Gerald Jay Sussman
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Gerald Jay Sussman (born February 8, 1947) is the Panasonic Professor of
Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
(MIT). He has been involved in
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
(AI) research at MIT since 1964. His research has centered on understanding the problem-solving strategies used by scientists and engineers, with the goals of automating parts of the process and formalizing it to provide more effective methods of science and engineering education. Sussman has also worked in computer languages, in computer architecture, and in
Very Large Scale Integration Very may refer to: * English's prevailing intensifier Businesses * The Very Group The Very Group Limited is a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head offices are based in the ...
(VLSI) design.


Education

Sussman attended the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...
as an undergraduate and received his SB in mathematics in 1968. He continued his studies at MIT and obtained a
PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...
in 1973, also in mathematics, under the supervision of
Seymour Papert Seymour Aubrey Papert (; 29 February 1928 – 31 July 2016) was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artif ...
. His doctoral thesis was titled "A Computational Model of Skill Acquisition" focusing on
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
and
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...
, using a computational performance model named ''HACKER''. According to a common story, in 1966,
Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive scientist, cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research in artificial intelligence (AI). He co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
tasked his student Gerald Jay Sussman to “spend the summer linking a camera to a computer and getting the computer to describe what it saw.” This story was often told to illustrate that the difficulty of computer vision was not apparent to AI researchers in the early days.


Academic work

Sussman is a coauthor (with
Hal Abelson Harold Abelson (born April 26, 1947) is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Tec ...
and Julie Sussman) of the introductory computer science textbook '' Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs'' (SICP). It was used at MIT for several decades, and has been translated into several languages. Sussman's contributions to
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
include problem solving by debugging almost-right plans, propagation of constraints applied to electrical circuit analysis and synthesis, dependency-based explanation and dependency-based backtracking, and various language structures for expressing problem-solving strategies. Sussman and his former student, Guy L. Steele Jr., invented the programming language Scheme in 1975. Sussman saw that artificial intelligence ideas can be applied to
computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
(CAD). Sussman developed, with his graduate students, sophisticated computer-aided design tools for
Very Large Scale Integration Very may refer to: * English's prevailing intensifier Businesses * The Very Group The Very Group Limited is a multi-brand online retailer and financial services provider in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its head offices are based in the ...
(VLSI). Steele made the first Scheme hardware chips in 1978. These ideas and the AI-based CAD technology to support them were further developed in the Scheme chips of 1979 and 1981. The technique and experience developed were then used to design other special-purpose computers. Sussman was the principal designer of the Digital Orrery, a machine designed to do high-precision integrations for
orbital mechanics Orbital mechanics or astrodynamics is the application of ballistics and celestial mechanics to rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft. The motion of these objects is usually calculated from Newton's laws of motion and the law of universal ...
experiments. The Orrery hardware was designed and built by a few people in a few months. Using the Digital Orrery, Sussman has worked with Jack Wisdom to discover numerical evidence for chaotic motions in the outer planets. The Digital Orrery machine is now retired at the
Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...
in Washington, DC. Sussman was also the lead designer of the Supercomputer Toolkit, another
multiprocessor Multiprocessing (MP) is the use of two or more central processing units (CPUs) within a single computer system. The term also refers to the ability of a system to support more than one processor or the ability to allocate tasks between them. The ...
computer optimized for evolving of
ordinary differential equation In mathematics, an ordinary differential equation (ODE) is a differential equation (DE) dependent on only a single independent variable (mathematics), variable. As with any other DE, its unknown(s) consists of one (or more) Function (mathematic ...
s. The Supercomputer Toolkit was used by Sussman and Wisdom to confirm and extend the discoveries made with the Digital Orrery to include the entire planetary system. Sussman has pioneered the use of computational descriptions to communicate methodological ideas in teaching subjects in Electrical Circuits and in Signals and Systems. Over the past decade Sussman and Wisdom have developed a subject that uses computational techniques to communicate a deeper understanding of advanced
classical mechanics Classical mechanics is a Theoretical physics, physical theory describing the motion of objects such as projectiles, parts of Machine (mechanical), machinery, spacecraft, planets, stars, and galaxies. The development of classical mechanics inv ...
. In ''Computer Science: Reflections on the Field, Reflections from the Field'', he writes "... computational algorithms are used to express the methods used in the analysis of dynamical phenomena. Expressing the methods in a computer language forces them to be unambiguous and computationally effective. Students are expected to read the programs and to extend them and to write new ones. The task of formulating a method as a computer-executable program and debugging that program is a powerful exercise in the learning process. Also, once formalized procedurally, a mathematical idea becomes a tool that can be used directly to compute results." Sussman and Wisdom, with Meinhard Mayer, have produced a textbook, '' Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics'' (SICM), to capture these new ideas. Sussman and Abelson have also been a part of the
free software movement The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for user (computing), software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets thes ...
, including releasing MIT/GNU Scheme as
free software Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
and serving on the board of directors of the
Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
. In 2011, Sussman attended an event in the
Virgin Islands The Virgin Islands () are an archipelago between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and northeastern Caribbean Sea, geographically forming part of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Caribbean islands or West Indie ...
, known as the "Mindshift Conference", hosted by
Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...
and Al Seckel. Sussman's work is presented in many videos, such as: with Hal Abelson in a full 20-lecture version of MIT's SICP course, for LispNYC, at the International Conference on Complex Systems, for ArsDigita University, and giving the keynote talk at a Strange Loop conference.


Awards and organizations

For his contributions to
computer science education Computer science education or computing education is the field of teacher, teaching and learning the discipline of computer science, and computational thinking. The field of computer science education encompasses a wide range of topics, from b ...
, Sussman received the
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM) Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award in 1990, and the Amar G. Bose award for teaching in 1992. , Sussman is the only founding director who is still active on the board of directors of the
Free Software Foundation The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
(FSF). Sussman is a fellow of the following institutions: * The
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
* The
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a United States–based international nonprofit with the stated mission of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsib ...
(AAAS) * The
Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) is an international Learned society, scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public under ...
(AAAI) * The
Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...
(ACM) * The
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE has a corporate office ...
(IEEE) * The
New York Academy of Sciences The New York Academy of Sciences (NYAS), originally founded as the Lyceum of Natural History in January 1817, is a nonprofit professional society based in New York City, with more than 20,000 members from 100 countries. It is the fourth-oldes ...
(NYAS) Sussman is member of the following institutions: * The
National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
(NAE) * The
American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute The American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute (AWCI) is a not-for-profit trade association based in the United States that is dedicated to the advancement of the modern watch industry, from which it receives a significant portion of its funding ...
(AWI), * Th
Massachusetts Watchmakers-Clockmakers Association
(MWCA) * Th
Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston
(ATMOB) * The
American Radio Relay League The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the United States. ARRL is a non-profit organization and was co-founded on April 6, 1914, by Hiram Percy Maxim and Clarence D. Tuska of ...
(ARRL). In 2023 he received the IEEE Computer Society’s Taylor L. Booth Education Award for his “inspirational approach to the teaching of computer science through functional programming".


Personal life

Gerald Sussman is married to computer programmer Julie Sussman. Sussman is a bonded
locksmith Locksmithing is the work of creating and bypassing locks. Locksmithing is a traditional trade and in many countries requires completion of an apprenticeship. The level of formal education legally required varies by country, ranging from no formal ...
, and also does hands-on work with precision
mechanical watch A mechanical watch is a watch that uses a Movement (clockwork), clockwork mechanism to measure the passage of time, as opposed to quartz watches which function using the vibration modes of a piezoelectric quartz tuning fork, or radio clock, radio ...
movements, as well as amateur telescope making. He has given public lectures on the physics and mathematics of watch
escapement An escapement is a mechanical linkage in mechanical watches and clocks that gives impulses to the timekeeping element and periodically releases the gear train to move forward, advancing the clock's hands. The impulse action transfers energy to t ...
s. He is a life member of the American Watchmakers-Clockmakers Institute.


Select bibliography

* Chris Hanson and Gerald Jay Sussman;
Software Design for Flexibility
', MIT Press, 2021. ISBN 978-0-262-045490. * Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, with Will Farr;
Functional Differential Geometry
', MIT Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-262-01934-7. * Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "Revised Report on the Propagator Model"
documentation
an
system
August 2010. * Alexey Radul and Gerald Jay Sussman; "The Art of the Propagator,
MIT-CSAIL-TR-2009-002
Abridged version in Proc. 2009 International Lisp Conference, March 2009. *
Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics, second edition
', Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, MIT Press, 2014. ISBN 978-0-262-02896-7. *
Cellular Gate Technology
, Thomas F. Knight and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. UMC98, First International Conference on Unconventional Models of Computation, Auckland, NZ, January 1998. *
Sparse Representations for Fast, One-shot learning
, Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proc. of National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, July 1997. A longer version appears as MIT AI Lab Memo #1633, May 1998 *
A Computational Model for the Acquisition and Use of Phonological Knowledge
, Kenneth Yip and Gerald Jay Sussman, MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1575, March 1996. *
Amorphous Computing
, Harold Abelson, Don Allen, Daniel Coore, Chris Hanson, George Homsy, Thomas F. Knight, Jr., Radhika Nagpal, Erik Rauch, Gerald Jay Sussman, Ron Weiss, in Communications of the ACM, 43, 5, May 2000. Also as MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1665, August 1999. *
Comparison between subsonic flow simulation and physical measurements of flue pipes
, Panayotis. A. Skordos and Gerald Jay Sussman, Proceedings of ISMA 95, International Symposium on Musical Acoustics, Le Normont, France, July 1995. Also MIT Artificial Intelligence Memo 1535, April 1995. *
Chaotic Evolution of the Solar System
, Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, Science, 257, July 3, 1992. *
The Supercomputer Toolkit: A general framework for special-purpose computing
, with A. Berlin, J. Katzenelson, W. McAllister, G. Rozas, G. J. Sussman, and Jack Wisdom, International Journal of High-Speed Electronics, 3, no. 3, pp. 337–361, 1992. *
Numerical evidence that the motion of Pluto is chaotic
, Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom, in Science, 241, July 22, 1988. *
Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
', Harold Abelson and Gerald Jay Sussman with Julie Sussman, MIT Press and McGraw-Hill, 1985, second edition 1996, ISBN 0-262-01153-0. (published translations in French, Japanese, Polish, Chinese, Korean, and German).


See also

*
Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American cognitive scientist, cognitive and computer scientist concerned largely with research in artificial intelligence (AI). He co-founded the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ...
*
Seymour Papert Seymour Aubrey Papert (; 29 February 1928 – 31 July 2016) was a South African-born American mathematician, computer scientist, and educator, who spent most of his career teaching and researching at MIT. He was one of the pioneers of artif ...
* Terry Winograd *
MDL (programming language) MDL (Model Development Language, or colloquially also referred to as More Datatypes than Lisp or MIT Design Language) is a programming language, a descendant of the language Lisp. Its initial purpose was to provide high-level programming language ...
* Sussman anomaly


References


External links

* *
Books
at the
MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sussman, Gerald Jay 1947 births 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians American computer scientists American electrical engineers American artificial intelligence researchers Fellows of the IEEE Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Free software programmers GNU people Jewish American scientists Lisp (programming language) people Living people Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni MIT School of Engineering faculty Members of the Free Software Foundation board of directors Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Programming language designers 21st-century American Jews 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery