Douglas T. Ross
Encyclopedia
Douglas Taylor Ross (1929 - 31 Jan 2007) was an American computer scientist
pioneer, and Chairman of SofTech, Inc.
. He is most famous for originating the term CAD for computer-aided design
, and is consider to be the father of Automatically Programmed Tools (APT) a language to drive numerically controlled manufacturing.
He received a Bachelor of Science
cum laude in mathematics
from Oberlin College
in 1951, and a Master of Science
in electrical engineering
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1954. Afterwards he started but didn't complete his PhD at MIT due to his pressing work as Head of the MIT’s Computer Applications Group.
In the 1954 he started working at MIT, where he participated in the MIT Whirlwind (computer)
project. In 1969, Ross founded SofTech, Inc.
, which was an software/consulting company and early supplier of Pascal
compilers. Ross lectured at MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department and was chairman emeritus. He served as the company’s president of Softech from 1969 to 1975, and afterwards became Chairman of the Board of directors
.
Among his many honors are the Joseph Marie Jacquard Memorial Award
from the Numerical Control Society, in 1975, and the Distinguished Contributions Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
in 1980, and Honorary Engineer of the Year Award from the San Fernando Valley Engineer’s Council, 1981. At MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science they named the Douglas T. Ross Career Development Associate Professor of Software Development after him.
As the inventor of SADT, Structured Analysis and Design Technique
, Ross was an early developer of structured analysis
methods. During the 1970s, along with other contributors from SofTech, Inc.
, Ross helped develop SADT into the IDEF0
method for the Air Force's Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing
(ICAM) program's IDEF
suite of analysis and design methods.
He was a member of the IEEE IDEF0 Working Group which produced the IEEE IDEF0
standard in 1998. The IEEE IDEF0 standard superseded FIPS PUB 183, which was retired in 2002.
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
pioneer, and Chairman of SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc., , developer of ProductCenter, the company's PDM/PLM solution. WTC was one of the earliest PDM/PLM providers in the industry, having delivered PLM software products beginning with its first software product CMS in the early 1990s, along with many technology firsts, including the...
. He is most famous for originating the term CAD for computer-aided design
Computer-aided design
Computer-aided design , also known as computer-aided design and drafting , is the use of computer technology for the process of design and design-documentation. Computer Aided Drafting describes the process of drafting with a computer...
, and is consider to be the father of Automatically Programmed Tools (APT) a language to drive numerically controlled manufacturing.
Biography
Ross was born in China, where his parents both worked as medical missionaries, and he grew up back in the States in Canandaigua, N.Y.Canandaigua (city), New York
Canandaigua is a city in Ontario County, New York, USA, of which it is the county seat. The population was 11,264 at the 2000 census...
He received a Bachelor of Science
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
cum laude in mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
from Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...
in 1951, and a Master of Science
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1954. Afterwards he started but didn't complete his PhD at MIT due to his pressing work as Head of the MIT’s Computer Applications Group.
In the 1954 he started working at MIT, where he participated in the MIT Whirlwind (computer)
Whirlwind (computer)
The Whirlwind computer was developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is the first computer that operated in real time, used video displays for output, and the first that was not simply an electronic replacement of older mechanical systems...
project. In 1969, Ross founded SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc., , developer of ProductCenter, the company's PDM/PLM solution. WTC was one of the earliest PDM/PLM providers in the industry, having delivered PLM software products beginning with its first software product CMS in the early 1990s, along with many technology firsts, including the...
, which was an software/consulting company and early supplier of Pascal
Pascal (programming language)
Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
compilers. Ross lectured at MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department and was chairman emeritus. He served as the company’s president of Softech from 1969 to 1975, and afterwards became Chairman of the Board of directors
Board of directors
A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
.
Among his many honors are the Joseph Marie Jacquard Memorial Award
Joseph Marie Jacquard
Joseph Marie Charles dit Jacquard played an important role in the development of the earliest programmable loom , which in turn played an important role in the development of other programmable machines, such as computers.- Early life :Jean Jacquard’s name was not really...
from the Numerical Control Society, in 1975, and the Distinguished Contributions Award from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers
Society of Manufacturing Engineers
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers is a non-profit organization.-History of the Society:Founded in 1932 with 33 members, the organization was originally named The Society of Tool Engineers . A year later, it was renamed the American Society of Tool Engineers...
in 1980, and Honorary Engineer of the Year Award from the San Fernando Valley Engineer’s Council, 1981. At MIT in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science they named the Douglas T. Ross Career Development Associate Professor of Software Development after him.
Structured Analysis and Design Technique
Structured Analysis and Design Technique
Structured Analysis and Design Technique is a software engineering methodology for describing systems as a hierarchy of functions.- Overview :...
, Ross was an early developer of structured analysis
Structured analysis
Structured Analysis in software engineering and its allied technique, Structured Design , are methods for analyzing and converting business requirements into specifications and ultimately, computer programs, hardware configurations and related manual procedures.Structured analysis and design...
methods. During the 1970s, along with other contributors from SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc.
SofTech, Inc., , developer of ProductCenter, the company's PDM/PLM solution. WTC was one of the earliest PDM/PLM providers in the industry, having delivered PLM software products beginning with its first software product CMS in the early 1990s, along with many technology firsts, including the...
, Ross helped develop SADT into the IDEF0
IDEF0
IDEF0 is a function modeling methodology for describing manufacturing functions, which offers a functional modeling language for the analysis, development, reengineering, and integration of information systems; business processes; or software engineering analysis.IDEF0 is part of the IDEF family...
method for the Air Force's Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing
Integrated Computer-aided manufacturing
Integrated Computer-Aided Manufacturing is a US Air Force program to develop tools, techniques, and processes to support manufacturing integration and has influenced the computer-integrated manufacturing and computer-aided manufacturing project efforts of many companies.The ICAM program was...
(ICAM) program's IDEF
IDEF
IDEF, an abbreviation of Integration Definition, refers to a family of modeling languages in the field of systems and software engineering. They cover a wide range of uses, from functional modeling to data, simulation, object-oriented analysis/design and knowledge acquisition. These "definition...
suite of analysis and design methods.
He was a member of the IEEE IDEF0 Working Group which produced the IEEE IDEF0
IDEF0
IDEF0 is a function modeling methodology for describing manufacturing functions, which offers a functional modeling language for the analysis, development, reengineering, and integration of information systems; business processes; or software engineering analysis.IDEF0 is part of the IDEF family...
standard in 1998. The IEEE IDEF0 standard superseded FIPS PUB 183, which was retired in 2002.
Publications
Doug Ross has written dozens of articles and some reports. A selection:- 1961. "Computer-aided design". in: Commun. ACM 4(5): pp. 235.
- 1961. "A generalized technique for symbol manipulation and numerical calculation". in: Commun. ACM 4(3): pp. 147–150
- 1968. Investigations in computer-aided design for numerically controlled production. With John Erwin Ward. Electronic Systems Laboratory, Electrical Engineering Dept., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- 1968. "Automatic generation of efficient lexical processors using finite state techniques". With Walter L. Johnson, James H. Porter and Stephanie I. Ackley. In: Commun. ACM 11(12): pp. 805–813.
- 1975. "Software engineering: process, principles, and goals". With John B. Goodenough and C.A. Irvine., In: IEEE Computer, 8(5): pp 17–27.
- 1976. "Structured Analysis for Requirements Definition". With Kenneth E. Schoman Jr.. In: ICSE 1976: p. 1.
- 1976. "Toward Foundations for the Understanding of Type". in: Conference on Data: Abstraction, Definition and Structure 1976: pp. 63–65.
- 1977. "Structured Analysis for Requirements Definition". With Kenneth E. Schoman Jr. In: IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 3(1): pp. 6–15.
- 1977. "Structured Analysis (SA): A Language for Communicating Ideas". in: IEEE Trans. Software Eng. 3(1): pp. 16–34.
- 1978. "Origins of the APT Language for Automatically Programmed Tools". In: ACM SIGPLAN Notices, Vol. 13, No. 8, August 1978
- 1980. "Removing the limitations of natural language (with the principles behind the RSA language)". In Software Engineering, H. Freeman and P.M. Lewis (eds), Academic Press.
- 1985. "Applications and Extensions of SADT". in: IEEE Computer 18(4): pp. 25–34.
- 1988. Foreword to David Marca and Clement McGowan, SADT Structured Analysis and Design Technique, McGraw-Hill, 1988.
- 1989. "The NATO Conferences form the Perspective of an Active Software Engineer". In: ICSE 1989: pp. 101–102.
External links
- Doug Ross, 77; developed important computer language, The Boston Globe.
- Oral history interviews with Douglas T. Ross, Charles Babbage InstituteCharles Babbage InstituteThe Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking....
, University of Minnesota