This festschrift celebrates the life of a remarkable man.

Rob Milne died while climbing Mount Everest early on 5th June 2005 Nepal Time. He was 48. He is survived by his wife Val and his two children Alex and Rosemary.

His untimely death was a tragedy, but Rob packed 96 years of living into his 48 years of life. In any one of his three “careers” — as a hi-tech entrepreneur, as an AI researcher and as a mountaineer — his achievements would have been enough for most ordinary mortals. But Rob combined world-class success in all of them. This book covers all these facets of his life. Each chapter has been contributed by one or more of his close collaborators as their tribute to Rob and to his legacy.

Rob's ascent of Everest was to have been the culmination of a lifetime's ambition to climb the highest summits in each of the world's seven continents. Everest was the last of these seven summits. He was only 400 metres from the top when he died from a sudden and massive heart attack. He had been an ambitious and successful mountaineer since his childhood in Colorado. As Val, said in a radio interview, “Rob died at the top, doing what he loved”. This was true not just of his mountaineering, but in all the spheres of his life.

I first met Rob in 1978 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was just finishing his undergraduate degree at MIT and had applied to be a PhD student at Edinburgh under my supervision. I was visiting MIT that Summer, so we met to discuss his research project. I was quickly introduced to his climbing expertise. He showed me how to climb a vertical brick wall using the gaps in the bricks as hand and foot holds. He invited me to try; I declined. He came to Edinburgh that Autumn to work on machine understanding of mechanics problems written in English as part of our Mecho project: one of the first non-US expert systems. In 1980, Rob initiated his project to conquer the seven summits by climbing Denali (Mt McKinley) in Alaska. I remember getting vertigo just by reading his subsequent article in our University Bulletin. Rob met Val at Edinburgh, and they married in 1981.

Climbing Denali required determination and persistence. Rob exhibited these qualities in everything he did, which is why he achieved so much. But it wasn't always the best approach. When it came to his PhD viva, Rob somehow got the misconception that to concede to his examiners on any point, however minor, would destroy his chances. He, therefore, fought every step of the way. The viva lasted eight hours! He obtained his PhD in 1983.

In 1982Rob returned to the USAwhere he worked first at the Wright-Paterson Airforce Base and then at the Pentagon. At the Pentagon, he introduced AI research into the US Army by founding the Army AI Center, in which he was the Chief AI scientist. Returning to Scotland in 1986, he founded Intelligent Applications: one of the first non-US expert system companies. After experimenting with various AI products, IA focused on turbine monitoring with its ‘Tiger’ product.

Most entrepreneurs running innovative, hi-tech companies have little time for extracurricular activity, but Rob found time both for his mountaineering and his AI research. He continued to publish in the top journals and conferences, authoring over 75 papers on knowledge-based systems, data-mining, qualitative reasoning, etc. He was a popular speaker, giving many invited talks and tutorials at major conferences. He acted as a bridge between academia and industry, for instance, frequently talking to academics on the technology transfer process.

Rob was a natural leader; he tirelessly and selflessly gave his time to help organise the activities in which he was involved. For instance, in both the British and European AI communities, he regularly served on conference committees, having been chair of both the British Computer Society's Specialist Group on AI Conference and of the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence. He was an officer of both organisations, including being the President of ECCAI 2000-04. He was also the inspiration behind bringing IJCAI-05 to Edinburgh, being the Local Arrangements Chair until his death. Rob played a key part in setting up the European Network of Excellence MONET (Model Based and Qualitative Systems), and in a second phase its Task Group BRIDGE (Bridging AI and Control Engineering model based diagnosis approaches) that focused on diagnosis.

Rob played an active role in the Scottish Software Federation (which merged to form ScotlandIS in 2000): the industry bodies for IT and software companies in Scotland. Rob was a director of each organisation 1997–2002. He was a mentor to a number of start-up companies and guided other entrepreneurs in their efforts to establish successful businesses. In recognition of his academic and industrial achievements, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2003. He was also active in Scottish Mountaineering Club, being Convener of the publications sub-committee and co-authoring a book on the Corbetts (the 219 Scottish hills between 2500ft and 3000ft high). In 1997, Rob became only the 1860th person to have climbed all the Munros (the 284 Scottish mountains over 3000ft high). He was a keen winter climber, helping to establish a number of high-grade new climbs throughout Scotland.

Rob summed up his attitude to life in a radio interview, by saying that it was important to wake up every morning with an exciting challenge in mind. He always set himself ambitious goals then attained them by persistence and determination. Ambition, persistence and determination are qualities sometimes associated with people who are difficult to get on with. Not so Rob. He was one of the most pleasant and easy-going people it has been my pleasure to work with. We already miss him.

Alan Bundy, May 25, 2006