People

Susan is the William F. Dietrich Distinguished Professor of Philosophy in the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, in collaboration with FAU’s Brain Institute, writes about the fundamental nature of the self and mind, especially from the vantage point of issues in philosophy of mind, artificial intelligence (AI), astrobiology, metaphysics, and cognitive science. Schneider is also a distinguished scholar at the Library of Congress and NASA. The topics she has written about most recently include the mind-body problem, super intelligent AI, the nature of life, the mathematical nature of physics, and whether the mind is a program.

Elan is associate director of the Center for the Future Mind, an associate professor at Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and co-director of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics (MPCR) Lab. Barenholtz earned his doctorate degree in experimental psychology and cognitive science at Rutgers University, New Jersey, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University, Rhode Island. Barenholtz began his career as an experimental psychologist, investigating human perception from a behavioral and cognitive-science perspective, and co-founded the MPCR to develop theories and applications of broad brain properties and test them embedded in robotic agents and applied to real-world problems.

Will is an assistant professor in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. Hahn earned his master’s degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and in 2016 earned his doctorate degree at Florida Atlantic University. Hahn is also the director of the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, which is dedicated to understanding the principles and mechanisms that underlie complex behavior, and founder and co-director of the Machine Perception and Cognitive Robotics lab. With a background in mathematics and physics, Hahn researches medical imaging, neural networks, and deep learning. Hahn was also involved in the creation of Florida Atlantic University’s first and one-of-a-kind-robotic dog pup, Astro.

Rachel is a doctoral candidate in the Center for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences and Graduate Neuroscience Training Program. St. Clair researches artificial intelligence, focusing on computer vision, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, complex systems, and agent-based modeling. Her current research is focused on emergent cognitive phenomena in simulated computational environments. St. Clair said her main goal is to work on architectures that produce generally intelligent agents.

Rubin Gruber is a visionary entrepreneur who has been working in pioneering telecom technology since its inception. After fifty years of entrepreneurship in the building and telecom infrastructure space, such as building the first voice-over-internet protocol, he brings invaluable experience of building network solutions that people don’t even know they need, until they do. Rubin is currently Board Chair of Metrika, a company whose mission is to build trust in blockchain operations. Rubin spends a considerable amount of time mentoring FAU students. In 2019, the Grubers provided Florida Atlantic University with a $1 million gift to establish The Rubin and Cindy Gruber Sandbox and to support student scholarships through an endowment.