Seth J. Teller

Seth J. Teller
Ash Carter and Seth Teller , 2013
Born	(1964-05-28)May 28, 1964
Died	July 1, 2014(2014-07-01) (aged 50)
Alma mater	Wesleyan University (BA) University of California, Berkeley (MA, PhD)
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	MIT
Thesis	Visibility Computations in Densely Occluded Polyhedral Environments (1992)
Doctoral advisor	Carlo H. Séquin

Seth Jared Teller (May 28, 1964 – July 1, 2014) was an American computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose research interests included computer vision, sensor networks, and robotics.^[1] In his Argus and Rover projects of the late 1990s, Teller was an early pioneer in the use of mobile cameras and geolocation to build three-dimensional models of cities.^[2][3]

Early life

Teller's parents were Joan Teller and Samuel H. Teller of Bolton, Connecticut; Samuel Teller was a senior judge in the Connecticut Superior Court in Rockville.^[4]

Teller received his undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University,^[4] and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992. His dissertation, "Visibility Computations in Densely Occluded Polyhedral Environments," was supervised by Carlo H. Séquin.^[5]

Academic career

Teller briefing Ash Carter at MIT Lincoln Laboratory in July 2013.^[6]

He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Computer Science Institute of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Princeton University's Computer Science Department.

Teller was awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in 1997.^[7]

Teller was heading the Robotics, Vision, and Sensor Networks group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, conducting robotics and artificial intelligence research on developing robots with situational awareness.^[8] His work involved, in particular, creating various assistive technology robots and devices for people with disabilities.^[9][10][11] Teller's robotics projects included "a robotic, voice-controlled wheelchair, a wearable device for visually-impaired people that provides them with information about their surroundings, a self-driving car and an unmanned forklift".^[12] He also worked on developing technology for reducing the danger of first responders being hit by the passing vehicles while stopped to deal with highway accidents.^[13]

Teller was part of the MIT group developing software for a DoD robot, "Atlas", in the DARPA Robotics Challenge competition.^[14][15] Earlier, Teller's robotic car competed in the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge competition.^[16]

In 2015, the Robotics Science and Systems Foundation established a Best Systems Paper Award in honor of Teller.^[17][18]

Personal life and death

Seth Teller married Rachel Zimmerman, a journalist from New York, in September 2002.^[4] They had two daughters.^[19]

Teller was involved in neighborhood activism in Cambridge, Massachusetts and helped create the Neighborhood Association of East Cambridge.^[20][21]

Seth Teller died by suicide on July 1, 2014, at the age of 50, jumping off the Tobin Bridge.^[22][23] In 2024, Zimmerman published a book about the impact of her husband's death titled Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide.^[24]

References

1. Teller, S.J.; Séquin, C.H. (1991). "Visibility preprocessing for interactive walkthroughs". Proceedings of the 18th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques. ACM Press New York, NY, USA. pp. 61–70.
2. Sales, Robert J. (February 24, 1999). "Scanning project puts three-dimensional city models on the map". MIT News.
3. Stefanidis, Anthony; Nittel, Silvia (2004). GeoSensor Networks. CRC Press. p. 5. ISBN 9780203356869.
4. "WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Rachel Zimmerman, Seth Teller". New York Times. September 8, 2002. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
5. Seth J. Teller at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
6. "Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter listens to a brief from professor Seth Teller at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Mass., July 15, 2013". www.defense.gov. Retrieved 2019-09-25.
7. "Alfred P. Sloan Foundation". Chronicle of Higher Education. 1997-07-18. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
8. "Robot wheelchair finds its own way". MIT News. September 19, 2008. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
9. "50 key MIT-related innovations". Beta Boston. May 19, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
10. "Andrea Bocelli: Every day they told me 'this is too dangerous'. But I don't care". The Independent. February 17, 2013. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
11. "Un navigatore per non vedenti Bocelli mette al lavoro il Mit". La Repubblica. January 14, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
12. Ken Gagne; Rebecca Linke (December 30, 2014). "Tech luminaries we lost in 2014". Computerworld. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
13. Hiawatha Bray (April 2, 2012). "MIT engineers help fight roadside perils". Boston Globe. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
14. "Robot rescue: First-responders of the future". Fox News. June 10, 2014. Retrieved September 24, 2019.
15. Erik Sofge (June 6, 2015). "For Autonomous Robots, The School of Hard Knocks Is In Session". Popular Science. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
16. Jay MacDonald (September 27, 2012). "Robotic Cars Hit the Road in 2 States". Fox Business. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
17. "Robotics Science and Systems Foundation". Retrieved 2020-03-14.
18. "Best Systems Paper Award". Robotics Science and Systems Foundation. Retrieved 2019-09-24.
19. "Death notices: Seth J. Teller". Boston Globe. July 26, 2014. Retrieved September 29, 2019 – via Legacy.com.
20. Sara Feijo (July 9, 2014). "Community remembers Cambridge activist, MIT professor Seth Teller". Wicked Local Cambridge. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
21. Greg Turner (January 11, 2013). "Let HYM do it, cries E. Cambridge group". Boston Herald. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
22. "Professor Seth Teller dies at age 50". MIT News. July 2, 2014. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
23. Xu, Kath (August 5, 2014). "Cause of death of Professor Seth Teller is released". The Tech. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved March 16, 2023.
24. Zimmerman, Rachel (27 June 2024). "My husband died by suicide. How would I tell our young children?". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 July 2024.

External links

• Home page
• Seth J. Teller publications indexed by Google Scholar
• Seth J. Teller at the Mathematics Genealogy Project