Brian Silverman

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Brian Silverman is a Canadian computer scientist, the creator of many programming environments for children, [1] and a researcher in cellular automata.

Silverman was a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the 1970s, where he was one of the creators of a tinkertoy computer that played tic-tac-toe. [2] As a student at MIT, Silverman had worked with Seymour Papert, and when Papert founded Logo Computer Systems, Inc. in 1980 to commercialize the Logo programming language, Silverman became its director of research. [1] [3] He later worked as a consulting scientist at the MIT Media Lab, where he ported Logo to "programmable bricks", a precursor to Lego Mindstorms, [4] and where he was one of the developers of the Scratch programming language. He is the co-founder, along with Paula Bonta and Mitchel Resnick, [5] and president of the Playful Invention Company, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which develops the Programmable Cricket, a spin-off from the Media Lab. [6]

Silverman was part of a team that reverse-engineered the MOS Technology 6502 and Intel 4004 microprocessors and developed transistor-level emulators for them, [7] [8] [9] and that ported Spacewar! , one of the earliest digital computer games, to Java, by writing another emulator for the PDP-1 on which the game was originally written. [10] He also invented several well-known cellular automaton rules, including Brian's Brain, [11] Seeds, and Wireworld; [12] working with his brother Barry Silverman he recovered the IBM APL\360 sources from tape to a state where they could be run on a mainframe emulator.

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mitchel Resnick</span> American academic and programmer

Mitchel Resnick is LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research, Director of the Okawa Center, and Director of the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab. As of 2019, Resnick serves as head of the Media Arts and Sciences academic program, which grants master's degrees and Ph.D.s at the MIT Media Lab.

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Cynthia Solomon is an American computer scientist known for her work in popularizing computer science for students. She is a pioneer in the fields of computer science, and educational computing. While working as a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Solomon took it upon herself to understand and program in the programming language Lisp. As she began learning this language, she realized the need for a programming language that was more accessible and understandable for children. Throughout her research studies in education, Solomon worked full-time as a computer teacher in elementary and secondary schools. Her work has mainly focused on research on human-computer interaction and children as designers. While working at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, she worked with Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert, to create the first programming language for children, named Logo. The language was created to teach concepts of programming related to Lisp. Solomon has attained many accomplishments in her life such as being the vice president of R&D for Logo Computer Systems, Inc., when Apple Logo was developed and was the Director of the Atari Cambridge Research Laboratory. Solomon worked on the program committee of Constructing Modern Knowledge and the Marvin Minsky Institute for Artificial Intelligence in 2016. Further, she has published many writings based on research in the field of child education and technology in the classroom. Solomon has conducted workshops in elementary schools, high schools, and colleges regarding academic research and writing. She continues to contribute to the field by speaking at conferences and working with the One Laptop per Child Foundation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Natalie Rusk</span> Computer scientist

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Paula Bonta is an Argentinian-Canadian computer scientist and educational software designer. She is known for developing programming environments for children, most notably contributing to the design of the Scratch programming language before it was even called Scratch. She co-founded the Playful Invention Company, a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab noted for developing the Programmable Cricket, with Mitchel Resnick and Brian Silverman and serves as Lead Designer. She was also the design director for several award-winning software products for children, including MicroWorlds and the "My Make Believe" series of products from Logo Computer Systems, Inc. She has a degree in computer science and a graduate degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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Marina Umaschi Bers is the Augustus Long Professor of Education at Boston College. Bers holds a secondary appointment in Boston College's Department of Computer Science. Bers directs the interdisciplinary DevTech Research Group, which she started in 2001 at Tufts University. Her research involves the design and study of innovative learning technologies to promote children's positive development. She is known for her work in the field of early childhood computer science with projects of national and international visibility. Bers is the co-creator of the free ScratchJr programming language, used by 35 million children, and the creator of the KIBO robotic kit, which has no screens or keyboards.

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References

  1. 1 2 Computing Pioneer Returns to CMK 2010 Faculty! Archived November 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine , Constructing Modern Knowledge, September 29, 2010.
  2. Dewdney, A. K. (October 1989), "Computer Recreations: A Tinkertoy computer that plays tic-tac-toe", Scientific American , doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0889-102, archived from the original on January 20, 2013
  3. What is Logo? Archived 2013-05-20 at the Wayback Machine , Logo Foundation, retrieved 2013-02-10.
  4. Martín, Fred G. (2001), Robotic explorations: a hands-on introduction to engineering, Prentice Hall, p. 11, ISBN   9780130895684 .
  5. "PicoCricket - Invention Kit That Integrates Art and Technology." PicoCricket - Invention Kit That Integrates Art and Technology. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 July 2013.
  6. "The PicoCricket Kit | Playful Invention Company". www.playfulinvention.com. 29 January 2013. Retrieved 2022-06-18.
  7. Swaminathan, Nikhil (July–August 2011), "Digging into Technology's Past: "Digital archaeologists" excavate the microprocessor that ushered in the home computing revolution", Archaeology, 64 (4).
  8. Tim McNerney's talk at the Computer History Museum on 4004 35th anniversary project, Intel 4004 — 35th Anniversary Project, retrieved 2013-02-11.
  9. James, Greg; Silverman, Barry; Silverman, Brian (2010). "Visualizing a classic CPU in action: The 6502". ACM SIGGRAPH 2010 Talks. New York, New York, USA: ACM Press. p. 1. doi:10.1145/1837026.1837061. ISBN   9781450303941. S2CID   1290581.
  10. Ward, Mark (30 July 2001), "Happy 40th, computer games", BBC News .
  11. Rucker, Rudy (2006), The Lifebox, the Seashell, And the Soul: What Gnarly Computation Taught Me About Ultimate Reality, the Meaning of Life, And How to Be Happy, Basic Books, p. 242, ISBN   9781560258988 .
  12. Wolfram, Stephen (2002), A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Media, p. 1117