Al Cutting
Experience Designer & Brand Expert

“The most exciting things happen at the interface between disciplines.”

Early in my career I found beauty and fascination in computing itself.  I designed and built an operating system and a computer language complete with compiler and code generator. I was the founding director of a computer center for a major scientific institution. I worked with the founder of what is now a multi-billion dollar corporation to develop the product that launched the company. I was a geek before it was popular.

As my career progressed I found ever increasing fascination in the integration of computing with other areas of human endeavor… particularly in areas where the application was new or novel.  I computerized a waterpark, designed and built an early graphical user interface (GUI) and worked on the statistical analysis of oil deliveries and sales to distinguish between leaks, over/under deliveries, theft, and pump calibration errors.

It was in the field of artificial intelligence, however, that my interdisciplinary flair was truly ignited.  What can the computer tell us about the brain, the mind, the human ability to create and appreciate art?  What can it tell us about how we learn…all questions that span disciplines ranging from philosophy to neuroscience. Artificial intelligence ignited my passion and fascination for employing the connections between disciplines to solve interesting (difficult, sloppy) problems

I have a passion for what I study and what I do.  In education…passion is contagious.