FAQ
I'm
an undergraduate student at Yale. Can I work on a
project in your lab?
I typically have anywhere from four to seven
undergrads
working on projects with me and I take these projects very seriously.
I routinely see these projects become papers at academic
conferences, and I've even had an undergraduate win a best paper award
from a project in my lab. Almost always, these
students have take CS 473 (Intelligent Robotics) or CS 470 (Artificial
Intelligence) before they begin work. We have students
working
both for pay and for credit, but we do have a limited number of
positions available at any given time. Your best chance of
getting one of these spots is to talk to some of the graduate students
in the group and to attend our weekly lab meetings.
I'm
a prospective graduate student. Can I do my graduate studies
in your group?
I
encourage you to apply for admission to the graduate program in
Computer Science at Yale. We are always looking for good
students
with a strong undergraduate preparation. All
applicants who show interest in robotics eventually end up on my desk,
so I will be certain to see your admissions package.
Unfortunately, I cannot estimate your chances of being
admitted.
Please do not email me your CV, letters of reference,
or other application materials. I cannot consider them unless
they come through the official channels and sending them directly to me will not help you get admitted.
My child/sibling/friend has autism and would love to participate in
your research projects. Can you fit them in some time?
Our clinical work is done in
collaboration with the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic.
Please visit their website
for up-to-date information on the types of studies that are currently
recruiting subjects. The clinical work that we do follows
very
rigid protocols for subject recruitment which do not typically allow us
to bring in additional subjects through other means. These
protocols are designed to protect both the individuals
involved in
our studies and the integrity of the research project.
Can
you help me with my school assignment/project?
I
wish I could, but I receive so many of these requests that I cannot
possibly respond to them all. A short, specific
question is much more likely to get a response than a request to "tell
me about your robots". You can find a great deal of
information in our Publications or from some of the popular media
coverage of our work.
Are tours
available? Can I come play with your robots?
We do tours by appointment only and
have a very limited availability schedule. Please send email if
you are interested.
I'm with
the media and you haven't returned my calls. Will you do an
interview?
There are many times when I am happy to talk with the media and
other times when I can't even find the time to return phone calls.
However, I routinely turn down all requests for interviews
concerning our clinical work with individuals with autism. This
work is still preliminary and until we have conclusive data to report,
I believe that it is unethical to discuss possible outcomes of these
studies.
How do you
pronounce your last name?
It's unfortunately not easy. A good quick approximation would be: S - casa [house] - latte [a coffee drink with milk]
Do people
really call you "Scaz"?
Yes. It's a nickname that I have had since I was a child.
My students, my colleagues, my wife, and my friends often will simply call
me "Scaz". A few of them are sometimes confused when they hear me
called "Brian", but that might just be them.
