| Benjamin Kuipers | |
|---|---|
| Born | Benjamin 7 April 1949 Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA |
| Nationality | United States |
| Alma mater | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Swarthmore College |
| Doctoral advisor | Marvin Minsky |
Benjamin Kuipers is an American computer scientist at the University of Michigan.[1]
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Kuipers graduated from Swarthmore College in 1970 with a B.A. in Mathematics. He then did two years of alternate service as a conscientious objector to military service, working in the Psychology Department at Harvard University. He began his doctoral studies in pure mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He soon discovered the field of Artificial Intelligence, and spent most of his time at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, where his advisor was Marvin Minsky. He received his PhD in Mathematics from MIT in 1977. He spent a post-doctoral year as a Research Associate at the MIT Division for Study and Research in Education, funded by a DARPA grant to support collaborative research with BBN psychologist Albert Stevens.
Kuipers is known for his research in Qualitative simulation.[2]
Kuipers is also well known for his personal stance against accepting military funding for his research. As he explains in his essay, Why don't I take military funding?, during a DARPA-funded post-doctoral year he discovered that the primary interest in his early work on cognitive maps came from military agencies with the goal of building intelligent cruise missiles. As explained in his essay, he felt that he did not want his life's work to contribute to war.[3]