computer science

Paoli Research Center

Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center rather than just read about it. In short: The Paoli Research Center was a research and development facility established in 1954 by the Burroughs Corporation, then known as the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. It was created a university campus like setting in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, Pennsylvania for the Burroughs Research Laboratory, then located at 511 North Broad Street in Philadelphia.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

The Paoli Research Center was a research and development facility established in 1954 by the Burroughs Corporation, then known as the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. It was created a university campus like setting in the Philadelphia suburb of Paoli, Pennsylvania for the Burroughs Research Laboratory, then located at 511 North Broad Street in Philadelphia. The initial focus was for the development of business accounting systems and experimental work in electromechanics. The Paoli Research Center grew over the years and was the source of many research contribution to computing, including work on computing hardware design, programming languages, algorithms and defense applications. The research center continued after Burroughs and Sperry Corporation merged to become Unisys and performed both research for the Unisys corporation as well as for government sponsors. Research topics included artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, database systems, software engineering and bioinformatics. In the 1990 the research staff was relocated to Unisys' nearby Great Valley facility and the Paoli building was sold in 1992, demolished and replaced with condominiums and an assisted living center.

History

Establishment In the early 1950s, the Burroughs Corporation (then the Burroughs Adding Machine Company) sought to expand its electronics research capabilities beyond its existing laboratory at 511 North Broad Street in Philadelphia. Under the direction of Irven Travis, a former professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Moore School of Electrical Engineering, the company looked for a location that could offer a "university campus-like setting" to attract top scientific talent. In 1951, Burroughs purchased a 12-acre plot of the John H. Dingee estate (known as "Fennerton") in Paoli, a suburb on the Philadelphia Main Line. The site was chosen for its proximity to the Pennsylvania Railroad and the residential communities of Chester County.

Construction and Architecture The facility was designed by the architectural firm Walker-Yeomans Associates with Aaron Colish and Frank E. Hahn serving as associate architects. Construction was carried out by the Baton Construction Company and completed in 1954 at a cost of approximately $5 million. The modern, L-shaped building featured two long, two-story laboratory wings and a central section emblazoned with a large "B" logo, which is visible from U.S. Route 202. The facility included an administrative quadrangle, a cafeteria, an auditorium, and a library. It opened with a staff of nearly 400 employees, including physicists, mathematicians, and engineers.

Closure Following the 1986 merger of Burroughs and Sperry to form Unisys, corporate restructuring led to the consolidation of facilities. In the early 1990s, the research staff was relocated to the nearby Unisys facility in the Great Valley Corporate Center in Malvern, Pennsylvania. The Paoli Research Center was closed and the property was sold in 1992. The building was subsequently demolished and replaced by a residential development consisting of condominiums and an assisted living center.

References

External links Burroughs Research Center in Paoli, Tredyffrin Easttown Historical Society The Burroughs Research Center in Paoli

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paoli Research Center

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center

In research: Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center 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: Paoli Research Center is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computer science research organizations, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Paoli Research Center in simple terms?

Why does Paoli Research Center 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 Paoli Research Center?

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 Paoli Research Center.