Claude Elwood Shannon . Outstanding American electrical engineer, mathematician, and cryptographer, considered “the father of information theory.”
Summary
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- 1 Biographical synthesis
- 1 Career path
- 2 Death
- 2 References
- 3 Publications
- 4 See also
- 5 Sources
Biographical synthesis
He was born on April 30 of 1916en Petoskey, Michigan , United States . The first years of his life were spent at Gaylord, graduating from high school in 1932 . From a young age, Shannon demonstrated a penchant for things mechanical. He stood out from his peers in science subjects. His childhood hero was Edison , whom he later became quite close to in his investigations.
Career path
The first years of his life were spent at Gaylord, where he graduated from high school in 1932. In 1932 he entered the University of Michigan , following his sister Catherine, a doctor in mathematics . In 1936 he obtained the titles of electrical engineer and mathematician. His interest in mathematics and engineering continued throughout his life.
In 1936 he accepted the position of research assistant in the department of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His situation allowed him to continue studying while working part -time for the department, where he worked in the analog computer more advanced in that era, the Differential Analyzer of Vannevar Bush .
At that time his interest in complex relay circuits arose. Trying to simplify relay switchboards, he realized that these could be used for calculations. Adding this to his taste for logic and Boolean algebra, he was able to develop this idea during the summer of 1937 , which he spent at Bell Laboratories in New York City .
In his master’s thesis at MIT, he demonstrated how Boolean algebra could be used in the analysis and synthesis of switching and digital circuits. The thesis aroused considerable interest when it appeared in specialized publications in 1938 . In 1940 he was awarded the American Engineer Prize from the American Alfred Nobel Institute in the United States , an award given each year to a person no older than thirty years. A quarter of a century later HH Goldstine, in his book “Computers from Pascal to Von Neumann”He cited his thesis as one of the most important in history that helped change the design of digital circuits.
During the summer of 1938 he did research work at MIT and was awarded the Bolles Fellowship while working as a teaching assistant while pursuing a doctorate in mathematics .
In 1940 he received a master’s degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in mathematical philosophy .
Shannon spent fifteen years at Bell Labs, a very fruitful association with many top mathematicians and scientists such as Harry Nyquist , Walter Houser Brattain , John Bardeen, and William Bradford Shockley , inventors of the transistor ; George Stibitz , who built relay-based computers, Warren Weaver , who wrote a long and enlightening introduction to his The Mathematical Theory of Communication and many others.
During this period Shannon worked in many areas, the most notable of which was information theory, a development that was published in 1948 under the name “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” In this work it was demonstrated that all sources of information ( electric telegraph , telephone , radio , people speaking, television cameras , etc …) can be measured and that communication channelshave a similar unit of measure. It also showed that information can be transmitted over a channel if, and only if, the magnitude of the source does not exceed the transmission capacity of the channel that conducts it, and laid the foundations for error correction, noise suppression and redundancy.
In the area of computers and artificial intelligence , he published in 1950 a work that described the programming of a computer to play chess , becoming the basis for further developments. He designed a computer program to play chess, in addition to a mouse . He also applied many of his theories and precepts to Las Vegas casino games., where he used to go regularly with his wife and friends. Throughout his life he received numerous decorations and recognitions from universities and institutions around the world. Asked once by a journalist if machines could think, he replied: “Of course! You and I are machines, and we do think!”
Death
Claude Elwood Shannon passed away at the age of 84, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease .
