Extra! Extra! Toto Wins 1996 Robot Talent Show at Brown University!

The annual talent show for the course CS148 Building Intelligent Robots was held May 1, 1996 to demonstrate the students' final projects. My entry was "Tic Tac Toto," a robot made from Legos, that challenged the user to a game of Tic Tac Toe.

The name Toto originated from my tendency to carry the robot around in a picnic basket throughout the semester. Many comments were made about whether I was smuggling lunch or an animal into the department, and soon came the reference to Dorothy of The Wizard of Oz fame. Consequently, my robot was dubbed "Toto" and for laughs, I dressed up as Dorothy for the talent show.

First Place was granted to Toto, mostly for entertainment value. Okay Okay, modesty compels me to admit that he shared the limelight with two other entries -- Magellan , a map making robot and Bobo, a tennis-ball fetching robot -- for a three-way tie. Both were excellent projects and probably more worthy of the title.

In the photographs on this page, notice the distinguished judges in the background: Professors Eugene Charniak, Philip Klein, and Leslie Kaelbling.