computer science

Michael W. Shields

Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields rather than just read about it. In short: Michael ("Mike") William Shields (20 January 1950 – 24 September 2023) was a British computer scientist. Overview Mike Shields undertook research on concurrent systems with Peter E.

Key takeaways

Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael W. Shields from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael ("Mike") William Shields (20 January 1950 – 24 September 2023) was a British computer scientist.

Overview Mike Shields undertook research on concurrent systems with Peter E. Lauer at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the late 1970s. For most of his career, Shields was an academic in the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey in Guildford, southern England. He joined in 1980 and retired in 2006 as a Reader. His research contributions were in theoretical computer science, especially concerning concurrency. In particular, he had written books on automata theory and the semantics of parallel computing. A meeting was held in 2006 at the British Computer Society's offices in London to celebrate Shields' contribution to computer science (his "innovative and elegant foundational work on models of concurrency") on his retirement. He subsequently moved to Malta in his retirement.

F. X. Reid F. X. Reid (a.k.a. FXR) was a pen name that Shields sometimes used in his more humorous writings and even within his serious work. Reid was a long-time contributor to the British Computer Society's FACS Specialist Group FACS FACTS newsletter in the past. For example, he was an enthusiast for the COMEFROM statement and an expert on its semantics. Apparently reports of FXR's death in 2006 were untrue, and his musings continued after this time in the newsletter. F. X. Reid's most widely known work is "The Song of Hakawatha," a parody of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem The Song of Hiawatha containing references to hacking, Unix and compilers. F. X. Reid has also been mentioned in computer science books. Reid has been quoted as saying In program proving, only the presence of bugs in one's proof is ascertainable, not their absence, similar to but not the same as a well-known quotation by E. W. Dijkstra about software testing.

Books Michael W. Shields published a number of books including:

Shields, Michael W. (1987). An Introduction to Automata Theory. Blackwell Scientific Publications. ISBN 978-0632017560. Kwiatkowska, Marta Z.; Shields, Michael W.; Thomas, Richard M., eds. (23–25 July 1990). Semantics for Concurrency: Proceedings of the International BCS-FACS Workshop. Workshops in Computing. Springer. ISBN 978-3540196259. Shields, Michael W. (1997). Semantics of Parallelism: Non-interleaving representation of behaviour. Springer. ISBN 978-3540760597.

References

External links Michael W. Shields at DBLP Bibliography Server Michael W Shields author profile page at the ACM Digital Library

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael W. Shields

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields 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 W. Shields 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 W. Shields

In research: Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields 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 W. Shields is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950 births, 2023 deaths, Academics of the University of Surrey, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael W. Shields in simple terms?

Michael ("Mike") William Shields (20 January 1950 – 24 September 2023) was a British computer scientist. Overview Mike Shields undertook research on concurrent systems with Peter E.

Why does Michael W. Shields 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 W. Shields?

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 W. Shields.