SETH J. TELLER

Teller, Seth J. Seth J. Teller, a beloved father, husband, son, neighborhood activist, and MIT professor, died July 1 at age 50. A member of MIT's computer science and engineering faculty since 1994, Teller was internationally renowned for his efforts to develop robots that are useful to people in their daily lives. He led a research group that focused on making machines aware of their surroundings and capable of interacting naturally with people in health-care, military, civilian, and disaster-relief settings. Their projects included a self-driving car; an unmanned forklift; a wheelchair directed by voice commands; and a humanoid robot that performs dangerous tasks with limited guidance from a human at a safe remote location. Teller was well known in academic circles as a brilliant engineer and a gifted advisor. As a leader of MIT's Fifth Sense Project, he worked with colleagues and students to develop wearable devices to assist people who are blind or have low vision. The project drew support from famed Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and his foundation, and was a magnet for talented computer scientists with visual challenges. Teller also developed a system to protect police officers who need to stop or step out of their vehicles on busy roadways, by warning officers of approaching vehicles that are veering dangerously, and alerting drivers to approach carefully. A native of Connecticut, Teller received degrees from Wesleyan University and the University of California at Berkeley. He did research at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and at Princeton University before joining MIT, where he rose to the rank of full professor. His work on assistive robotics often took him out of the university, most recently into nursing homes, proving grounds, and the crippled nuclear reactor at Fukushima. Teller also cared deeply about the East Cambridge neighborhood where he lived for 20 years, and led grassroots efforts to promote neighborhood-friendly development decisions. A longtime ultimate Frisbee player, Teller also lobbied to protect and improve Cambridge's open spaces. He is survived by his wife, Rachel Zimmerman, and two daughters Sophia and Julia; his parents, Sam and Joan Teller; his brothers David and Adam Teller, brother-in-law Paul Zimmerman, sisters-in-law Jil-Anne Bailey, Cathy Teller, and Diana Wells; his nephews Toby and Benjamin and niece Madelyn, his aunts Miriam Gutwill, Betty Werksman, Helen Hillman, Bess Teller, and Rosanna DeVergiles, and uncles Jack Teller, Gerald Werksman, and Richard Zappacosta, and a large circle of relatives and friends. In his honor, MIT has established a fund to further Teller's research in the field of assistive technology for people with disabilities. Donations to the Seth Teller Memorial Fund to Advance Technology For People With Disabilities should be payable to MIT and mailed to Bonny Kellermann, 600 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA 02139. Credit card gifts can be made at: https://giving.mit.edu/givenow/ConfirmGift.dyn?desig=3919430. Arrangements for the funeral and burial were private. There will be a memorial gathering at MIT in the fall.