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Waterloo Chronicle (Waterloo, On1868), 21 Apr 1982, p. 6

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PAGE 6 - WATERLOO CHRONICLE, WEDNESDAY. APRIL 71,1982 355 Weber St. N. FREE “may "WERE LARGER THAN WE LOOK! " CREDIT TERMS "mums 46 "a it” North. Watodoo HOUSE OF FURNITURE [VEDA Phil Lublin Put a little Ming-shine back in your cars.life! of Kitchener-Waterloo 885-5620 355 Weber St. N. After the harsh winter months of Bait and snow, treat your car to the exclusive Ming Mirror Finish Interior Shampoo Dogroaso Engine Ming ALAN RIGBY'S Limited Time Otter Before the summer,AeVsGrthe Badman for our 12 pt. Cooting System Check. ONLY 3495 The Badman is pleased to announce the Weber St. N, Badman location as under new management. Mr. Phil Lublm, born and raised In the Kitchener/Waterloo area, has taken over control of the Waterloo Radman Outlet E New Owners Special 886-1 040 Announcement 99 Reg. 149.00 otter m effect In! AD"! 30th TUES.-THURS. " FRIDAY " SATURDAY 95:” most can Waterloo l Jan Gray, a Grade " student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute, demonstrates his talking computer, which won second place in the senior level of the mathematics ) and computer science category at the Waterloo-Wellington Science and 1 Engineering Fair. _ b l I Ta ll ki ng computer among I I I I highlights of Science fair Nivl Karrow, a Grade l0 dude-n! al so John',, Soniur School. Waterloo, was n-cugnm-d fur the "xcvllence of his vxhibit "ntitled Icicle 'ormatiorv, Karrow. who lives at T2l Shake \pvan- Pl . won tirst place intermediate and best in category tor his earth science om r) The other Waterloo s'tudrat chow-n to participate in the national competition is "vim Wollcr of I33 Keats Way pl, Wollcr was honored for his entry entitled Process Control: Automatic Developing. which won first place in the senior level and best of catcgory in mathematics and computer science. "is project displays a wide range of turn-x made of synthetic resin moulded m wax moulds where real iriclm were originally mopldod. For the next four years. Gray worked at the university programming computers. “I had a deal worked out with them. I would write a small program [or the university each term in exchange for time on the computers." Over 50 public apd high school students from Watcrioo Wellington n'mnn won $3.000 m 1 ash prizes ah well as books and u‘rlifiruhw of merit at the ninth annual own! Sludrnlx responsible fur the five top "xhitrits ssill rq-pn-wnl thc roman at tiw Canada Wide Srwnm' Fair at York l‘mu-rsny, May 15 22 Waterloo students wrn- big winners in thc Waterloo Wellington Science and Engim-l-rinu Hair held at Conestoga. College this pus! week. of thc [up top winners, luv are rWau-rhm residents "We looked at “the telescopes, and the computers, and then the liquid nitrogen, and I saiANey, let's, go back to the computers"," Gray first became interested in computers about five years ago when a professor at the University of Waterloo took him on a tour of the physics building. "It took a year to build and program. I worked about 10 or ts hours a week in my spare time. I guess it took about 500 hours all together." The computer speaks by sounding out words. Gray types a code for each sound into the machine. and the computer pieces the sounds together to produce words and sentences. Gray, of Regina Street, Waterloo. is an 18-year-old Grade 13 student at Waterloo Collegiate Institute. He built the computer himself and equipped it with special circuitry to mimic the human voice. "It can speak 300 words, but all of them are in a flat monotone. with a sort-of eastern accent." he said with a grin. Gray's talking computer was one of the highlights of the more than 200 exhibits at the fair, which was held at the Donn Campus of Conestoga College from Wednesday to Satur- day. Jan Gray's favorite hobby is talking to machines. And the machines talk back, as he cheerfully demonstrated to visitors at the ninth annual Waterloo-Wellington Science and Engineering Fair. About a year ago he began in build his own Waterloo students are big science winners Story and photo by Heather Mackey i In addition, the following Waterloo residents who attend schools outside of the city were honored at the lair: David llemphill. Sarah Hockin, Lorrie Shantz. David Manning. Robin Bummer. Jacqueline Renaud, and Emily Crowne. Studvnts from St David Junior High Scrum! who won awards are Peter Tchir, Wolfgang Wulu-r. Herr) Thorpe, Dave Riel. Michael Schmuck and Paul Coman- Other Waterloo school winners include Roman Sirskyj and Jan Gray from Waterloo Collegiate Institute and Eugene Lit of Certten nial Public School. Waller. a 17 year old Grade ll student at tit. Jeronu. High St'hcml. also rm'l-iu'd the IBM National ('umpulvr Technology Award Lincoln Mvights School students wore also m thc winner's circle These inrludv Craig Marvcn, Sh-phani Culmvr, Leslie Bryon. Keith Wilhams, Yihonifa Makhani. Betsy Mud gins. Charhe Wilson and Lari Main These include Lorrie Krebs, Carolyn Coy nr, hau- Cormt Tim Ellis. Jay Intws. Andrew Abicht. John F'iiiatrault. Peter Nears. James Colt. and Jim Sprung In his pray-cl. Wnltvr drum-d a 'o xlvm for automatic dcvelopinp, of phnlugraphix- film, Atrium: the other winners quite a number are students at St, John's Svninr Srhnnl. Walrr loo “I want to program computers to mimic thought processes." However. this will be very difficult. since "our brain is like millions of little computers that are all working at once," he said. But can the machines actually think? “I don't see why they can't make a computer that copies everything a brain can do. " it copies the work of the brain. is it thinking?" Even Gray isn't sure about that one. One of his projects was to produce a program to control a pig barn. It opens valves to feed the pigs and automatically keeps track of their weight. ' And what does Gray plan to do when he finishes high school? Take computer science at the University of Waterloo. of course. He is especially interested in the intelligence level of the machines. Gray spent about $500 for the parts to build his computer. He earned the money by working - with computers. of course. Gray works for a Kitchener firm, Limnoterra Environmental Biologists. programming and building computers. The hardest part about building a computer is getting the timing right, he said. "Each operation (by the computer) is done in a millionth of a second and the timing must be right within 50 billionth of a second." computer. Gray learned the basic electronics needed to assemble his computer in high school, but the rest of his information came from friends at the university, who Rave him technical manuals and instructions. Gray dubbed his talking computer the Gray 1. "The name is a pun, since the world's fastest computer is named the Cray l." he ex- plained, so"

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