Imagine saying "OK light, turn off. Temperature cool down." And then having your room darken and cool. Imagine your sprinkler system deciding whether to water your lawn based on interactions with sensors or "agents" in your grass and satellite weather reports.

This imaginary world is real to Craig Thompson as he works on turning artificial intelligence, or AI, into practical applications in a project called "Everything is Alive." "Humans have always had a symbiosis with machines, using them to augment everything in our lives," he said. "In five to 10 years, wireless connectivity, sensor networks, multi-agent systems and radio frequency identification technology will be pervasive."

Thompson also is involved in the "Data Grid" project, centered around databases so large they are stored on hundreds to thousands of PCs that can be accessed in parallel. Commercial applications could include data mining for retailers or a concept that has interested the U.S. Department of Homeland Security - building what Thompson calls a "Fort Knox of digital data," a seamless information-sharing architecture across the nation's 22 traditional federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

"There are great opportunities and great threats," said Thompson, who spent 23 years in industrial research before coming to the University of Arkansas. "Data security and privacy are both huge issues. We want to make the most of information, but we have a responsibility not to infringe on civil liberties."

Thompson's research projects, which includes three professors and around 20 graduate and undergraduate students, focuses on "middleware," the software that's between end-user applications and computer operating systems. Middleware is a collection of reusable chunks of software, that when combined, can build higher level applications such as grid computing or agent-based applications.

A common theme in Thompson's work is the identification and development of "plugin" components that can be used to extend a system's capability. The grid team is working on management automation, indexing and workflow automation plugins. The agent team is working on graphical user interface, natural language, digital rights and license management plugins. Thompson holds six patents related to NLI and object database and middleware technologies.

Thompson simply remains fascinated by ideas. "There are so many interesting project ideas that lie along the boundary of the breaking wave that separates what we know and do not yet know," he said. "In class, it's fun for me to comment on alternatives and extensions to textbook ideas, why those ideas are important, or how the subject of the day relates to subjects in other courses or to current research we're doing. Every student project teaches me something, so students are constantly expanding my horizons."