Wally Feurzeig
Encyclopedia
Wally Feurzeig is an inventor of the LOGO programming language, and a well-known researcher in Artificial Intelligence
.
During the early 1960s, BBN had become a major center of computer science research and innovative applications. Wally Feurzeig joined the firm in 1962 to work with its newly available facilities in the Artificial Intelligence
Department, one of the earliest AI organizations. His colleagues were actively engaged in some of the pioneering AI work in computer pattern recognition, natural language understanding, theorem proving, LISP
language development and robot problem solving.
Much of this work was done in collaboration with distinguished researchers at MIT such as Marvin Minsky
and John McCarthy
, who were regular BBN consultants during the early 1960s. Other groups at BBN were doing original work in cognitive science, instructional research and man-computer communication. Some of the first work on knowledge representation (semantic networks), question answering
, interactive graphics and computer-aided instruction was actively underway. J. C. R. Licklider
was the spiritual as well as the scientific leader of much of this work, championing the cause of on-line interaction during an era when almost all computation was being done via batch processing.
Wally's initial focus was on expanding the intellectual capabilities of existing teaching systems. This led to the first "intelligent" computer-assisted instruction (CAI) system, MENTOR, which employed production rules to support problem-solving interactions in medical diagnosis and other decision-making domains. In 1965, Wally organized the BBN Educational Technology Department to further the development of computer methods for improving learning and teaching, and the focus of his work then shifted to the investigation of programming languages as educational environments. This shift was partly due to two recent technological advances: the invention of computer time-sharing
and the development of the first high-level "conversational" programming language
.
The idea of sharing a computer's cycles among autonomous users, working simultaneously, had stirred the imagination in Cambridge in 1963 and 1964. BBN and MIT teams raced to be first in realizing this concept, with BBN winning by days and holding the first successful demonstration of computer time-sharing in 1964. BBN's initial system, designed by Sheldon Boilen, supported five simultaneous users on a DEC PDP-1
, all sharing a single CRT screen for output. Seeing dynamic displays from several distinct programs, simultaneously and asynchronously ("out of time and tune"), was a breathtaking experience.
Time sharing made feasible the economic use of remote distributed terminals and opened up the possibilities of interactive computer use in schools. BBN had recently implemented TELCOMP
, one of the new breed of high-level interactive programming languages. TELCOMP was a dialect of JOSS
, the first "conversational" (i.e., interpretive) language, developed in 1962-63 by Cliff Shaw of the Rand Corporation; its syntax was similar to that of the BASIC programming language, which had not yet appeared. Like BASIC, TELCOMP was a FORTRAN
-derived language originally designed for numerical computational applications. Shortly after TELCOMP was created, Wally decided to introduce it to children as a tool for teaching mathematics and in 1965-66, under U.S. Office of Education support, explored its use as an auxiliary resource in eight elementary and secondary schools served by the BBN time-sharing system. Students were introduced to TELCOMP and then worked on standard arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry problems by writing TELCOMP programs. The project strongly confirmed our expectation that the use of interactive computation with a high-level interpretive language would be highly motivating to students.
Wally's collaborators in this research were Daniel Bobrow, Richard Grant and Cynthia Solomon from BBN and consultant Seymour Papert
, who had recently arrived at MIT from Jean Piaget
's Institute in Geneva. The idea of a programming language expressly designed for children arose directly from this project. The group realized that most existing languages were designed for doing computation and that they generally lacked facilities for nonnumeric symbolic manipulation. Current languages were inappropriate for education in other respects as well: they often employed extensive type declarations that got in the way of students' expressive impetus; they had serious deficiencies in control structures; their programs lacked procedural constructs; most had no facilities for dynamic definition and execution; few had well-developed and articulate debugging, diagnostic and editing facilities, so essential for educational applications.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
During the early 1960s, BBN had become a major center of computer science research and innovative applications. Wally Feurzeig joined the firm in 1962 to work with its newly available facilities in the Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
Department, one of the earliest AI organizations. His colleagues were actively engaged in some of the pioneering AI work in computer pattern recognition, natural language understanding, theorem proving, LISP
Lisp
A lisp is a speech impediment, historically also known as sigmatism. Stereotypically, people with a lisp are unable to pronounce sibilants , and replace them with interdentals , though there are actually several kinds of lisp...
language development and robot problem solving.
Much of this work was done in collaboration with distinguished researchers at MIT such as Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky
Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...
and John McCarthy
John McCarthy (computer scientist)
John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...
, who were regular BBN consultants during the early 1960s. Other groups at BBN were doing original work in cognitive science, instructional research and man-computer communication. Some of the first work on knowledge representation (semantic networks), question answering
Question answering
In information retrieval and natural language processing , question answering is the task of automatically answering a question posed in natural language...
, interactive graphics and computer-aided instruction was actively underway. J. C. R. Licklider
J. C. R. Licklider
Joseph Carl Robnett Licklider , known simply as J.C.R. or "Lick" was an American computer scientist, considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history...
was the spiritual as well as the scientific leader of much of this work, championing the cause of on-line interaction during an era when almost all computation was being done via batch processing.
Wally's initial focus was on expanding the intellectual capabilities of existing teaching systems. This led to the first "intelligent" computer-assisted instruction (CAI) system, MENTOR, which employed production rules to support problem-solving interactions in medical diagnosis and other decision-making domains. In 1965, Wally organized the BBN Educational Technology Department to further the development of computer methods for improving learning and teaching, and the focus of his work then shifted to the investigation of programming languages as educational environments. This shift was partly due to two recent technological advances: the invention of computer time-sharing
Time-sharing
Time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major technological shift in the history of computing.By allowing a large...
and the development of the first high-level "conversational" programming language
Programming language
A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....
.
The idea of sharing a computer's cycles among autonomous users, working simultaneously, had stirred the imagination in Cambridge in 1963 and 1964. BBN and MIT teams raced to be first in realizing this concept, with BBN winning by days and holding the first successful demonstration of computer time-sharing in 1964. BBN's initial system, designed by Sheldon Boilen, supported five simultaneous users on a DEC PDP-1
PDP-1
The PDP-1 was the first computer in Digital Equipment Corporation's PDP series and was first produced in 1960. It is famous for being the computer most important in the creation of hacker culture at MIT, BBN and elsewhere...
, all sharing a single CRT screen for output. Seeing dynamic displays from several distinct programs, simultaneously and asynchronously ("out of time and tune"), was a breathtaking experience.
Time sharing made feasible the economic use of remote distributed terminals and opened up the possibilities of interactive computer use in schools. BBN had recently implemented TELCOMP
TELCOMP
TELCOMP was a programming language developed at Bolt, Beranek and Newman in about 1965 and in use until at least 1974.It was an interactive, conversational language based on JOSS, developed by BBN after Cliff Shaw from RAND visited the labs in 1964 as part of the NIH survey...
, one of the new breed of high-level interactive programming languages. TELCOMP was a dialect of JOSS
JOSS
JOSS was one of the very first interactive, time sharing programming languages.JOSS I, developed by J. Clifford Shaw at RAND was first implemented, in beta form, on the JOHNNIAC computer in May 1963...
, the first "conversational" (i.e., interpretive) language, developed in 1962-63 by Cliff Shaw of the Rand Corporation; its syntax was similar to that of the BASIC programming language, which had not yet appeared. Like BASIC, TELCOMP was a FORTRAN
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
-derived language originally designed for numerical computational applications. Shortly after TELCOMP was created, Wally decided to introduce it to children as a tool for teaching mathematics and in 1965-66, under U.S. Office of Education support, explored its use as an auxiliary resource in eight elementary and secondary schools served by the BBN time-sharing system. Students were introduced to TELCOMP and then worked on standard arithmetic, algebra, and trigonometry problems by writing TELCOMP programs. The project strongly confirmed our expectation that the use of interactive computation with a high-level interpretive language would be highly motivating to students.
Wally's collaborators in this research were Daniel Bobrow, Richard Grant and Cynthia Solomon from BBN and consultant Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert is an MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. He is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language....
, who had recently arrived at MIT from Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget was a French-speaking Swiss developmental psychologist and philosopher known for his epistemological studies with children. His theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology"....
's Institute in Geneva. The idea of a programming language expressly designed for children arose directly from this project. The group realized that most existing languages were designed for doing computation and that they generally lacked facilities for nonnumeric symbolic manipulation. Current languages were inappropriate for education in other respects as well: they often employed extensive type declarations that got in the way of students' expressive impetus; they had serious deficiencies in control structures; their programs lacked procedural constructs; most had no facilities for dynamic definition and execution; few had well-developed and articulate debugging, diagnostic and editing facilities, so essential for educational applications.