computer science

Michael Schroeder

Michael Schroeder is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Schroeder rather than just read about it. In short: Michael David Schroeder (born 1945) is an American computer scientist. His areas of research include computer security, distributed systems, and operating systems, and he is perhaps best known as the co-inventor of the Needham–Schroeder protocol.

Key takeaways

Michael Schroeder belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Schroeder to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Schroeder from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael David Schroeder (born 1945) is an American computer scientist. His areas of research include computer security, distributed systems, and operating systems, and he is perhaps best known as the co-inventor of the Needham–Schroeder protocol. In 2001 he co-founded the Microsoft Research Silicon Valley lab and was the assistant managing director until the lab was disbanded in 2014.

Early life and career Schroeder was born in 1945 in Richland, Washington. He did his undergraduate work at Washington State University and went to graduate school at MIT, obtaining his PhD in 1972. Starting in 1976 he has been on the MIT EECS department faculty, at Xerox PARC, and at the DEC Systems Research Center. At MIT he was involved with Multics, where his contributions included a seminal work on security architecture for shared information systems. In 1977 Schroeder and Roger Needham designed a new (unclassified) computer network protocol for distributed authentication server using a Key Distribution Center (KDC). This idea eventually led to the Kerberos authentication scheme used by MIT's Project Athena.

He has also built Grapevine (a distributed system), the filesystem of Cedar, Topaz (a distributed OS), Autonet (a LAN), and Pachyderm (a web-based email system). He is the co-author of The Protection of Information in Computer Systems.

Awards In 2004, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2006, ACM SIGSAC presented him with the Outstanding Innovations Award "for technical contributions to the field of computer and communication security that have had lasting impact in furthering or understanding the theory and/or development of commercial systems." In 2007, NIST/NSA gave him the National Computer Systems Security Award. In 2008, ACM SIGOPS chose the paper Grapevine: An Exercise in Distributed Computing, which he coauthored, for a Hall of Fame Award "that recognizes the most influential operating systems papers in the peer-reviewed literature at least ten year old."

Gilbert Munger He is a leading expert on the American landscape painter Gilbert Munger (1837–1903), for whom he authors a web-based catalogue raisonné and archive of period documents. With J. Gray Sweeney of Arizona State University he wrote the book Gilbert Munger: Quest for Distinction (Afton Historical Society Press, 2003).

References

External links Michael D. Schroeder web page The Gilbert Munger Web Site

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Schroeder

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Schroeder claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Schroeder before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Schroeder ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Schroeder

In research: Michael Schroeder appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Schroeder in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Schroeder is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1945 births, American academic scientist stubs, American computer scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Schroeder outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Schroeder in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Schroeder means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Schroeder out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Schroeder in simple terms?

Why does Michael Schroeder matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Schroeder?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Schroeder.