Alan Kay facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alan Kay
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Alan Kay holding the prototype of the Dynabook
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Alan Curtis Kay
May 17, 1940 |
| Education | University of Colorado at Boulder (BS) University of Utah College of Engineering (MS, PhD) |
| Known for | Dynabook Object-oriented programming Smalltalk Desktop metaphor Graphical user interface Windows |
| Spouse(s) | Bonnie MacBird |
| Awards | ACM Turing Award (2003) Kyoto Prize Charles Stark Draper Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | Xerox PARC Stanford University Atari Inc. Apple Inc. ATG Walt Disney Imagineering UCLA Kyoto University MIT Viewpoints Research Institute Hewlett-Packard Labs |
| Thesis | FLEX: A Flexible Extendable Language (1968) |
| Doctoral advisors | David C. Evans Robert S. Barton |
| Notable students | David Canfield Smith |
Alan Kay, born on May 17, 1940, is an American computer scientist. He is famous for his big ideas in how computers work and how people use them. He helped create the way we use windows and icons on computer screens. This is called the graphical user interface (GUI).
At Xerox PARC, Alan Kay led the team that designed the first modern computer desktop. He also helped create Smalltalk, an important programming language. He even came up with the term "object-oriented" for a way of writing computer programs. Alan Kay has received many awards, including the Turing Award in 2003.
Contents
Alan Kay's Early Life and Studies
Alan Kay was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. His family moved a lot because of his father's job. They finally settled near New York City.
He learned to read very early, by age three. He said he had read about 150 books before first grade. He felt he already knew more than his teachers.
Alan Kay went to Brooklyn Technical High School. He then studied biology and math at Bethany College. After college, he taught guitar in Denver, Colorado.
He joined the United States Army and later the United States Air Force. There, he became a computer programmer after doing well on a test.
After leaving the military, he earned a degree in math and molecular biology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 1966.
Graduate School and Computer Graphics
In 1966, Alan Kay started graduate school at the University of Utah College of Engineering. He earned a master's degree in 1968. Then, he got his PhD in computer science in 1969. His PhD paper was about a computer language he invented called FLEX.
At the University of Utah, he worked with David C. Evans and Ivan Sutherland. These two are known as "fathers of computer graphics". Sutherland's work helped Alan Kay think about how computer programs could use objects.
In 1968, he met Seymour Papert and learned about Logo. This is a programming language made for education. This led him to learn about how children learn. He was also at a famous computer demonstration in 1968 by Douglas Engelbart. This event greatly influenced Alan Kay's career.
In 1970, Alan Kay joined Xerox PARC in Palo Alto, California. For the next ten years, he worked on new computer systems. These systems used the Smalltalk programming language.
What is Object-Oriented Programming?
Alan Kay and his team at PARC helped create the idea of object-oriented programming (OOP). This is a way to organize computer code. It uses "objects" that can do things and store information.
Alan Kay once said that he wished he had used a different name. He felt that "messaging" was the more important idea. This means that objects talk to each other by sending messages.
While at PARC, Alan Kay also came up with the idea for the Dynabook. This was a very early idea for a laptop or tablet computer. It was designed to be a tool for children to learn with. Many ideas from the Dynabook are now in modern tablets and e-readers. He also designed the modern graphical user interface (GUI) with overlapping windows.
Alan Kay's Later Work
From 1981 to 1984, Alan Kay was the Chief Scientist at Atari. In 1984, he became an Apple Fellow at Apple Inc.. After Apple's advanced research group closed, he joined Walt Disney Imagineering.
In 2001, Alan Kay started the Viewpoints Research Institute. This was a group focused on children, learning, and new software. He was the president until it closed in 2018.
In 2002, he joined HP Labs as a senior fellow. He has also been a professor at several universities. These include the University of California, Los Angeles and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Squeak, Etoys, and Croquet
In 1995, while at Apple, Alan Kay helped start Squeak. This is an open source version of Smalltalk. In 1996, his team began working on Etoys. Etoys is a system for creating interactive stories and games.
More recently, he helped start the Croquet Project. This is an open-source system for working together in 2D and 3D online spaces.
The Children's Machine
In 2005, a new laptop for education was shown. It was called the "$100 Laptop" or the One Laptop per Child program. It is also known as the XO-1 or the Children's Machine.
This project was started by Alan Kay's friend Nicholas Negroponte. It is based on Alan Kay's original Dynabook idea. Alan Kay is a key person in developing this computer. He focuses on its educational software, using Squeak and Etoys.
Reinventing Programming
Alan Kay often talks about how the computer revolution is still very new. He believes that many great ideas have not been used everywhere yet. He thinks that computer programs are often too big and complicated.
In 2006, he received funding for a project called "STEPS". This project aims to make programming simpler and easier to understand. He wonders how small a useful computer system could be. Could it be just 20,000 lines of code instead of millions?
Personal Life
Alan Kay used to be a professional jazz guitarist. He also composed music and designed for theater. He enjoys playing the classical pipe organ as a hobby.
Awards and Honors
Alan Kay has received many important awards:
- UdK 01-Award in Berlin, Germany, for his work on the GUI.
- ACM Turing Award in 2003. This award is like the Nobel Prize for computer science. He received it for his work on object-oriented programming and personal computing.
- Kyoto Prize in 2004.
- Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2004.
- UPE Abacus Award in 2012, for helping students in computing.
He has also received many honorary doctorates from universities around the world. He is an elected fellow of several important groups. These include the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He was also honored by the Computer History Museum.
See also
In Spanish: Alan Kay para niños
