Chapter 37

Alan's turn:

I am requested to accompany my daughter and her friends to a meeting with the Engineering Department at the university. Isn't just us, either. In their own cars are Vicki with Kim and Tim and Rachel with Beck. Rachel's dad, Sim, is walking over from his office on campus. And heaven help us, Bot-bot is in the back of the SUV.

Tina knows where we're going. We park and walk in, Bot-bot tracking along with us.

If you ever want to attract attention, walk across a college campus with a tracked robot happily singing Colonel Bogey March. Naturally, he's trailing Terri who's dressed neatly for the occasion. We have an audience now.

Steps. There are steps up to the entrance. You just KNOW Bot-bot's got this. Four tracklets, the ability to shift his center of gravity and independently move his tracklets in three dimensions. I remember well the discussion over Bot-bot's mobility.

"Dad, tracks make perfect sense for much of his mobility," Terri told us, "but only in limited circumstances. We looked at the hexapod technology. Just too weird. We think it will put people off." That came with agreement in the form of nods from Rachel because this mobility thing was decided before Vicki joined us. Vicki, though... "We hybridize, though. Not hexapod, but four pseudopods. We can actually get him to climb stairs with this configuration. Or walk himself out of terrain that doesn't lend itself to tracks."

So Bot-bot switches to Volga Boatmen and climbs the steps to meet Terri who's waiting at the top.

I glance at my watch. Doctor Hoskins said ten. We hit the receptionist. "We're here to see Doctor Hoskins," I said.

"There are a bunch of you," she replied. She recognized Tina. "The large conference room. You know where it is, don't you, dear?"

"Yes, ma'am," Tina answered.

"First time I've ever admitted a robot," she said.

"Bot-bot, say 'hi' to the lady," Terri commanded.

Bot-bot raised his head, did a quick scan. 'The lady' tells him it's not a face in his files, so he focuses on the stranger. He did a couple of melodic beeps and said "Hiiii", just mechanically enough to achieve an effect.

"Come on," Terri said.

"Bye-bye," said Bot-bot.

Tina turned, waved. "Hello, Doctor Hoskins. We're here."

He was shaking his head.

Let's get the story from him.

Doctor Hoskins' report:

OK, Monday morning. I don't think there's coffee strong enough to deal with this, but here we go.

I walk into the large conference room, and there are four faculty, six parents (or five, and another faculty member, to be accurate.) And three little girls. LITTLE girls. And an odd-looking robot.

I'm Paul Hoskins, and I'd like nothing better than to just run away, screaming. OK, let's shake some hands.

"Good morning, folks. I'm Paul Hoskins, and I thank you for coming in this morning. Mr. Addison, Mr. Duncan, Dr. Weismann. Mizz Kim, Mizz Tina, Mizz Rebecca. And who are these lovely young ladies?"

Blue eyes -- six of 'em. Make that PIERCING blue eyes. I'm getting nervous.

"Good morning Dr. Hoskins. I'm Terri, this is Rachel, this is Vicki, and this is Bot-bot. Bot-bot, this is Dr. Hoskins. He is good."

Bot-bot scanned the room, looked at ME. Did a beep with INFLECTION, like he was asking a question.

"Doctor Paul Hoskins," Rachel said. "Friend."

Bot-bot answered with a happy beep sequenced like 'okay'.

Since I've been formally introduced, I say "Good morning, Bot-bot." And I'll be damned – he whistles "Good morning to you."

"Forgive me, girls, but where did THAT come from?"

Rachel: "It started with the audio-visual package that Mr. Alan got for us. We needed the visual part for the facial recognition -- so we could target squirrels. That started working pretty well, and then we decided to see what we could do with the audio part. Sometimes it's pretty funny."

"OK, we'll get back to that," I said. "Parents, ladies. You all have met the faculty members here, and they have collaborated on a proposal. Girls, to keep it simple, would you be interested in entering the university as students here, and in pursuing a degree program?"

Terri: "Yes sir, I think we would, except that we're too young, and we don't have high school diplomas yet. I passed the GED, but nobody will officially recognize it yet. Rachel could do it, too, and I'm pretty sure Vicki will be ready in a few more weeks."

Rachel: "We actually don't care if anyone recognizes it or not. But it's just so much fun to learn things and apply them to Bot-bot, and some other things we think about."

Vicki: "We really like using the university library -- it's so neat to use real books, instead of just the internet. When you start looking at the texts, you can see more of what the author is thinking, and you don't have to deal with all the annoying pop-ups."

"Girls, as I understand it, you're dealing with programming, microprocessors, power supplies, motor controls, audio and visual modules, and mechanical devices. All of this sounds like engineering, probably electrical engineering as much as anything else. Do you think electrical engineering would be a close fit?"

Terri: "More or less, Dr. Hoskins. It's more artificial intelligence than anything else, but it's the practical application that makes it an engineering effort, or at least that's what the Google people say."

"Thank you, Terri. Dr. Embert says that people call you pTerri, with a 'p'. Should I call you pTerri?"

"Yes, sir. If you want to do that. It started out with Johanna calling me 'Terridactyl'. I added the 'p' in honor of Sir Terry Pratchett."

I can't help but smile. Pratchett is a weakness for me as well. "I know about pTraci. I think you girls are much smarter. Now, girls, you have become involved with Google on this project with Bot-bot. We're certainly intrigued, and since several of our students are also involved, we're thinking it would make sense to help you in your R&D, and because you're helping some of our students improve, we'd like to work more of them into your efforts. Can you think of any way we can help you?"

"Sir, we're starting construction on a second Bot-bot, to shorten R&D time. More programmers and engineering students would be helpful, plus a lab with tools and some microprocessors we've been thinking about. But it takes money, of course."

"As I understand it, Google has offered a grant of $200K. If we were to match that, would it help?" I watched the faces of the parents in the room. Surprise was evident. I surmise that if somebody had just offered MY pre-teen daughter a couple of hundred thousand dollars in research money, I would have required embalming next. These people are USED to the unusual from these girls.

Terri spoke for them. I would come to find out that she was the leader, much like Cindy Richards was for the previous gang that assaulted our hallowed halls. "Yes, sir, I think it would, if we also had the capable students to do some of the work."

"OK, why don't we proceed on that. Parents, do you have any comment?"

I saw eleven mouths hanging open, and three moms with tears pooling. And all were nodding, favorably.

The girls were smiling, but didn't look very surprised.

"OK, girls, why don't we do it this way: Dr. Patel, please see to their enrollment, and whatever study programs they need. Dr. Embert, please see to any facilities or materials they may need. Also, contact Google and report that we're duplicating funding on this project. Take care of any non-disclosure authorizations needed. Dr. Asharam, Dr. Stebbins, please assemble any programmers and engineering students they desire. Make sure that your students understand that this is under the auspices of the university and that academic credits will be dispensed for satisfactory work."

I get to be the boss from time to time. I expected and got accepting nods from my staff.

I continued, "Girls, the courses you'll be required to take are the same as required of any other students, but you're certainly permitted to test out of many of them. Somehow, I suspect that the courses won't be terribly difficult for you. Is that OK with you?"

Triple squeal. Three little girls, big smiles, and dammit, my heart is melting, right down into my shoes. No way to do it, but I surely wish I could just take them all home with me.

"Girls, could I come see your lab sometime?"

Triple squeal, again.

Rachel: "Sure -- how about this afternoon? We'll let you try Cindy's cookies. And then, you won't be able to leave." More heads nodding in agreement.

"OK, girls. Welcome to Auburn, of course. Dr. Patel, could you take these little ladies to your office and get their registrations underway? And parents, I need a few more minutes with you."

"Mizz Kim, Mizz Tina, Mizz Rebecca, please find Cindy and Nikki, and report that after they defend their dissertations, they will each be awarded two certificates: One will be a diploma, and the other will be a notice that she has been declared a public hazard. Cookies, indeed. The whole bunch of you have nearly turned an important part of this university upside down. We may not recover from the damage, and I'm not sure we want to."

"Alan, Tim, Sim, you have my sincere condolences, and I suspect you'll need more. And Sim, I note that you're only an Associate Professor. Since you obviously deserve more misery, I'm going to speak to my colleague to make you a full professor with tenure. Shame on you for raising a genius, after all. I can only hope this is contagious."

And now, I'm wondering how this bunch of people keeps sprouting geniuses. And this latest development -- three LITTLE girls, who appear to be the smartest of the bunch. Can you imagine what they'll be like when they get their degrees at age fourteen, or whatever?

Tina raised her hand. "Doctor Hoskins, this can't just be THAT easy..."

"R&D is part of our university. Sometimes we have to generate that from within, sometimes we get requests. This is the first time we went out and BOUGHT a project in progress." I paused. "Let me change that. You and Cindy and Nikki and Susan. That railgun, right, Doctor Embert?"

Doctor E nodded. "And some of the seeds of that project bled over into this Bot-bot."

Bot-bot heard his name. His head rose up on its stalk. I presume that he's met Doctor Embert.

"Hi, Bot-bot," she said.

"Hiiii," he replied.

"I think that this is going to be good. Nikki and Cindy, soon to be, heaven help us, DOCTOR Nikki and DOCTOR Cindy, are going to be heads of this effort, just because I want them associated with Auburn. They were coming to this meeting, but I've already informed them of my plans. I fear that their positions here may interfere with their participation at 3Sigma to some extent, but we have no problem with them staying on the staff there as well."