Get in touch

CS PhD Candidate, Northwestern University taylorolson at u.northwestern.edu CV

Research

I like to say that I am a computational philosopher

Machine Ethics

During a basketball game, how do you know that it would be strange to whisper to your teammate? We take this ability to recognize acceptable and prohibited behaviors for granted but it is quite fascinating.

  • I am currently exploring ways of formally modeling how we reason (or how we want our machines to reason) about norms like above, as well as those with greater moral implications.
  • I am also currently creating algorithms that allow machines to learn such norms from natural modailities such as dialogue.

Papers

A collection of my writings

Education

Places I have studied

Sept. 2018
to Present

Northwestern University

M.S. & PhD Computer Science

August 2014
to May 2018

University of Northern Iowa

B.S. Computer Science, B.A. Mathematics, Philosophy Minor

August 2012
to May 2014

Kirkwood Community College

Mechanical Engineering Program

Experience

My professional background

May 2016
to Present

Freelance Web Development

Somewhere comfortable with mediocre coffee

Design, setup, and develop fully functional and responsive websites for clients. Develop both WordPress and custom sites.

June 2017
to August 2017

Research Intern

Harvard University

Developed a course recommender system using various methods of natural language processing. Developed machine learning classifiers to intelligently gather textual data.

May 2016
to August 2016

Programming Intern

VGM Forbin

Performed HTML5 validation, maintained staging sites, improved functionality of websites in C# and Python Django, involved in website setup and planning.

August 2012
to Sept. 2015

College Basketball

Kirkwood CC & University of Northern Iowa

Starting All-Region point guard at Kirkwood CC. Transferred to UNI and unfortunately, due to reocurring injuries, had to step away from the game after one year.

Projects

A few of my creations

Favorite Quotes

‘’

The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

Dalai Lama

Excellence is not a gift, but a skill that takes practice. We do not act ‘rightly’ because we are ‘excellent’, in fact we achieve ‘excellence’ by acting ‘rightly’.

Plato