John McCarthy

By aaron.huerta

  • 1927, Born in Boston

    1927, Born in Boston
    John McCarthy, a founder of Artificial Intelligence was born in Boston, Massachusetts, 1927

  • Grows up in Los Angeles

    Graduates from Belmont High School in 1943 two years early.

  • Completes Undergraduate Studies

    Completes Undergraduate Studies
    Received B.S. in Mathematics the year 1948 from Caltech.

  • Instructor

    Instructor
    Held position as instructor at Princeton University from 1951-1953. This is where he would meet lifelong collaborator Marvin Minsky.

  • Gains Ph.D. in Mathematics

    Gains Ph.D. in Mathematics
    Completed Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1951 from Princeton, University.
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    Assistant Professor

    Worked for Stanford University as an assistant professor until 1955.

  • Summer Research Project on A.I.

    Summer Research Project on A.I.
    Worked with other big names like Claude Shannon and Nathaniel Rochester on “The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence”. This where McCarthy would coin the term "artificial intelligence".

  • Position at MIT

    Position at MIT
    John McCarthy would start work at MIT in 1956 and leave a professor position in 1962.
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    MIT A.I. Lab

    WIth the aid of Marvin Minsky, the two would found the MIT A.I. Lab. This lab would go on to make strides in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence.

  • Published 'Programs with Common Sense'

    Published 'Programs with Common Sense'
    Released his first publication on an idea that would set a precedent for logical A.I. and birth of the field of "knowledge representation".

  • LISP

    LISP
    During his initial time at MIT McCarthy produced LISP, which today is the second longest used programming language.
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    Full time at Stanford until Retirement

    Became a full time professor with the Division of Computer Science at Stanford University in 1962. He worked there until retirement in 2001.

  • Founded SAIL

    Founded SAIL
    Founded the prestigious "Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab" in 1965.

  • "Computers with Hands, Eyes and Ears."

    McCarthy's team at SAIL would produce the first hand-eye computer system using cameras, robotics, and computers.

  • Robotics at SAIL

    Robotics at SAIL
    First robotic arm to be developed at SAIL was called the "Rancho Arm". Many other models would succeed this like the ORM and Vic Schienman's robotic arm in 1969.