
He said that it is undecided
whether his family will be
staying on in California.
Perhaps they will go back
home to Iceland, but Ari and
his wife, Sarah, have just had
their first child, a son Jón
Eiríkur. Relatives in Iceland
wáit excitedly to see him.
Information from Morgunblaðið, Á. H.
<hi ih unn* fiin* im mi tib'h^ibí hri ih rwmr Niir’riwm ik rim \ m wmtiHMh