Word: shannons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...idea of programming computers to play chess is as old as the machines themselves, and dates back to 1864 when Charles Babbage speculated on how his analytic engines could be used for the game. The idea was not researched thoroughly until 1950 by an American, Claude Shannon (although several decades earlier a machine created a great sensation by beating many excellent players, until it was discovered that the device contained a chess-playing midget inside...
...Shannon's paper outlined the basic problems involved in programming a computer to play chess, and his work has served as a guide for all subsequent efforts in this field. There are two essential components to a chess program: a "tree-generating" device, and an evaluation function. The tree-generating device determines all combinations of legal moves to a fixed depth. For example, it has been estimated that in any given position, there are approximately 35 legal moves available to the player whose turn it is to move. Thus, if a program were to do a tree-search...
...Shannon, born in Hollis, N.Y., holds an A.B. from Holy Cross and M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from NYU. He was cited by President Bok: "Under his guiding hand, the arm of government has bent wisely and usefully to the service of medical science...
Other recipients were: novelist Saul Bellow, Canadian educator Northrup Frye, British diplomat Roy H. Jenkins, and educator James A. Shannon...
...final degree, the only Doctor of Science, was awarded to James Augustus Shannon, the educator and medical investigator who helped shape governmental policy toward medical research after World War II. Director of the National Institutes of Health from 1955 to 1968, he was associate director of the National Heart Institute from 1949 to 1952. In 1949, he received the Presidential Medal for Merit from President Truman...