Anthony G. Oettinger

Proposed automatic calculating machine

Here presented is the memorandum that 20 years ago initiated a series of events whose revolutionary implications are only beginning to manifest themselves — a description of the first large-scale general-purpose automatic digital computer Twenty years ago, on August 7, 1944, Mark I, the first large-scale general-purpose automatic digital computer ever to be put in operation was dedicated at Harvard University by James B. Conant, then president of Harvard, and the late Thomas J. Watson, founder of IBM.

Syntactic structure and ambiguity of English

This paper is in two parts. The first (Section 2) gives an evaluation of the performance of the multiple-path syntactic analyzer to date, with emphasis on the nature and the consequences of syntactic ambiguities in English sentences and suggestions for the refinement of the grammar. The remainder of the paper is concerned with certain concrete implications of the theoretical description of multiple-path predictive analysis provided by recent work of Evey and Greibach. A modification of the form of the current grammar is proposed which should yield a new grammar with additional intuitive appeal, a simplified version of the present analysis program, and sentence structure descriptions in the form of a generalized parenthesis-free notation readily interpretable as a tree.

CXXIV. Programming a digital computer to learn

Abstract Techniques for programming a digital computer to perform simple learning tasks are discussed with reference to two concrete examples. These examples have a particular bearing on questions proposed by Turing (1950) and by Wilkes (1951). By the application of the techniques described, digital computers can be made to serve as models in the study of the functions and of the structures of animal nervous systems.

Account Identification for Automatic Data Processing

It is common in manual or senti-automatic bookkeeping practice to identify an account by using as a key the name of the person or firm to whom the account pertains. For many reasons, names are not well suited for use as keys in automatic data processing systems. The problem of developing a system of account identification keys meeting the requirements imposed by automatic machines is examined in this paper, and solutions are described for certain simple cases. A novel application of Huffmans method for constructing minimal-redundancy codes leads to the design of account keys that minimize the number of passes required in sorting documents by accounts. Specific examples have been chosen from banking, in particular from checking account bookkeeping; however, the point of view of this paper is readily applicable to payroll, accounts receivable, and similar accounting systems.

President's letter to the ACM membership

Computer programming deals with an enormous variety of activities and is carried on by people with a great variety of backgrounds. It seems clear that part but not all of this activity is evolving toward a distinct professional field, but that the scope of this emerging profession, and some of its economic, social, and educational characteristics are as yet by no means well defined. In this paper, these issues are examined and some opinions about them are expressed.

Retiring computer pioneer

In retrospect, it is obvious that Charles Babbage, when writing these words, had Howard Aiken in mind. In July 1961, twenty-four years after conceiving the idea that led to Mark I and after over a quarter century of service to Harvard University and to the advancement of science, Howard Aiken became Professor of Applied Mathematics, Emeritus, and embarked on his present career as a consultant with the same boundless energy and imagination that gave momentum to one of the most revolutionary and important technological advances of this century.

Computational linguistics in a Ph.D. computer science program

1.1 MATHEMATICAL CHARACTERIZATIONS OF ~ATURAL LANGUAGES Mathematical studies of the nature of natural languages can be divided into two major categories according to the types of mathematics used: statistical versus logic or discrete mathematics. Statistical studies are concerned with such problems as frequency counts of linguistic units (such as phonemes, syllables, and words), statistics of style, the identification of authorship, and quantitative

A vision of technology and education

,cationol technology is currently quite fashionable. Here, many other branches or aspects of technology, changes ,le in the next generation or two are now known as ideas, ,eries or inventions. The unknown is whether the potential ecome the actual and, if so, on what time scale. This igce stems largely from ignorance about the social response lential technological change. The object of this paper is to ~t a vision of potential educational technology and to raise ons about the modes of social response and adaptation to be evoked by such a vision.

'Compunications': a policy agenda

There are four points which are especially useful in understanding the evolving world of computers and communications in the USA.1 The first is that the information industries, which were separate and distinct as recently as a decade ago, are now tightly intertwined and in turmoil. Second, the demands and stakes of individual consumers are undergoing significant changes. Third, there are great economic and political stakes in the information world. Finally, the stance of the US government in general is marginally adequate, at best, to cope with the turmoil.