Newton Faller
Encyclopedia
Newton Faller the son of Kurt Faller and Ada Faller from Rio Grande do Sul, was a Brazil
ian computer scientist
and electrical engineer. He is credited with the discovery of adaptive Huffman codes
while an employee of IBM
do Brasil in Rio. He was later the head of the Brazilian UNIX
development project at the Electronic Computing Center of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NCE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro
.
He started his career working with data compression
, studying the classical Huffman Codes and was the first to propose the "adaptive Huffman codes". This discovery became his Master's thesis and was later published in:
Newton Faller, "An Adaptive System for Data Compression," Record of the 7th Asilomar Conference on Circuits, Systems and Computers, pp. 593-597, 1973.
Later, Robert G. Gallager
(1978) and Donald Knuth
(1985) proposed some complements and the algorithm became widely known as FGK (from the initials of each of the researchers).
Later, Faller went to study in the United States
from 1976 to 1981 and received a Ph.D.
in Electrical Engineering
and Computer Sciences
from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1981.
He was married to Maria Ester Kremer Faller and had two daughters, Maria Clara Kremer Faller and Ana Luisa Kremer Faller. He spent his childhood in Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, and had two younger sisters: Ana Maria Faller and Angela Faller.
Faller died in 1996 and today the Brazilian equivalent of the Turing Award
is called the "Newton Faller Award".
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
ian computer scientist
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
and electrical engineer. He is credited with the discovery of adaptive Huffman codes
Adaptive Huffman coding
Adaptive Huffman coding is an adaptive coding technique based on Huffman coding. It permits building the code as the symbols are being transmitted, having no initial knowledge of source distribution, that allows one-pass encoding and adaptation to changing conditions in data.The benefit of...
while an employee of IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
do Brasil in Rio. He was later the head of the Brazilian UNIX
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
development project at the Electronic Computing Center of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (NCE/UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
.
He started his career working with data compression
Data compression
In computer science and information theory, data compression, source coding or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation would use....
, studying the classical Huffman Codes and was the first to propose the "adaptive Huffman codes". This discovery became his Master's thesis and was later published in:
Newton Faller, "An Adaptive System for Data Compression," Record of the 7th Asilomar Conference on Circuits, Systems and Computers, pp. 593-597, 1973.
Later, Robert G. Gallager
Robert G. Gallager
Robert Gray Gallager is an American electrical engineer known for his work on information theory and communications networks. He was elected an IEEE Fellow in 1968 and a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1979. He received the Claude E. Shannon Award from the IEEE Information Theory...
(1978) and Donald Knuth
Donald Knuth
Donald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...
(1985) proposed some complements and the algorithm became widely known as FGK (from the initials of each of the researchers).
Later, Faller went to study in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
from 1976 to 1981 and received a Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and Computer Sciences
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1981.
He was married to Maria Ester Kremer Faller and had two daughters, Maria Clara Kremer Faller and Ana Luisa Kremer Faller. He spent his childhood in Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, and had two younger sisters: Ana Maria Faller and Angela Faller.
Faller died in 1996 and today the Brazilian equivalent of the Turing Award
Turing Award
The Turing Award, in full The ACM A.M. Turing Award, is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the...
is called the "Newton Faller Award".