John E. Laird
Encyclopedia
John E. Laird is a computer scientist who, with Paul Rosenbloom and Allen Newell
, created the Soar cognitive architecture
at Carnegie Mellon University
. Laird is a Professor of the Computer Science and Engineering Division of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the University of Michigan
. He was the director of the Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory there from 1994 to 1999.
. Laird was a researcher at Xerox PARC
in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory from 1984 to 1986; in 1986 he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan.
Laird has continued to do research on architectures of the mind and to develop and evolve the Soar architecture since his time at CMU. He is a key speaker at the annual Soar workshop and participates in the international Soar Research Group. In 1998 he co-founded Soar Technologyhttp://www.soartech.com, a company that specializes in creating autonomous AI entities based on Soar; he currently serves on its Board of Directors. His particular research interests are reinforcement learning, episodic memory, semantic memory, and emotion-inspired processing. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence.
Allen Newell
Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...
, created the Soar cognitive architecture
Soar (cognitive architecture)
Soar is a symbolic cognitive architecture, created by John Laird, Allen Newell, and Paul Rosenbloom at Carnegie Mellon University, now maintained by John Laird's research group at the University of Michigan. It is both a view of what cognition is and an implementation of that view through a...
at Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. Laird is a Professor of the Computer Science and Engineering Division of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department of the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. He was the director of the 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...
Laboratory there from 1994 to 1999.
Professional History
John Laird received a BS in Communication and Computer Science from the University of Michigan in 1975 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1983. His Ph.D. thesis advisor was Allen NewellAllen Newell
Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...
. Laird was a researcher at Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
in the Intelligent Systems Laboratory from 1984 to 1986; in 1986 he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan.
Laird has continued to do research on architectures of the mind and to develop and evolve the Soar architecture since his time at CMU. He is a key speaker at the annual Soar workshop and participates in the international Soar Research Group. In 1998 he co-founded Soar Technologyhttp://www.soartech.com, a company that specializes in creating autonomous AI entities based on Soar; he currently serves on its Board of Directors. His particular research interests are reinforcement learning, episodic memory, semantic memory, and emotion-inspired processing. He is a Fellow of the American Association of Artificial Intelligence.
Publications
- A Gentle Introduction to Soar, an Architecture for Human Cognition, 2006 Update, with Jill Fain Lehman and Paul Rosenbloom (2006)
- The Soar Papers: Readings on Integrated Intelligence, Rosenbloom, Laird, and Newell (1993)
- "Soar: An Architecture for General Intelligence", Artificial Intelligence, 33: 1-64. Laird, Rosenbloom, Newell, John and Paul, Allen (1987)