John McCarthy

1927, Born in Boston

Sep 24, 1927

John McCarthy, a founder of Artificial Intelligence was born in Boston, Massachusetts, 1927

Grows up in Los Angeles

1943

Graduates from Belmont High School in 1943 two years early.

Completes Undergraduate Studies

1948

Received B.S. in Mathematics the year 1948 from Caltech.

Instructor

1951

Held position as instructor at Princeton University from 1951-1953. This is where he would meet lifelong collaborator Marvin Minsky.

Gains Ph.D. in Mathematics

1951

Completed Ph.D. in Mathematics in 1951 from Princeton, University.

Assistant Professor

Period: 1953 to 1955

Worked for Stanford University as an assistant professor until 1955.

Summer Research Project on A.I.

1955

Worked with other big names like Claude Shannon and Nathaniel Rochester on “The Dartmouth Summer Research Project on Artificial Intelligence”. This where McCarthy would coin the term "artificial intelligence".

Position at MIT

1956

John McCarthy would start work at MIT in 1956 and leave a professor position in 1962.

MIT A.I. Lab

Period: 1956 to 1962

WIth the aid of Marvin Minsky, the two would found the MIT A.I. Lab. This lab would go on to make strides in the field of robotics and artificial intelligence.

Published 'Programs with Common Sense'

1959

Released his first publication on an idea that would set a precedent for logical A.I. and birth of the field of "knowledge representation".

LISP

1962

During his initial time at MIT McCarthy produced LISP, which today is the second longest used programming language.

Full time at Stanford until Retirement

Period: 1962 to 2001

Became a full time professor with the Division of Computer Science at Stanford University in 1962. He worked there until retirement in 2001.

Founded SAIL

1965

Founded the prestigious "Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab" in 1965.

"Computers with Hands, Eyes and Ears."

1968

McCarthy's team at SAIL would produce the first hand-eye computer system using cameras, robotics, and computers.

Robotics at SAIL

1969

First robotic arm to be developed at SAIL was called the "Rancho Arm". Many other models would succeed this like the ORM and Vic Schienman's robotic arm in 1969.