{"id":428482,"date":"2020-04-28T09:37:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-28T13:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=428482"},"modified":"2020-12-04T05:17:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T10:17:47","slug":"remembering-randal-nelson-computer-science-professor-428482","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/remembering-randal-nelson-computer-science-professor-428482\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The best advisor and mentor a student could ask for\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
Randal Nelson is being remembered as a curious and creative engineer who was deeply invested in advising, mentoring, and supervising Rochester students.<\/div>\n

You could always count on Randal Nelson<\/a>\u2019s students to bring something intriguing to Senior Design Day at the University of Rochester<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, it was the Skatebot\u2014a robot that could skate on both wheels and blades. The year before, it was the Blob-bot, a robotic amoeba \u201cconsisting of a flexible icosahedral shell animated by 30 linear actuators co-incident with the polyhedral edges.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, invariably, they actually worked<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Robotics Club Nelson helped organize and guide, the robot construction class he taught, and the makers space he created and filled with tools in the Computer Studies Building, became havens for project-driven students like Morgan Sinko \u201916 and Lucian Copeland \u201916 who thrive on translating ingenuity into workable prototypes.<\/p>\n

They were stunned and saddened to hear that Nelson died unexpectedly while taking a walk in his Rochester neighborhood in April. Though recently diagnosed with cancer, Nelson was undergoing treatment and seemed to be doing well. He was 61.<\/p>\n

\u201cRandal Nelson was the best advisor and mentor a student or engineer could hope for,\u201d says Sinko who, with Copeland and other students, cofounded Haptech. The start-up eventually had a four-year run as Hardlight VR, selling virtual reality full-body suits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were plenty of faculty who would throw praise on students, but when Randal Nelson did it, you knew that person had done something extraordinary,\u201d Sinko says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was definitely one of the most dependably down-to-earth engineers that I ever met,\u201d Copeland adds. \u201cAnd we were all so improved as makers as a result.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Relentless at solving real problems\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\"Randal
Randal Nelson (University of Rochester photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nelson\u2019s death is \u201ca huge loss, not just to the computer science department but to our entire community,\u201d says Wendi Heinzelman, dean of the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cRandal was a dear colleague and friend,\u201d says Sandhya Dwarkadas, the Albert Arendt Hopeman Professor and Chair of Computer Science. \u201cHe cared deeply about his students, the department, and the University, and has touched the lives of so many generations of our undergraduate and graduate students. He was never afraid to speak his mind. Students and faculty alike benefited from his curiosity, creativity, and wealth of knowledge on every subject imaginable. He is sorely missed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, where he enjoyed climbing mountains and began a lifelong love of nature.<\/p>\n

He earned degrees in physics and mathematics at the University of Wyoming. He then switched to computer science, completing a PhD at the University of Maryland in 1988, the same year he joined the faculty at Rochester.<\/p>\n

Nelson\u2019s research interests<\/a> included machine vision and robotics, specifically surveillance, motion analysis, object recognition, and visual control of robots. He was principal or co-principal investigator on 19 research grants totaling more than $7 million.<\/p>\n

\u201cRandal was always loath to publish any solutions that were, to him, \u2018already known,\u2019 totally rejecting the \u2018just-publishable increment\u2019 criterion of publishability,\u201d says Chris Brown, emeritus professor of computer science and a close friend to Nelson. Instead, Nelson \u201cwas relentless at getting real problems solved in innovative ways, sharing with the great scientists the instinct\u00a0for identifying interesting and important problems at the interface between impossible and doable. These were mostly unpublished, since his standards for innovation were so high.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson invested deeply in advising, mentoring, and supervising individuals and labs.\u00a0\u201cHe worked hard\u2014hours and hours\u2014with students the rest of us would dismiss as \u2018hopeless cases,\u2019\u201d Brown says. \u201cHe cared deeply that students understand their chosen problem and approaches to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do it right, or not at all<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Nelson will be remembered for many talents and interests.<\/p>\n

For example, Nelson joined Brown; Ted Pawlicki, a fellow professor in the department; and Marty Guenther, former undergraduate coordinator, in performing as the AlgoRhythms at department retirements, birthdays, and graduations. Nelson played keyboard and contributed to the group\u2019s corpus of songs that often poked gentle fun at all aspects of academia.<\/p>\n

Nelson combined his love of nature and photography by chronicling the wildflowers of Brighton Town Park<\/a>. He also loved reading science fiction and woodworking.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he recreated in his garage most of the technology through 1900,\u201d Brown says. Nelson even built a furnace to refine pig-iron from some black sand gathered on a family trip to the Adirondacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always studying the world around him,\u201d says his wife, Gwen. \u201cHe could and would talk your head off about any topic you could possibly bring up.\u201d<\/p>\n

To his students, he could be a stern mentor, whose blunt advice was nonetheless appreciated once they realized it was delivered with their best interests in mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents have a way of cutting corners, but Nelson would never accept that. It was done right or not at all,\u201d says Sinko, now a senior game developer and technologist at Booz Allen Hamilton. \u201cHe kept our engineering standards high and our heads on our shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always steering us in the direction of making things viable,\u201d says Copeland, who maintains software platforms for Adafruit, a distributor of electronics and robotic parts for hobbyists and startups.<\/p>\n

Copeland says he continued to stay in touch with Nelson, sharing the projects he was working on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is really tough to deal with. I\u2019m really sad I won\u2019t have the chance to show him the final results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nelson is also survived by three children, Brendan, Fiona, and Erik. A memorial mass will be held at St. Anne Church at a later date. <\/em>The family requests that remembrances in Nelson\u2019s name may be made to the <\/i>Highland Park Conservancy<\/i><\/a> or <\/i>https:\/\/uofr.us\/randalnelson<\/a>.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Computer science professor Randal Nelson, who died unexpectedly, is being remembered as a curious and creative engineer who was deeply invested in supporting Rochester students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":429552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18802,18632,3396],"class_list":["post-428482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-university-news","tag-department-of-computer-science","tag-hajim-school-of-engineering-and-applied-sciences","tag-obituaries"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018The best advisor and mentor a student could ask for\u2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Computer science professor Randal Nelson is being remembered as a curious and creative engineer who was deeply invested in supporting Rochester students.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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