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Alan Kotok was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Began his undergraduate degree in the fall -
Joined the Tech Model Railroad Club
Soon after starting college in the fall, Kotok joined TMRC -
Enrolled in John McCarthy's programming class
In Spring 1959, Kotok enrolled in the first ever programming class available for freshmen -
Began working on developing McCarthy's IBM 704 chess-playing program
Kotak asked McCarthy if he had any projects he and his friends could work on and in the summer of 1959, they began working on McCarthy's project -
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Helped in developing the Expansive Tape Recorder
Kotak worked with David Gross to develop the Expansive Tape Recorder, a digital audio program -
Started project to write a FORTRAN complier for the PDP-4
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Developed the first video game joystick for Spacewar!
Helped with developing the first video game by creating the first video game joystick -
Thesis on chess program was published as an artificial intelligence memo
Kotak wrote his final thesis on McCarthy's chess-playing program, and shortly after his thesis was published as an artificial intelligence memo from the Artificial Intelligence Lab -
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Involved in system development for the PDP-1 at MIT
Although he did not write any of its code, he was involved in the initial development of the PDP-1 -
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Worked at Digital Equipment Corporation
Began working at DEC in the summer of 1962, and retired in 1996 after 34 years with the company -
Taught logistic design at the University of California Berkeley
Taught classes for one year as a visiting faculty member -
Helped to found the World Wide Web Consortium with Tim Berners-Lee
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Retired from Digital Equipment Corporation after 34 years of service
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Rejoined W3C as Associate Chair
After taking a brief period away from the World Wide Web, Kotok returned as Associate Chair, where he was responsible for managing contractual relations with W3C members -
Alan Kotok passed away
at age 64, Kotok passed away due to a heart attack
