A Celebration of the Life of Dr. Max Mintz

The CIS Department and GRASP Lab invite you to please join us on Thursday, November 17th, at 3:30pm as we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Max Mintz, Professor of Computer and Information Science.

Max joined Penn as an assistant professor of Systems Engineering (now part of ESE) in 1974. He changed his primary appointment to Computer and Information Science in 1986, and he was an important part of CIS undergraduate education and advising for 36 years. His research in Penn’s GRASP Lab focused on developing robust algorithms for decision-making under uncertainty with applications to machine perception and robotics. Max was a legendary teacher, an extraordinary advisor, and an inspiration to his students, encouraging them to go well beyond their comfort level in their academic preparation and homework. He won numerous awards including the S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award, the University’s Lindback Award, and the Ford Motor Company Award for Distinguished Advising. 

A memorial celebration will be held in the Wu and Chen Auditorium of Levine Hall, followed by a reception. We hope you can attend.

*If you would like to attend, please RSVP here!
*If you’d like to submit photos of Dr. Mintz to be shared during the event, please upload them here!
*To attend virtually, please join via Zoom here.
*Full details on the schedule and event may be found here.

ABOUT Dr. Max Mintz:

Max Mintz was born on September 4th, 1942, and grew up outside of New York City.  He received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering at Cornell University and then completed a Ph.D. in Systems Theory in 1968. He then joined Yale University, first as a post-doc and then as an Assistant Professor in Control Theory and Electrical Engineering.  He subsequently taught at the University of Illinois for two years before joining the Systems Engineering department (now part of Electrical and Systems Engineering) at the University of Pennsylvania in 1974.  In 1984, at the invitation of Ruzena Bajcsy, he joined the GRASP Lab, and in 1986 he switched his primary affiliation to the Department of Computer and Information Science.

As an integral member of the GRASP Lab, Dr. Mintz’s research focused on control theory with stochastic systems.  He developed robust algorithms for decision-making under uncertainty with applications to machine perception and robotics, combining ideas from mathematics, physics, and game theory.  Later in his career, he turned his attention to quantum computing, and especially how to teach it in a way that was accessible to undergraduates.

Dr. Mintz was a legendary teacher, an extraordinary advisor, and an inspiration to his students, encouraging them to go well beyond their comfort level in their academic preparation and homework. He played an important part of CIS undergraduate education and advising for 36 years, winning numerous awards for these efforts, including the S. Reid Warren, Jr. Award, the University’s Lindback Award, and the Ford Motor Company Award for Distinguished Advising.

*Full details on the schedule and event may be found here.