Raj Reddy
Encyclopedia
Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy (born June 13, 1937), a Turing Award winner, is one of the early pioneers in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford
and Carnegie Mellon University
(CMU) for over 40 years. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute
at CMU. He was instrumental in helping to create Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
in India, to cater to the educational needs of the low income, gifted rural youth. He is also the Chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
. He is the first person of Asian origin to receive the ACM Turing Award, in 1994, the highest award in Computer Science, for his work in the field of artificial intelligence
.
, India. Reddy attended the ZP High School at Sri Kalahasti in Chittoor District. After completing an undergraduate education at Loyola College and College of Engineering, Guindy
in India, he went to Australia
in 1958 where he received an MTech degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales
in 1960. He went to the United States in 1963 and received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Stanford University
in 1966. He was the first doctoral student to graduate from the CS department at Stanford under Turing Award winner and AI pioneer, John McCarthy
.
University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics in the School of Computer Science
at Carnegie Mellon University
. From 1960-63, Reddy worked as an Applied Science Representative for IBM
in Australia. He was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford
from 1966-69. He joined the Carnegie Mellon University
faculty as an Associate Professor of Computer Science in 1969. He became a Full Professor in 1973, and a University Professor in 1984.
He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute
from 1979 to 1991 and the Dean of School of Computer Science
from 1991 to 1999. As a Dean of SCS
, he helped create the Language Technologies Institute
, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (since renamed as Department of Machine Learning), and the Institute for Software Research
. He is the Chairman of Governing Council of IIIT Hyderabad
and he is the Chancellor and the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
, India.
Reddy was a co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1999 to 2001. He was one of the founders of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and was its President from 1987 to 1989. He serves on the International Board of Governors of Peres Center for Peace in Israel. He is a member of the governing councils of EMRI and HMRI which use technology enabled solutions to provide cost effective health care coverage to rural population in India.
In Hearsay I, one of the first systems capable of continuous speech recognition and subsequent systems like Hearsay II, Dragon and Harpy, he and his students developed many of the ideas underlying modern commercial speech recognition technology. Some of these ideas — most notably the "blackboard model" for coordinating multiple knowledge sources — have been adopted across the spectrum of applied artificial intelligence.
His other major research interest has been in exploring the role of “Technology in Service of Society”. An early attempt in this area was the establishment, in 1981, of “Centre Mondial Informatique et Ressource Humaines” in France by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and a technical team of Nicholas Negroponte
, Alan Kay, Seymour Pappert and Terry Winograd. Reddy served as the Chief Scientist for the center.
One of Reddy's current research interests is the "Universal Digital Library Project". The project includes efforts to archive 1000 newspapers for the next 1000 years and provide online access to UNESCO heritage sites.
received the ACM Turing Award "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology". In 2001, Reddy was awarded Padma Bhushan
, an award given by the Indian Government that recognizes distinguished service of a high order to the nation.
In 2004, Reddy received the Okawa Prize for pioneering researches of large scale artificial intelligence system, human-computer interaction and Internet, and outstanding contributions to information and telecommunications policy and nurture of many human resources. In 2005, Reddy received the Honda Prize for his pioneering role in robotics and computer science which are expected to be used in the future society for a broad range of applications including education, medicine, healthcare, and disaster relief, In 2006 he received the Vannevar Bush Award
, the highest Award of National Science Foundation in United States, for his lifetime contribution to science and long-standing statesmanship in science and behalf of the nation. In 2008, Reddy received the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award
, "for leadership and pioneering contributions to speech recognition, natural language understanding, and machine intelligence." In 2011, Reddy was inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems
' AI's Hall of Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems".
Reddy is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He has been awarded honorary doctorates (Doctor Honoris Causa) from SV University, Universite Henri-Poincare, University of New South Wales, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, University of Massachusetts, University of Warwick, Anna University, Indian Institute for Information Technology (Allahabad), Andhra University, IIT Kharagpur and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
.
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
(CMU) for over 40 years. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute
Robotics Institute
The Robotics Institute is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world....
at CMU. He was instrumental in helping to create Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies , also known as Andhra Pradesh - Indian Institute of Information Technologies , is an institute in Andhra Pradesh, India. The school was created by the Government of India, under the auspices of the then Chief Minister Sri. Rajashekar Reddy and...
in India, to cater to the educational needs of the low income, gifted rural youth. He is also the Chairman of International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad is an autonomous university in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1998 with seed support from the Government of Andhra Pradesh...
. He is the first person of Asian origin to receive the ACM Turing Award, in 1994, the highest award in Computer Science, for his work in the field of artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
.
Early life
Reddy was born in Katur, Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, India. Reddy attended the ZP High School at Sri Kalahasti in Chittoor District. After completing an undergraduate education at Loyola College and College of Engineering, Guindy
College of Engineering, Guindy
College of Engineering, Guindy in Chennai, India, is India's oldest engineering and technical institution, having been established in 1794. Today it is one of the four constituent colleges of Anna University, Chennai....
in India, he went to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1958 where he received an MTech degree in Civil Engineering from the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in 1960. He went to the United States in 1963 and received a Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1966. He was the first doctoral student to graduate from the CS department at Stanford under Turing Award winner and AI pioneer, John McCarthy
John McCarthy (computer scientist)
John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...
.
Career
Reddy is the Mozah Bint NasserSheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned
Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned, DBE is the second of the three wives of Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar.-Early life and education:Sheikha Mozah was born in the coastal city Al Khor in northern Qatar...
University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics in the School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S...
at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. From 1960-63, Reddy worked as an Applied Science Representative for IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
in Australia. He was an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
from 1966-69. He joined the Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
faculty as an Associate Professor of Computer Science in 1969. He became a Full Professor in 1973, and a University Professor in 1984.
He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute
Robotics Institute
The Robotics Institute is a division of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It is considered to be one of the leading centers of robotics research in the world....
from 1979 to 1991 and the Dean of School of Computer Science
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S...
from 1991 to 1999. As a Dean of SCS
Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science
The School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA is a leading private school for computer science established in 1965. It has been consistently ranked among the top computer science programs over the decades. U.S...
, he helped create the Language Technologies Institute
Language technology
Language technology is often called human language technology or natural language processing and consists of computational linguistics and speech technology as its core but includes also many application oriented aspects of them. Language technology is closely connected to computer science and...
, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Center for Automated Learning and Discovery (since renamed as Department of Machine Learning), and the Institute for Software Research
Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research International
The Carnegie Mellon Institute for Software Research International is part of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA....
. He is the Chairman of Governing Council of IIIT Hyderabad
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad
International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad is an autonomous university in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1998 with seed support from the Government of Andhra Pradesh...
and he is the Chancellor and the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies
Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technologies , also known as Andhra Pradesh - Indian Institute of Information Technologies , is an institute in Andhra Pradesh, India. The school was created by the Government of India, under the auspices of the then Chief Minister Sri. Rajashekar Reddy and...
, India.
Reddy was a co-chair of the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) from 1999 to 2001. He was one of the founders of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence and was its President from 1987 to 1989. He serves on the International Board of Governors of Peres Center for Peace in Israel. He is a member of the governing councils of EMRI and HMRI which use technology enabled solutions to provide cost effective health care coverage to rural population in India.
Research
Reddy’s early research was conducted at the AI labs at Stanford, first as a graduate student and later as an Assistant Professor, and at CMU since 1969. His AI research concentrated on perceptual and motor aspect of intelligence such as speech, language, vision and robotics. Over a span of three decades, Reddy and his colleagues created several historic demonstrations of spoken language systems, e.g. voice control of a robot, large vocabulary connected speech recognition, speaker independent speech recognition, and unrestricted vocabulary dictation. Reddy and his colleagues have also made seminal contributions to Task Oriented Computer Architectures, Analysis of Natural Scenes, Universal Access to Information, and Autonomous Robotic Systems.In Hearsay I, one of the first systems capable of continuous speech recognition and subsequent systems like Hearsay II, Dragon and Harpy, he and his students developed many of the ideas underlying modern commercial speech recognition technology. Some of these ideas — most notably the "blackboard model" for coordinating multiple knowledge sources — have been adopted across the spectrum of applied artificial intelligence.
His other major research interest has been in exploring the role of “Technology in Service of Society”. An early attempt in this area was the establishment, in 1981, of “Centre Mondial Informatique et Ressource Humaines” in France by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber and a technical team of Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte is an American architect best known as the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also known as the founder of the One Laptop per Child Association ....
, Alan Kay, Seymour Pappert and Terry Winograd. Reddy served as the Chief Scientist for the center.
One of Reddy's current research interests is the "Universal Digital Library Project". The project includes efforts to archive 1000 newspapers for the next 1000 years and provide online access to UNESCO heritage sites.
Awards and honors
In 1984, Reddy was awarded the French Legion of Honour by French President Francois Mitterrand for his contributions as Chief Scientist at "Centre Mondial Informatique" in Paris in the use of "Technology in Service of Society". In 1994 he and Edward FeigenbaumEdward Feigenbaum
Edward Albert Feigenbaum is a computer scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence. He is often called the "father of expert systems."...
received the ACM Turing Award "For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology". In 2001, Reddy was awarded Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...
, an award given by the Indian Government that recognizes distinguished service of a high order to the nation.
In 2004, Reddy received the Okawa Prize for pioneering researches of large scale artificial intelligence system, human-computer interaction and Internet, and outstanding contributions to information and telecommunications policy and nurture of many human resources. In 2005, Reddy received the Honda Prize for his pioneering role in robotics and computer science which are expected to be used in the future society for a broad range of applications including education, medicine, healthcare, and disaster relief, In 2006 he received the Vannevar Bush Award
Vannevar Bush Award
The National Science Board established the Vannevar Bush Award in 1980 to honor Dr. Vannevar Bush's unique contributions to public service. His name is pronounced ....
, the highest Award of National Science Foundation in United States, for his lifetime contribution to science and long-standing statesmanship in science and behalf of the nation. In 2008, Reddy received the IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award
IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award
The IEEE James L. Flanagan Speech and Audio Processing Award is a Technical Field Award presented by the IEEE for an outstanding contribution to the advancement of speech and/or audio signal processing. It may be presented to an individual or a team of up to three people...
, "for leadership and pioneering contributions to speech recognition, natural language understanding, and machine intelligence." In 2011, Reddy was inducted into IEEE Intelligent Systems
IEEE Intelligent Systems
IEEE Intelligent Systems, a bimonthly publication of the IEEE Computer Society. It is an AAAI-sponsored journal. Cosponsors are the British Computer Society and the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence....
' AI's Hall of Fame for the "significant contributions to the field of AI and intelligent systems".
Reddy is a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Indian National Science Academy, and Indian National Academy of Engineering. He has been awarded honorary doctorates (Doctor Honoris Causa) from SV University, Universite Henri-Poincare, University of New South Wales, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, University of Massachusetts, University of Warwick, Anna University, Indian Institute for Information Technology (Allahabad), Andhra University, IIT Kharagpur and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is a public university located in Hong Kong. Established in 1991 under Hong Kong Law Chapter 1141 , it is one of the nine universities in Hong Kong.Professor Tony F. Chan is the president of HKUST...
.
Contributions
- Machine Intelligence and Robotics: Report of the NASA Study Group - Executive Summary, Final Report Carl Sagan (chair), Raj Reddy (vice chair) and others, NASA JPL, September 1979
- Foundations and Grand Challenges of Artificial Intelligence, AAAI Presidential Address, 1988.
- To Dream the Possible Dream, Turing Award Lecture presented at ACM CS Conference, March 1, 1995