Raj Reddy facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Raj Reddy
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Reddy in 1998
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| Born |
Dabbala Rajagopal Reddy
13 June 1937 |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | College of Engineering, Guindy of University of Madras, which is now under Anna University (BE) University of New South Wales (MTech) Stanford University (PhD) |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Artificial Intelligence Robotics Human-Computer Interaction |
| Institutions | IIIT Hyderabad Carnegie Mellon University Stanford University |
| Doctoral advisor | John McCarthy |
| Doctoral students | James K. Baker Alexander Waibel James Gosling Janet M. Baker Kai-Fu Lee Xuedong Huang Roni Rosenfeld Harry Shum< Hsiao-Wuen Hon |
Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born 13 June 1937) is an Indian-American computer scientist. He is famous for his work in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Raj Reddy has taught at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon for over 50 years.
He helped start the Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. He also helped create a special university in India, the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies. This university helps talented students from rural areas get a good education. Raj Reddy was the first person of Asian origin to win the Turing Award in 1994. This award is often called the "Nobel Prize of computer science" because it's a very high honor.
Contents
Raj Reddy's Early Life and Education
Raj Reddy was born on June 13, 1937, in a village called Katur in India. His family spoke Telugu. His father was a landowner, and his mother was a homemaker. Raj Reddy was the first person in his family to go to college.
He earned a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy in India. After that, he went to Australia for an internship. While studying at the University of New South Wales, he started working with early computers. He earned his master's degree there in 1960.
In 1963, he moved to the United States and joined Stanford University. He earned his PhD in AI in 1966, working with a famous computer scientist named John McCarthy. After teaching at Stanford for three years, he joined Carnegie Mellon University in 1969. There, he worked with other AI pioneers, Allen Newell and Herb Simon.
Raj Reddy's Career in Computer Science
Raj Reddy is a University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University. He started his career at IBM in Australia in 1960. From 1966 to 1969, he was an Assistant Professor at Stanford University.
He became a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in 1969. He was made a full professor in 1973 and a university professor in 1984. He led the Robotics Institute as its first director from 1979 to 1991. He was also the Dean of the School of Computer Science from 1991 to 1999.
As Dean, he helped create several important centers. These include the Language Technologies Institute, the Human Computer Interaction Institute, and the Machine Learning Department. He also helped establish the Institute for Software Research. He is currently the chairman of the Governing Council of IIIT Hyderabad in India. He was also the founding Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) from 2008 to 2019.
Raj Reddy also served on the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC). He helped start the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and was its president from 1987 to 1989. He has also worked with groups that use technology to provide affordable healthcare in rural India.
Raj Reddy's AI Research
Raj Reddy's early research in AI took place at Stanford and later at Carnegie Mellon. His work focused on how computers can understand and interact with the world. This includes areas like speech, language, vision, and robotics.
Over many years, Raj Reddy and his team created systems that could understand spoken language. For example, they developed systems for:
- Controlling a robot with your voice.
- Recognizing speech with a large vocabulary.
- Understanding different speakers' voices.
- Turning spoken words into text (dictation).
They also made important contributions to how computers are designed for specific tasks. Their work helped create modern speech recognition technology. One of their key ideas was the "blackboard model." This model helps different parts of an AI system work together. This idea has been used in many different AI applications.
Technology Helping Society
Raj Reddy is also very interested in how technology can help people. One early project he was involved in was the Centre mondial informatique et ressource humaine in France in 1981. This center aimed to use information technology to help people in developing countries. They tried out computer classrooms and rural medical services. For this work, the French President awarded Raj Reddy the Legion of Honour medal in 1984.
He also started the Universal Digital Library Project in the 1990s. The goal was to scan books, music, videos, and other media. This way, anyone could access them online from anywhere at any time. A bigger project, the Million Book Project, started in 2001. It was a team effort with China and India.
Raj Reddy also helped create the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies (RGUKT) in 2008. This university was made to educate talented rural youth in India. He believed that traditional tests like SAT might not be fair to students from rural areas.
He has suggested that if everyone has internet access, we could have an "Online College in every village." This would allow anyone to learn any subject at any age, even without a teacher. He believes AI can help people who haven't benefited from the technology revolution yet. He thinks AI can help people watch movies, read books, and talk to anyone, no matter the language. He also suggested using smart sensor watches to help control pandemics like COVID by monitoring symptoms.
Awards and Honors
Raj Reddy has received many awards and honors for his contributions. He is a fellow of several important organizations, including:
He is also a member of prestigious academies, such as:
- The United States National Academy of Engineering
- The American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- The Chinese Academy of Engineering
- The Indian National Science Academy
- The Indian National Academy of Engineering
Many universities have given him honorary doctorates, including Carnegie Mellon University and IIT Kharagpur.
In 1994, he and Edward Feigenbaum received the Turing Award. They won it for their groundbreaking work in designing and building large AI systems. Their work showed how important and useful AI technology could be in the real world. Besides the French Legion of Honour in 1984, he also received the Padma Bhushan from the President of India in 2001. He also won the Okawa Prize in 2004, the Honda Prize in 2005, and the Vannevar Bush Award in 2006.
Images for kids
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A robot, a field Raj Reddy helped develop.
See also
In Spanish: Raj Reddy para niños
