Brendan Babb

“Sex, Wiis, and Humpback Whales: The Future of Science”

How would you design an 80,000 lb whale from scratch? Humans tend to design in straight clean lines from a set of traditional design patterns and we tend to do things the way they have always been done before. These strategies have been extremely successful but they severely limit the set of possible solutions to a given problem. Biomimicry and Genetic Algorithms are two areas of research that promise to revolutionize our approach to design and problem solving. Biomimicry (asknature.org) offers a way to solve design problems by seeking to understand how nature has solved them. Genetic Algorithms (boxcar2d.com) optimize solutions by mimicking natural evolutionary processes.  Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) which are used to accelerate video games are growing cheaper and faster each day and can provide vast quantities of low-cost, high-performance computational power. Biomimicry, Genetic Algorithms and GPUs are being combined to a create a new science that is counterintuitive, bizarre and utterly amazing. Next year’s high school science fair projects might just change the world.

About Brendan Babb

Brendan Babb is an Alaskan born mathematician and DJ. Brendan is a researcher for UAA/NASA working on improving image compression for the Mars Rover images, and a consultant. Brendan has a fondness for cheetahs, soccer and ACE. Previously, Brendan has designed software for AMD, U.S. Air Force, GCI and others. Brendan is interested in using Genetic Algorithms, Biomimicry and GPUs to optimize renewable energy solutions. Brendan will be DJing from the roof of Skinny Raven for the Twilight 12K. Brendan is trying to pioneer the use of writing in the fifth person.

You can connect with Brendan Babb on LinkedIn or email brendanbabb (at) gmail.com.

Brendan Babb is one of many compelling and entertaining speakers that will be featured at Ignite Anchorage 5 on June 2nd at the Out North Theater. Get your tickets now!