computer science

Patrick Winston

Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston rather than just read about it. In short: Patrick Henry Winston (February 5, 1943 – July 19, 2019) was an American computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Winston was director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 1972 to 1997, succeeding his doctoral advisor Marvin Minsky, who left to help found the MIT Media Lab.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Patrick Henry Winston (February 5, 1943 – July 19, 2019) was an American computer scientist and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Winston was director of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory from 1972 to 1997, succeeding his doctoral advisor Marvin Minsky, who left to help found the MIT Media Lab. Winston was succeeded as director by Rodney Brooks. After graduating from high school, Winston left East Peoria, a suburb of Peoria, IL, to come to MIT by train. He received his undergraduate degree from MIT in 1965, where he was a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and went on to complete his Masters and PhD there as well, finalizing his PhD in 1970. His research interests included machine learning and human intelligence. Winston was known within the MIT community for his excellent teaching and strong commitment to supporting MIT undergraduate culture. At MIT, Winston taught 6.034: Artificial Intelligence and 6.803/6.833: Human Intelligence Enterprise. Winston's How to Speak talk was an MIT tradition for over 40 years. "Offered every January, the talk is intended to improve your speaking ability in critical situations by teaching you a few heuristic rules." In 2020, the MIT Press published a book with his insights and teachings on communication: Make It Clear: Speak and Write to Persuade and Inform. Winston served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence from 1985 to 1987. Winston died in Boston on July 19, 2019.

Bibliography and publications Winston authored a number of computer science and AI textbooks, including:

Artificial Intelligence ISBN 0201533774 The Psychology of Computer Vision ISBN 0070710481 Lisp (with Berthold K.P. Horn) ISBN 0201083191 On to C ISBN 020158042X On to C++ ISBN 0201580438 On to Java (with Sundar Narasimhan) ISBN 0201725932 On to Smalltalk ISBN 0201498278

References

External links Personal homepage Oral History with Patrick H. Winston, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Patrick Winston

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston

In research: Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston 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: Patrick Winston is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 births, 2019 deaths, American artificial intelligence researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Patrick Winston in simple terms?

Why does Patrick Winston 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 Patrick Winston?

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 Patrick Winston.