Bob Keller | In Memoriam | Harvey Mudd College

The Harvey Mudd College community mourns the loss of Robert (Bob) Keller, who died Sept. 13. Bob was an internationally recognized computer scientist with corporate and academic experience as a technical leader, researcher, educator and administrator.

Bob joined the College’s computer science faculty and became chair of the newly formed department in 1991, following Bill Purves and Mike Erlinger, who chaired the combined biology and CS departments prior to his arrival. The new CS department graduated its first CS majors in 1992. As a professor of computer science, Bob specialized in intelligent music software, programming languages, neural networks and genetic programming and is known for his work on formal models, verification, functional languages and distributed graph reduction architectures.

A talented jazz musician who played trumpet and piano, Bob organized student performances for many years as part of his Jazz Improvisation class. He developed a music notation software program—dubbed the Improvisation Advisor, or “Impro-Visor”—that helps jazz musicians learn how to improvise jazz music, allowing them to generate new improvisations based on previous works of many famous jazz artists. The free, open-source software was released in 2006, and Bob’s research teams continue to develop it. Impro-Visor has a growing user community of more than 7,500 around the world.

Bob Keller, left, with students testing ImproVisor — Bob with students in the CS lab.

In addition to jazz improvisation, Bob taught courses on artificial intelligence, neural networks, computability and logic, computational creativity, software development, parallel and real-time computing, and databases. He has been a mentor for decades of Harvey Mudd students, having served as an advisor for the Clinic Program as well as Computer Science Clinic director.

For many years, Bob coached students participating in the Association for Computing Machinery International Programming contest. He has the distinction of being the coach of the winning 1997 world finals team of Brian Carnes ’97, Brian Johnson ’98, Kevin Watkins ’98 and Dominic Mazzoni ’99. The HMC team advanced from the ACM regional competition phase with over 1,000 participating teams then went on to beat 49 other teams at the world competition. HMC is the only undergraduate institution—and the last U.S. institution—to have won the contest, joining a list that includes MIT, Caltech, Waterloo, Stanford and Harvard, among others. Harvey Mudd teams have continued to do well, placing first at the ACM regional competitions in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2009 and 2010 and competing at the World Finals.

Bob Keller holding trumpet in front of book case.

In addition to his work in academia, Bob held a position at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for more than 10 years, conceiving and participating in developing a language for controlling unmanned space missions that could be used for both programming and model-checking, as well as contributing to other declarative language research efforts. He was also a member of the technical staff at the Aerospace Corporation and vice-president of research and development at Quintus Computer Systems, a commercial vendor of Prolog language development systems.

Bob earned a PhD in electrical engineering and computer sciences from University of California, Berkeley (1970), and a B.S. (1966) and M.S. (1968) in electrical engineering from Washington University, where he contributed to research on asynchronous modular systems. He held faculty positions at Princeton (assistant professor), the University of Utah (associate professor and professor) and University of California, Davis (professor and chair of computer science), as well as visiting positions at Stanford, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and, most recently, University of California, San Diego.

Bob is survived by his wife, Noel, sons, Franz and Patrick, sister, Irma Ward, brother, Dennis Keller, and several nieces and nephews. The family requests that contributions in Bob’s honor be made to the Jazz Education Network’s Scholarship Program the American Brain Tumor Association, and the Sierra Club Foundation.

“Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin

Sung by Esther Hwang, accompanied by Ben Jones g, Rafer Dannenhauer t, Bob Keller p, Hufsa Ahmad b, Rob Carrington d. Harvey Mudd College jazz improvisation class.

“Benny’s Dream,” an original tune by Bob Keller

Memories of Bob

Daniel Johnson ’18

Student

Early on in my time at Mudd, I was interested in music generation with neural nets and had made a little demo, but wasn’t sure what to do next with it. I knew Prof. Keller was interested in the area, so I went over to his office and showed him what I’d been working on. Prof. Keller encouraged me to turn it into a research paper and pointed me toward the resources I needed to make that happen. I later had a chance to work with him directly as a summer research intern, and had a great time exploring the intersection of machine learning and Jazz music. Prof. Keller was a great mentor, and I am grateful for him for helping me discover my passion for CS research and for setting me on the path toward my future career.

Pedro Sandoval-Segura ’19

Student

I first met Prof. Keller in CS 81. I really enjoyed his course, though I also struggled with the homeworks and would often go to office hours. Prof. Keller was always helpful and would enjoy seeing students arrive at a solution. Sometimes, I was lucky to be the only one in office hours and I got to chat with him about his weekend, his music, or his research.

I got to spend more time with Prof. Keller when a friend invited me to be part of an independent study. Prof. Keller became our research advisor and is one of the reasons why I am in grad school today. He motivated us to delve deep into recent methods and was always very attentive during our weekly presentations. Prof. Keller cared deeply about us and our education.

Sam Goree

Summer Intern

I’m so sorry to hear of Bob’s passing! I worked with Bob, like many, as a summer intern in the summer of 2016. His kind mentorship inspired me to go to graduate school and pursue the intersection of creativity and AI more seriously. Bob was a wonderful musician and a great professor, I wish his family the best.

Graham Orr ’09

Student and Friend

I took Bob’s Jazz Improv class for four consecutive terms. It developed its own culture, bands, friends. Stress relief.

Bob possessed a killer combo of technical prowess and musical creativity unique to the HMC community. Bob extended his CS genius as a superb musician that regularly played with notable industry pros, but was always down for an impromptu jam.

We played jazz in the CS lab in the library. Between his class and the several 5C bands he supported, it was the spot 3-4 times a week.

I venture to say that HMC may never recover from the loss of some elements of his genius and talent. I deeply feel for Noel and family, whom has graciously served HMC and brightened the lives of all students.

Samantha Long

Summer Intern

Prof Keller was my first mentor in tech. I still remember coming across his music-related software Impro-Visor online, it was the first time I felt real, giddy, excitement about a project that so easily combined two of my interests, music and computer science. It was an incredible moment, my first time really discovering someone shared the same niche passions that I did. After I mustered up the courage to send him an email, I crossed my fingers hoping he’d reply back and to my surprise, he did. I was still in high school then, awkward and unconfident about my abilities but Professor Keller had a knack of believing in everyone and even gave me a chance. I remember meeting him for the first time, talking to him in his cramped yet cozy office where he first showed me ImproVisor. He was kind, patient, intelligent, and always learning. I admire all of these things about him. Dr. Keller allowed me to get a glimpse into research, and allowed me to get to meet a really wonderful team of students that were so diverse and intelligent and musical. Working on Improvisor was crazy, feeling like I belonged to something much greater than me and I will never forget it. Funnily enough, even after my internship ended, Dr. Keller and my path crossed yet again at UCSD where I attend school. He had moved there during my first/second year and was collaborating with another Professor there. I remember running to his classroom after a music class I had in the same building, but he wasn’t there. Just as I turned back, there he was walking towards me. We hugged, and briefly caught up. It was great, knowing my first mentor was so near me again, I thought it was so coincidental, life’s funny like that. I think in the back of my mind, knowing I had his support and that he believed in me, made me proud. I would always try to go to any concerts he invited me to where he would always be taking notes and asking questions. He even attended my high school Tech Fair. I attended so many of his presentations of ImoroVisor, and was even one of the presenters once. Through all my experiences with Dr. Keller, he inspired me so much. I wanted to be like him, be so committed to furthering the community of musical tech hobbyists, be kind and encouraging to others even those who knew nearly nothing, and to always be learning. I will always carry this spirit of his forward. Thank you for giving me a chance, I will never forget that. Rest in Peace Dr. Keller, I will always remember you! #ImproVisorForever

Andi Chen

Student

It’s very sad to hear that Prof Keller passed away. I had great luck to have taken complexity and logic and Jazz Improv class from Prof Keller. His passion for Jazz was very inspirational for me, and will be deeply remembered and missed.

Irma E Ward

Sister

I will forever miss my dear brother who, unknowingly, taught me so much; more than he would have known. One of my favorite memories was the magic shows that Bob would put on. He was the master magician and I was the assistant. We would put on shows in our basement, or on stage at the local church, for the neighborhood kids. Bob would build elaborate setups for his disappearing act and performed with the perfect background music. It was a lot of fun for all. Rest in peace dear brother.

Brian Bentow ’05

Student

Prof Keller was a great professor and friend!

He lead by example: he applied computer science to his passion for Jazz. He taught us that combining your passions is better than feeling that you have to give up one of them. He let his passion for Jazz music motivate and drive his research.
He encouraged us to develop our research skills. When I took Neural Networks with him, did Summer Research, or Clinic, he encouraged us to read other people’s work, attempt to replicate their results, and then take it to the next level.
He encouraged us to work on novel projects of our own design. That was my favorite thing about taking his upper level classes. I convinced other students to take his classes with me so that we could work on cool projects together.
He took himself very seriously and was very hard working. I still remember when I took CS 60 from him and I was impressed that he created Rex and handled us a massive binder that he created himself for the course.
He was extremely knowledgeable and I could count on him for insights about problems that I might face.
I would email him late at night or early in the morning with a question and he would reply quickly which was extremely helpful when facing a deadline.
When I took databases from him, he was supportive when another student and I wanted to build something for Student Security Party management. He never stifled our creativity.

He made funny, snarky comments when we would have lunch or dinner together about technologies or approaches that he didn’t think were great.

I have very fond memories of doing Summer Research with him and the way that he motivated us to not get “scooped.” Ironically, we eventually got “scooped” anyway. He told me to focus on areas that are being overlooked by other people; not to follow the most recent popular trend. He predicted the resurgence of Neural Networks after the Neural Network winter. He had wisdom.

I feel very fortunate I got to spend so much time with Prof Keller. He was my CS Degree advisor and Clinic Advisor. I had the opportunity to do Summer Research, CS 60, Databases, and Neural Networks with him. We had many lunches and dinners together.

I am so grateful to him for giving me a Summer Research position as a freshman and writing recommendations for me which helped me win the Microsoft Technical Scholarships two years in a row. Of all of the great Professors that I had when I attended Harvey Mudd, Prof Keller had the biggest impact on me by a LARGE margin.

The Harvey Mudd community and I will surely miss him immensely.

William Jesset

Online student

I found late last year 2019, IMPRO-VISOR and the possibilities of this software for composing/ learning Music.
Professor Keller personally emailed me solutions to facilitate my understanding the process and best ways to navigate the application as I’d never done so before.
His kindness left a indelible mark and I wish I’ve could have know Professor Keller on a more personal basis.
Once I had heard him play the trumpet on Youtube I said “here’s someone who possibly can give me advice about playing a trumpet.”
I continue to use IMPRO-VISOR daily and it’s just the most useful of tool’s.
I have introduced many friends to the wonders of Professor Keller Musical software app.
God bless you Professor Keller. You are sorely missed.

Andrew Brown

Research colleague and friend

I will miss my conversations with Bob about different approaches to algorithmic music making. I will always remember his passion for Jazz music and his kindness and integrity.