Jeff La Coss sweated blood for a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from UCLA. For no particularly good reason, he is a Lifetime Member of the UCLA Alumni Association. He is also a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the Society for Neuroscience.
Mr. La Coss is currently involved in a wide range of research
areas.
VICAT (VLSI Implementation of CA3) has built several
electronical devices
which have been used to replace neural populations in the CA3 region
of rat hippocampus. Hippocampus is the brain structure that converts
experience to long-term memory (learning). CA3 degeneration is
frequently seen in the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
MONARCH (Morphable Networked Architecture) is a very high
performance processing architecture for high data rate real-time
processing applications such as radar and other sensors.
COGENT (Cognitive Engine Technology) is a new program to
develop a top-to-bottom approach to cognitive processing. Mr. LaCoss
is principally involved with the hardware architecture effort.
Among Mr. LaCoss's past activities are:
Project Leader of the
GloMo Universal Modular Packaging System (GUMPS) and
Advanced Production Technologies (APT)
projects of the Advanced
Systems Division at USC/ISI. In addition to project management
responsibilities, his engineering contributions to these programs are
at all levels of systems design and packaging.
During the mid-'70s, Mr. La Coss worked for Informer, Inc., a small manufacturer of computer terminals in the dark days before the advent of personal computers, workstations and networks. Long defunct, Informer provided an invaluable hands-on engineering training environment when his alma mater failed to deliver relevant (or practical) courses in computer design techniques. Mr. La Coss returned to formal schooling only after the CS&E major was offered.
Jeff's other interests include reading a good book, wine tasting, single-malt whisky, and cycling. (Fortunately, these activities are all individually very enjoyable, because no two can be properly performed simultaneously, and none of them are in any way remunerative.) He spent a fair amount of time in the past coaching his daughter's softball teams. Fun, but she's moved on.
Some personal philosophy.
Some humor.
I've also built up a few books, a couple CDs, and a few DVDs over the years. These groovy catalogs were built with tools from Collectorz.com (I have no affiliation, but I like the way their programs work).
