engineering

Thomas B. Sheridan

Thomas B. Sheridan is a engineering 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 Thomas B. Sheridan rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas B. Sheridan (born December 23, 1929) is an American professor of mechanical engineering and Applied Psychology Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Thomas B. Sheridan (born December 23, 1929) is an American professor of mechanical engineering and Applied Psychology Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a pioneer of robotics and remote control technology.

Early life and education Sheridan was born Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1951, he received his B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University, a M.S. Eng. degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 1954, and a Sc.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1959. He has also received an honorary doctorate from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Career For most of his professional career he remained at MIT. He was assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1959 to 1964. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1964 to 1970. Professor of Mechanical Engineering from 1970 to 1984. Professor of Engineering and Applied Psychology since 1984, and Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 1993. In 1995-96 he was Ford Professor. He is currently professor emeritus in the Departments of Mechanical Engineering and Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He has also served as a visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley, Stanford, Delft University, Kassel University, Germany, and Ben Gurion University, Israel. He was co-editor of the MIT Press journal Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments and served on several editorial boards; and was editor of IEEE Transactions on Man-Machine Systems. Sheridan chaired the National Research Council's Committee on Human Factors, and has served on numerous government and industrial advisory committees. He is principal of Thomas B. Sheridan and Associates, a consulting firm. He was also President of the IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society. He was President of HFES, and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Sheridan received their Norbert Wiener and Joseph Wohl awards, the IEEE Centennial Medal (1984) and Third Millennium Medal. He is also a Fellow of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, recipient of their Paul M. Fitts Award, received the 1997 National Engineering Award of the American Association of Engineering Societies, and the 1997 Rufus Oldenburger Medal of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Work His research interests are in experimentation, modeling, and design of human-machine systems in air, highway and rail transportation, space and undersea robotics, process control, arms control, telemedicine, and virtual reality. Working at MIT, Sheridan developed important concepts concerning human–robot interaction, particularly regarding supervisory control and telepresence.

Robotics Robotics and telepresence is just one manifestation of his interest the boundary between human and automatic control. His book Humans and Automation is a concise summary of the history, issues, and progress in the role of the human and technology in automation.

Publications He has published some books and over 200 technical papers. Books:

Sheridan, Thomas B. and William Ferrell. 1974, Man-Machine Systems (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974, 1981; USSR, 1981) Sheridan, Thomas B., and Gunnar Johannsen. 1976, (ed.) Monitoring Behavior and Supervisory Control, New York: Plenum. Sheridan, Thomas B. 1992, "Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Sheridan, Thomas B., and Ton VonLunteren 1997, (ed.) Perspectives on the Human Controller, Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Sheridan, Thomas B. 2002, Humans and Automation: System Design and Research Issues, John Wiley and Sons, 2002. Sheridan, Thomas B. 2014. What is God? Can Religion Be Modeled?, Washington DC, New Academia Press, 2014 Sheridan, Thomas B. (2016). Modeling Human-System Interaction: Philosophical and Methodological Considerations, with Examples. Wiley. ISBN 978-1-119-27529-9.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas B. Sheridan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas B. Sheridan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 Thomas B. Sheridan 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 Thomas B. Sheridan 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 Thomas B. Sheridan

In research: Thomas B. Sheridan appears in engineering 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 Thomas B. Sheridan 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: Thomas B. Sheridan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1929 births, American electrical engineers, American roboticists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas B. Sheridan 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 Thomas B. Sheridan in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas B. Sheridan in simple terms?

Thomas B. Sheridan (born December 23, 1929) is an American professor of mechanical engineering and Applied Psychology Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Why does Thomas B. Sheridan matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 Thomas B. Sheridan?

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 Thomas B. Sheridan.