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Gerald Jay Sussman

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Gerald Jay Sussman
Photograph of head of a man wearing glasses and a dark burgundy fez hat
Gerald Sussman appearing in a 1986 video recording of the SICP lectures
Born(1947-02-08)February 8, 1947(age 77)
US
EducationMassachusetts Institute of Technology (SB1968,PhD1973)
Known forArtificial intelligence,Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
SpouseJulie Sussman
AwardsIJCAI Computers and Thought Award(1981)
ACM Fellow(1990)
Scientific career
FieldsCognitive science,electrical engineering,computer science
InstitutionsMassachusetts Institute of Technology
ThesisA Computational Model of Skill Acquisition(1973)
Doctoral advisorSeymour Papert
Doctoral students
Websitegroups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/gjs

Gerald Jay Sussman(born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor ofElectrical Engineeringat theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). He has been involved inartificial intelligence(AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research has centered on understanding the problem-solving strategies used by scientists and engineers, with the goals of automating parts of the process and formalizing it to provide more effective methods of science and engineering education. Sussman has also worked in computer languages, incomputer architecture,and inVery Large Scale Integration(VLSI) design.[1]

Education

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Sussman attended theMassachusetts Institute of Technologyas an undergraduate and received hisSBin mathematics in 1968. He continued his studies at MIT and obtained aPhDin 1973, also in mathematics, under the supervision ofSeymour Papert.His doctoral thesis was titled "A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition" focusing onartificial intelligenceandmachine learning,using a computational performance model namedHACKER.[2]

According to a common story,[3]in 1966,Marvin Minskytasked his student Gerald Jay Sussman to “spend the summer linking a camera to a computer and getting the computer to describe what it saw.”[4]This story was often told to illustrate that the difficulty of computer vision was not apparent to AI researchers in the early days.

Academic work

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Sussman is a coauthor (withHal Abelsonand Julie Sussman) of the introductory computer science textbookStructure and Interpretation of Computer Programs.It was used at MIT for several decades, and has been translated into several languages.[citation needed]

Sussman's contributions toartificial intelligenceinclude problem solving by debugging almost-right plans, propagation of constraints applied to electrical circuit analysis and synthesis, dependency-based explanation and dependency-based backtracking, and various language structures for expressing problem-solving strategies. Sussman and his former student,Guy L. Steele Jr.,invented the programming languageSchemein 1975.

Sussman saw that artificial intelligence ideas can be applied tocomputer-aided design(CAD). Sussman developed, with his graduate students, sophisticated computer-aided design tools forVery Large Scale Integration(VLSI). Steele made the first Scheme chips in 1978. These ideas and the AI-based CAD technology to support them were further developed in the Scheme chips of 1979 and 1981. The technique and experience developed were then used to design other special-purpose computers. Sussman was the principal designer of theDigital Orrery,a machine designed to do high-precision integrations fororbital mechanicsexperiments. The Orrery hardware was designed and built by a few people in a few months, using AI-based simulation and compiling tools.[5]

Using the Digital Orrery, Sussman has worked withJack Wisdomto discover numerical evidence for chaotic motions in the outer planets. The Digital Orrery machine is now retired at theSmithsonian Institutionin Washington, DC. Sussman was also the lead designer of the Supercomputer Toolkit, anothermultiprocessorcomputer optimized for evolving ofordinary differential equations.The Supercomputer Toolkit was used by Sussman and Wisdom to confirm and extend the discoveries made with the Digital Orrery to include the entire planetary system.[6][7]

Sussman has pioneered the use of computational descriptions to communicate methodological ideas in teaching subjects in Electrical Circuits and in Signals and Systems. Over the past decade Sussman and Wisdom have developed a subject that uses computational techniques to communicate a deeper understanding of advancedclassical mechanics.InComputer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field,he writes "... computational algorithms are used to express the methods used in the analysis of dynamical phenomena. Expressing the methods in a computer language forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective. Students are expected to read the programs and to extend them and to write new ones. The task of formulating a method as a computer-executable program and debugging that program is a powerful exercise in the learning process. Also, once formalized procedurally, a mathematical idea becomes a tool that can be used directly to compute results." Sussman and Wisdom, with Meinhard Mayer, have produced a textbook,Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics,to capture these new ideas.

Sussman and Abelson have also been a part of thefree software movement,including releasingMIT/GNU Schemeasfree software[8]and serving on the board of directors of theFree Software Foundation.[9]

Sussman's work is presented in many videos, such as: with Hal Abelson in a full 20 lecture version of MIT's SICP course,[10]for LispNYC,[11][12]at the International Conference on Complex Systems,[13]forArsDigita University,[14]and giving the keynote talk at a Strange Loop conference.[15][16]

Awards and organizations

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For his contributions tocomputer science education,Sussman received theAssociation for Computing Machinery(ACM) Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award in 1990, and theAmar G. Boseaward for teaching in 1992.[17]

Sussman andHal Abelsonare the only founding directors still active on the board of directors of theFree Software Foundation(FSF).[18]

Sussman is a fellow of the following institutions:

Sussman is member of the following institutions:

In 2023 he received the IEEE Computer Society’s Taylor L. Booth Education Award for his “inspirational approach to the teaching of computer science through functional programming".[19]

Personal life

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Gerald Sussman is married to computer programmerJulie Sussman.[20]

In 2011, Sussman attended an event onJeffrey Epstein's private island,Little Saint James,known as the "Mindshift Conference", hosted by Epstein andAl Seckel.[21]

Select bibliography

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See also

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References

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  1. ^Sussman, Gerald Jay."Biographical sketch of Gerald Jay Sussman".Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Retrieved2019-09-09.
  2. ^Sussman, Gerald (1973).A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition(Ph.D.). Massachusetts Institute of Technology.hdl:1721.1/6894.
  3. ^Kragic, Danica (2018-10-17)."From active perception to deep learning".Science Robotics.3(23).doi:10.1126/scirobotics.aav1778.ISSN2470-9476.PMID33141734.S2CID53020752.
  4. ^Papert, Seymour A. (1966-07-01)."The Summer Vision Project".hdl:1721.1/6125.{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal=(help)
  5. ^Applegate, James; Douglas, M.; Gursel, Y.; Hunter, P.; Seitz, C.; Sussman, Gerald Jay (September 1985). "A Digital Orrery".IEEE Transactions on Computers.C-34(9): 822–831.doi:10.1109/TC.1985.1676638.S2CID10002156.
  6. ^Applegate, James; Douglas, M.; Gursel, Y.; Sussman, Gerald Jay; Wisdom, Jack (July 1986). "The Outer Solar System for 200 Million Years".Astronomical Journal.92:176–194.Bibcode:1986AJ.....92..176A.doi:10.1086/114149.hdl:1721.1/6442.
  7. ^Sussman, Gerald Jay; Wisdom, Jack (July 1988)."Numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto is chaotic".Science.241(4864): 433–7.Bibcode:1988Sci...241..433S.doi:10.1126/science.241.4864.433.hdl:1721.1/6038.PMID17792606.S2CID1398095.Archived fromthe originalon 2017-07-06.
  8. ^"MIT/GNU Scheme".Free Software Foundation.Retrieved2019-09-11.
  9. ^"Staff and Board".Free Software Foundation.Retrieved2019-09-11.
  10. ^ Sussman, Gerald (July 1986).MIT OpenCourseWare: Video Lectures(videotape). Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
  11. ^ Sussman, Gerald (January 2016).Flexible Systems, The Power of Generic Operations(videotape). LispNYC.Retrieved2019-09-11.
  12. ^"LispNYC".LispNYC.Retrieved2019-09-11.
  13. ^ Sussman, Gerald (June 11, 2002).Formalizing Science(videotape). New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI).Retrieved2019-09-11.
  14. ^Sussman, Gerald (2001).The Legacy of Computer Science(videotape). Archived fromthe originalon 2011-10-13.
  15. ^ Sussman, Gerald (September 19, 2011).We Really Don't Know How To Compute!(videotape). InfoQ.
  16. ^"Strange Loop".Strange Loop.Retrieved2019-09-11.
  17. ^ab"Gerald Sussman | MIT CSAIL".www.csail.mit.edu.Retrieved2022-06-01.
  18. ^"Staff and Board — Free Software Foundation — Working together for free software".www.fsf.org.Retrieved2022-06-01.
  19. ^"Innovations in Education: A Conversation with Gerald Jay Sussman, Taylor L. Booth Education Award Recipient".IEEE Computer Society.March 5, 2024.RetrievedMarch 23,2024.
  20. ^Aquino, Mario (2011-09-22)."The teacher".Blogger.Retrieved2019-09-09.
  21. ^"Jeffrey Epstein to Host Mindshift Conference".
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