MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Stata Center houses CSAIL and has very unusual architecture.

MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, or CSAIL, is an interdisciplinary research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, formed on July 1, 2003 by the merger of MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. CSAIL is the largest such laboratory at MIT, both in terms of the scope of its research and in terms of the number of members. The director of CSAIL is currently Rodney Brooks; Victor Zue has been announced as Prof. Brooks's successor when he steps down in summer 2007. CSAIL is housed at the Stata Center, designed by Frank Gehry.

1 Research activities
2 Famous CSAIL members, affiliates, and alumni
3 See also
4 Further reading

[edit] Research activities

CSAIL's research activities are organized around a number of semi-autonomous research groups, each of which is headed by one or more professors or research scientists. These groups are divided up into seven general areas of research:

Artificial Intelligence
Computational biology
Graphics and Vision
Language and Learning
Theory of computation
Robotics
Systems (includes computer architecture, databases, distributed systems, networks and networked systems, operating systems, programming methodology, and software engineering among others)

In addition, CSAIL hosts the World Wide Web Consortium.

[edit] Famous CSAIL members, affiliates, and alumni

(Including members and alumni of CSAIL's predecessor labs.)

MacArthur Fellows Tim Berners-Lee, Erik Demaine, Daniela Rus, Peter Shor and Richard Stallman
Turing Award recipients Leonard M. Adleman, Fernando J. Corbato, Butler W. Lampson, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Ronald L. Rivest, and Adi Shamir
Rolf Nevanlinna Prize recipients Madhu Sudan, Peter Shor
Gödel Prize Recipients Shafi Goldwasser (two-time recipient), Silvio Micali, Charles Rackoff, Johan Håstad, Peter Shor, and Madhu Sudan
Grace Murray Hopper Award recipients Robert Metcalfe, Shafi Goldwasser, Guy L. Steele, and W. Daniel Hillis
Textbook authors Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman, Thomas H. Cormen, Charles E. Leiserson, Patrick Winston, Ronald L. Rivest and Clifford Stein
Carl Hewitt designer of the Planner programming language, founder of the Actor model of concurrent systems, and co-developer of the Scientific Community Metaphor.
David D. Clark, former chief protocol architect for the Internet, and co-author with Jerome H. Saltzer (also a CSAIL member) and David P. Reed of the influential paper "End-to-End Arguments in Systems Design" (see End-to-end principle)
Seymour Papert, inventor of the Logo programming language
Joseph Weizenbaum, creator of the ELIZA computer-simulated therapist
Bob Frankston, developer (with Harvard MBA Dan Bricklin) of VisiCalc, the first computer spreadsheet

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

CSAIL's official Web page

Massachusetts Institute of Technology v • d • e
Academics	OpenCourseWare • Biology • Chemistry • Economics • Electrical Engineering and Computer Science • Mathematics • Physics • Sloan School of Management	MIT
Research	Laboratories • Broad Institute • Center for Theoretical Physics • Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory • Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems • Lincoln Laboratory • McGovern Institute for Brain Research • Media Lab • Picower Institute for Learning and Memory • Plasma Science and Fusion Center • Research Laboratory of Electronics
Culture	History of MIT • Student life • MIT in popular culture • Alumni • Faculty • Presidents • Institute Professor • Athena • Brass Rat • Hacks • The Tech
Buildings	Architecture of MIT • Chapel • Green Building • Infinite Corridor • Kresge Auditorium • MIT Museum • Stata Center • Wiesner building • Graduate Residences • Undergraduate Residences • Fraternities and Sororities