Nearlife, Inc.
Chris Kline '97
While pursuing a BS in Computer Science at Cornell Engineering, I had
a fabulous advisor (Dr. Bruce Land). In addition to being incredibly
supportive throughout my time there, he allowed me to do my technical
concentration in Neurobiology and Behavior instead of going along a
more traditional path. The classes I took in that program (in
particular BIONB 221-222 and some independent study) turned out to be
probably the most enjoyable and valuable classes I took while at
Cornell.
I decided that I wanted to keep working in the area of animal behavior
and computer science, so after graduating in May of '97 I started work
on an MS degree at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. There I worked on computational models of animal
behavior in the Synthetic Characters research group. This was great
because I was able to do work in a variety of areas --- animal
behavior, cognitive science, artificial intelligence, and computer
graphics.
Now I work as a software engineer in Cambridge at a small company
called Nearlife (www.nearlife.com), building location-based
entertainment for museums, theme parks, and other venues. It's a great
place to work because every new project is fun and different (like
writing the AI routines to get some four-foot high virtual monkeys to
dance with real children) and I get to use a little bit of everything
I've learned. Most importantly, it's very rewarding to build something
and then watch the kids that use it have a blast playing and learning.
The work environment is relaxed and very diverse. Most people there
have an art background (film, sculpture, animation, illustration, etc)
in addition to any technical skills, which I find very
stimulating. We're well compensated, but I think the most important
reason people work at Nearlife is because of the kind of work they get
to do. As for hours, I work normal hours most of the time (usually
10am until 6:30 or 7pm, but hours are flexible). Usually when I work
late it because I'm so involved with what I'm doing that I don't want
to leave ("just let me fix this one little thing before I go...").
If I had to offer advice to undergrads, I would encourage them to to
chart their own course. The CS program at Cornell is excellent but
also very challenging--- it's easy to get overwhelmed or burned
out. Find an area that interests you and find a way to apply CS to it;
you'll learn things you can't learn in the classroom and you will have
a lot more fun in the process.
If anyone has questions, feel free to contact me.
Cheers,
Chris Kline (chris@nearlife.com)