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<title>About</title>
<link>http://DeusExMachina.org/mmicire</link>

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<title>Welcome </title>
<description><p>People have personal web sites for various reasons.  My site is simply a scrap book and agregator.  If you have met me, you know that I have a lot of projects and I am rarely standing still.  This is my dumping grounds for my photos, movies, and thoughts when I want to sit down in a quiet place, look back, and reflect.</p>    
<p>Since I am far away from the place that I consider home, this also give a place where my family and friends can catch up with the “robot guy” and see what I am up to.  Hopefully I can capture a few of my crazy adventures on this digital canvas.</p> 
<p>I am sure that you will find misspellings, broken links, and things that just don’t work.  Let me know if it is too annoying and I’ll try to fix it.</p> 
<p>So, enjoy.  There are no agendas here.  Just a geek and some robots having fun.</p>
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<link>http://DeusExMachina.org/mmicire</link>
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<title>About Me</title>
<description><p>My background in computer science has largely been in the area of field robotics and artificial intelligence.  After enrolling in graduate school at University of South Florida, I began work in the field of search and rescue robotics. This application domain allowed me to apply robotics to a truly humanitarian cause while maintaining my interest in technology. Over the course of several years, I achieved my Master’s degree in Computer Science, became a Nationally Certified Fire Fighter, and used robots for the first time in the search and rescue response at the World Trade Center disaster. I have since had the opportunity to use robots for search and rescue in several of our recent hurricanes disasters, including Hurricane Katrina. These two events allowed me to independently validate the use of robots for search and rescue. Their use not only enhances the survivability of victims, but also helps protect human and canine responders by giving them crucial information about the hazardous environment. Robotics is a field with great potential, but I felt that there was much more to be done.</p>
<p>In 2002, I started the company American Standard Robotics. My employees and I worked for over three years to become first company to sell robots to search and rescue professionals. In a small way, we succeeded in that goal. There are now several rescue groups that have their own robot gear. Unfortunately, the market for this equipment is not mature and it needs to be developed considerably before it can sustain a growing business. As such, I have refocused my efforts back into the laboratory.</p>
<p>I have been continuing my work under the auspice of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell since January 2006. Much has been accomplished, but like many emerging technologies, there is still a mountain of research and development to be done.</p>
<p>My current professor, Dr. Holly Yanco, watched me from afar through virtually all of the aforementioned trek.  When I started here at UMass Lowell, I became extremely interested in multi-touch interfaces such as the Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories’ DiamondTouch and NYU’s FTIR system. I believe that these interfaces have significant advantages over conventional user-interface paradigms and their use in rescue response command and control will benefit our first responders in future disasters.</p>
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<link>http://DeusExMachina.org/mmicire</link>
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<title>Professional Bio</title>
<description><p>Mark Micire is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant at the University of Massachusetts Lowell Robotics Lab. He has worked for over a decade to bring robots and other technologies to emergency response and search and rescue.  He is certified in multiple aspects of search and rescue including technical search, technical rescue,  hazardous material response, and is a nationally certified fire fighter. He is active in the search and rescue community as a search specialist for the Massachusetts FEMA search and rescue team. Mark was a technical search robot operator during the World Trade Center Disaster and was a technical search specialist for Florida Task Force Three during the Hurricane Katrina response in Biloxi, Mississippi.  His recent research leverages multi-touch tabletop, cell phone, and robot technology to bridge the gap between responders in the field and the incident command structure that supports them.</p>
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<link>http://DeusExMachina.org/mmicire</link>
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<title>The Domain</title>
<description>
From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_Machina_(The_Matrix)#Deus_Ex_Machina">Wikipedia</a>:  "The name is Latin, and translated literally means "god out of machine". The expression refers to Ancient Greek drama, in which many times an apparently unsolvable crisis was solved by the intervention of a god (or sometimes multiple), often brought on stage by an elaborate piece of equipment (the machine). The term “deus ex machina” is still used for cases where an author uses some improbable plot device to work his way out of a difficult situation. In The Matrix Revolutions, mankind and Machinekind reach a peace via Neo's bargain with the Deus Ex Machina (unforeseen by The Architect)." <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina">-More-</a>
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<link>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_ex_machina</link>
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<title>Geekery </title>
<description>For my fellow geek-peeps, you will notice that this web site is not static and is more of an agregator for all of the social networking sites that I use.  If you click on the bottom link in the various sections, you should be able to figure out the source of the material.  Feel free to subscribe, friend, or associate appropriately from those sites directly.</description>
<link>http://DeusExMachina.org/mmicire</link>
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