About Me

Mark Lanthier (i.e., me) was born in 1968 here in Ottawa.  Here is the oldest picture I have of me (in the middle):


 It appears that I was a cute kid ... it must have been a long time ago:


I went to hockey school at one time, but was not very good at it. I'm better now...I think.



I grew up, somewhat normally, I think:


I loved to color pictures, do puzzles, build model cars, and enjoyed playing the family Atari 2600.


I also enjoyed solving various types of rubik's cubes:


I watched lots of Giligan's Island, Happy Days, Good Times, Three's Company, Looney Tunes and Laurel & Hardy on TV:


My favourite movies were the Pink Panther series with Peter Sellers:


I played drums when growing up. I also had professional training as a percussionist where I also learned to play the Vibraphone and Tympani.  


I was also in a band called at Zodiac (later called PartyLine) where we played for school dances, and other various events, parties and occasions:



As a teen, I went camping and white-water rafting a couple of times:



Ok.  Haven't you even balanced a spoon on your nose ?



Yes, I've been to the Bahamas:



I became interested in computers when I was in grade 10 where I took an Informatics class.   I bought my first computer, which was a Timex Sinclair ZX81 ... it hooked up to the TV and used a tape recorder to store programs:

I loved programming and created a hang man game, a pac man game and other programs.   Eventually, the family moved up to a Commodore 64 computer and I created more advanced programs such as an inventory control system for my Dad's business as well as various games:



Over the years, I owned various PCs and Laptops (e.g., Dell 386, 486, Compaq Presario, Mac Centris 610, iMacs, etc..).   I began a Bachelor's degree in the School of Computer Science at Carleton University in the fall of 1986.

I graduated the my Bachelor's degree in Computer Science in 1991.  I was among the first batch of co-op graduates from Carleton:



For my Master's degree at Carleton, I build a walking robot with pre-programmed instinctive behaviors:



At my Ph.D. graduation at Carleton.  My dad was very proud because I was the first (and only) Ph.D. in the family: