Vita
Markus P.J. Fromherz
Born in Germany, grown up in Switzerland, married, with two children
and two dogs born in the U.S.
Short Biography
I was born in Germany, but lived in Switzerland for twice as long. I
went to high school in the Principality of Liechtenstein, where you
get an audience with the prince when you graduate. Well prepared, I
studied Computer Science at ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) in
Zurich, Switzerland, where I got influenced by people like Niklaus
Wirth. This didn't keep me from venturing into Logic Programming,
though, a major focus of my Master's Thesis. In general, I became
interested in computational means to support exploration, such as the
exploration of designed software and hardware systems. In my
subsequent Ph.D. work at the University of Zurich, I developed a
methodology for executable software specifications, which combines a
formal approach to software development with the ability to get early
hands-on experience with the specified system. Then, after eight
years in Zurich, I wanted to get some hands-on experience in living in
the U.S., which finally brought me to PARC. I have lived in the San
Francisco Bay Area (a.k.a. Silicon Valley) since 1992.
My Work at PARC
Initially, I worked with Ken Kahn in the Dynamics of Computation Area
(application of the visual programming language PictorialJanus to the
modeling and simulation of electro-mechanical machines). As an
outgrowth of earlier work, I also implemented an object-oriented
extension to Prolog which has since been used and ported to several
Prolog systems by others. Part of my research was supported by a
two-year fellowship from the Swiss NSF.
Later, I moved to the Scientific Engineering and Reasoning Area
(under Danny Bobrow) in the Systems and Practices Lab (under Johan de
Kleer), where I first joined a project on model-based diagnosis for
service technicians. At the beginning of 1993, we started the Machine
Control Project with a focus on constraint-based print engine
scheduling. I developed various modeling languages, constraint
solvers, and scheduling algorithms, and co-authored more than 30 patent
applications. I also participated in collaborations with
Xerox Business Divisions on applications of our technology, which
has resulted in several Xerox product families adopting our
constraint-based system control technologies.
Around 2000, I have been working primarily on constraint-based control
for machines using smart matter (large numbers of embedded actuators,
sensors, and processors). We developed hierarchical algorithms for
large-scale optimization, and techniques and architectures for
fault-tolerant, adaptive control of embedded, distributed systems. As
an example, we applied these ideas to an air-jet paper mover (an
example of an "active surface") and to a modular robotic system.
In recent years, I have been building up a group on embedded
reasoning, where we are developing the next generation of
model-based planning, scheduling, and control algorithms for highly
reconfigurable dynamical systems. This work is again done in tight
collaboration with Xerox, in particular the Xerox Innovation Group.
In 2005, I became manager of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory.
See also my research statement.
Private Interests
My private time goes into my family, reading, investing, and playing
the piano (time-wise in that order). See also my family Web site.
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