astronomy

Rolf Pfeifer

Rolf Pfeifer is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Rolf Pfeifer rather than just read about it. In short: Rolf Pfeifer (born 24 February 1947) is a Swiss artificial-intelligence researcher. He was a professor of computer science at the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich, and director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he retired in 2014.

Key takeaways

Rolf Pfeifer belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Rolf Pfeifer to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Rolf Pfeifer from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Rolf Pfeifer (born 24 February 1947) is a Swiss artificial-intelligence researcher. He was a professor of computer science at the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich, and director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, where he retired in 2014. Currently he is a specially appointed professor at Osaka University, and a visiting professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He has a master's degree in physics and mathematics and a Ph.D. in computer science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich, Switzerland. He spent three years as a post-doctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University and Yale University in the U.S. Having worked as a visiting professor and research fellow at the Free University of Brussels, the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the Neurosciences Institute (NSI) in San Diego, and the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris, he was elected "21st Century COE Professor, Information Science and Technology" at the University of Tokyo for 2003/2004, from where he held the first global, fully interactive, videoconferencing-based lecture series "The AI Lectures from Tokyo" (including Tokyo, Beijing, Jeddah, Warsaw, Munich, and Zürich). These lectures were renamed the ShanghAI Lectures and since 2009 they have been broadcast all over the world. He is the author of the books Understanding Intelligence (co-author: C. Scheier), How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence MIT Press, 2006 (with Josh Bongard), and "Designing Intelligence" (with Josh Bongard and Don Berry). He has published over 100 scientific articles. His research interests include Embodied cognition, Biorobotics, Autonomous agents/mobile robots, Artificial life, Morphology/morpho-functional machines, Situated Design, Emotion.

Books Understanding Intelligence, Bradford Books, 2001; with Christian Scheier How the Body Shapes the Way We Think: A New View of Intelligence, Bradford Books, 2006; with Josh Bongard Designing Intelligence Paperback, GRIN, 2013, with Josh Bongard, Don Berry

External links Rolf Pfeifer's homepage at the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rolf Pfeifer

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rolf Pfeifer claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Rolf Pfeifer before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Rolf Pfeifer ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Rolf Pfeifer

In research: Rolf Pfeifer appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Rolf Pfeifer in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Rolf Pfeifer is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 births, Academic staff of the University of Osaka, Academic staff of the University of Zurich, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rolf Pfeifer outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Rolf Pfeifer in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Rolf Pfeifer means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Rolf Pfeifer out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Rolf Pfeifer in simple terms?

Why does Rolf Pfeifer matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Rolf Pfeifer?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Rolf Pfeifer.