Dartmouth College · Cognitive science, AI concentration

JR Tibbetts

Student, researcher, lighting designer, and production manager

I use computational methods to study how minds work — and theatrical production, from lighting design to technical direction, to get a story to opening night.

I’m a cognitive science student at Dartmouth College with a concentration in artificial intelligence, applying computational methods to the study of cognition in biological and artificial systems. Alongside that research, I work as a theatrical lighting designer — merging creative storytelling with technical precision — and serve as Production Manager and Technical Director for Displaced Theater Co., taking productions from concept to opening night.

Research & coursework

Academics

Working memory in large language models with Dartmouth’s Mind, Brain, & Computation Lab, plus publications and coursework in computational cognitive science.

See academic work

Portfolio & production

Lighting design

Production photos from The Late Wedding and Ride the Cyclone, plus show credits, technical experience, and skills from Dartmouth’s Department of Theater and Displaced Theater Co.

See design portfolio

What theater teaches

Theater is an unforgiving project management environment: the deadline is a curtain time that cannot move, the budget is fixed, the team is cross-functional, and requirements change nightly through tech week. That experience has made me effective at scoping work realistically, sequencing dependencies, communicating across technical and creative stakeholders, and making fast decisions with incomplete information.

Off the clock

I’m an avid cyclist and hiker, usually somewhere in the mountains and back roads of northern New England. This year I serve on the executive board of Dartmouth’s cycling team as social media manager.

I’ve summited all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks.

48 / 48 · 3 years, 1 month, 4 days