Good afternoon.
It is my great pleasure to welcome all of you to today's Mind, Brain, and Machine Quadrangle inaugural speakers series.
Last June, in one of my final official acts as IU president, I had the great privilege of dedicating the imposing new Luddy Center for Artificial Intelligence, made possible through an extremely generous gift from Fred Luddy. It also happens to be my new academic home.
This building completed a quadrangle of buildings that collectively house the bulk of the outstanding research and teaching programs on the IU Bloomington campus associated, in very broad terms, with the study of the mind, the brain, and machine intelligence. The other buildings in this quadrangle and the programs they house consist of:
- Luddy Hall, the home of the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering;
- the Multidisciplinary Science Building II, which houses IU Bloomington’s neurosciences programs;
- the Geological Sciences Building, which houses the cognitive sciences program;
- Myles Brand Hall, where other programs of the Luddy School are located; and
- the Psychological and Brain Sciences Building.
There was, to be frank, a certain amount of serendipity in the co-location of so many of these programs in one contiguous area. But the completion of the quadrangle by the Luddy AI Building, and the programs it will house, was the result of a clear strategy to continue to strengthen the already formidable programs in these buildings.
The goal of this strategy was to consolidate the strengths of the campus in mind, brain, and machine intelligence research and teaching in one place that would, in turn, further expand the opportunities for multidisciplinary collaborations. Behind this was the knowledge first that an increasing amount of agency and even private funding was directed at large-scale multidisciplinary multi-investigator programs, and second that for a myriad of reasons associated with national security and economic competitiveness, research focused on problems associated with the study of mind, brain, and machine intelligence, were now seen as being of the highest priority for this country.
I should add that this strategy is consistent with the 2010 IU Bloomington Master Plan, one of whose principles was where possible and appropriate, to seek to aggregate cognate intellectual disciplines and strengths in discreet areas of the campus. Another principle was to give special attention to the spaces between buildings and not treat these as mere afterthoughts, but instead as spaces built, created, and landscaped to provoke and inspire thought, creativity, and human interaction. In the years I was president we sought to do this on the Bloomington campus through the creation or enhancement of numerous public spaces, courtyards, plazas, gateways, and open spaces.
Hence, consistent with this principle, what was created out of the former rather dismal surface parking lot surrounded by all the buildings I have just described, was what was called the Mind, Brain, and Machine Quadrangle when we presented this concept to the Trustees for their approval in December 2020. This wonderful new addition to the campus was, of course, completed just recently, and one can already see how it complements the surrounding architecture by featuring forested edges, meandering walks, small-gathering areas, and a large, open lawn that reflects the broader pastoral landscape of the campus and offers a place for respite and relaxation. And it will, later this afternoon, be the location of a reception for this event, which will be the first event ever held there.
However, at the end of the day, the real goal of all of this is to encourage and catalyze more and greater academic collaborations between all the faculty, staff, and students who are members of all the programs located around the Quad. So, it was decided that in order to accelerate this process, a speaker series would be held that featured presentations from members of the different Quad academic programs that would bring—to a wider audience—a better understanding of the kinds of research being done in these programs and provide an environment to build and expand greater cooperation and collaboration. Thus, today’s series of speakers inaugurates what is expected to be the first of a regular speakers series that will host both technical and also broadly accessible talks by some of IU's most accomplished scholars and researchers from the Quad academic programs and elsewhere in the university, as well as various distinguished visitors.
Let finish by thanking Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences Josh Brown, Provost Professors Kay Connelly and Peter Todd, and all those involved in organizing today’s inaugural event, the chairs and directors of all the Quad academic programs for their enthusiastic participation, as well as our five distinguished speakers. All of your efforts are greatly appreciated, and I am sure today will mark the beginning of another great chapter in IU’s storied academic history.
Thank you very much.