Computer Pioneer Alan Kay Joins HP; Co-founder of Xerox PARC to Focus on New Platform for Devices, Applications
26 Nov 2002, 11:01am ET
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PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 26, 2002--HP (NYSE:HPQ)
today announced that Alan Kay, one of the founders of Xerox PARC and a
computer industry pioneer, has joined the company.
He will be a Senior Fellow in HP Labs, researching and developing
new software platforms for devices and distributed applications, based
on open source code.
"We're delighted to have a person of Alan's stature join our
team," said Dick Lampman, HP senior vice president of research, and
director, HP Labs. "His energy, creativity and special insights have
had a huge impact on the industry."
Kay will report to Patrick Scaglia, vice president, Internet and
Computing Platform Technologies, HP Labs.
"Alan's interests coincide perfectly with our efforts to create a
new software platform for the 21st century," said Scaglia. "The core
technologies he's currently pursuing will be an ideal complement to
our own research and development."
"I'm excited about working with the outstanding team at HP Labs
and throughout the company," said Kay. "I agree with HP on the need to
support standards-based, modular systems, where it makes sense for
users and the industry."
Kay will continue his association with the Viewpoints Research
Institute, a nonprofit organization in Glendale, Calif., that he
helped found to improve both general education and understanding of
complex systems. He believes, for example, that it should be possible
to teach children as young as 5 years old to create simple programs
using a set of authoring tools known as "Squeak," which relies heavily
on images, rather than words.
"Our work with children is aimed at teaching them 'real math' and
'real science' through making their own simulations, including games,"
Kay said. "We want to help them develop thinking and learning skills
across a broad range of topics. We also believe that many great
inventions are created by working with children."
Kay is one of the earliest pioneers of personal computing and his
comment, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it," is
widely quoted.
In the late '60s, Kay participated in the design of ARPAnet, the
forerunner of the Internet. He also created the Dynabook, an early
version of today's laptops, with a flat screen, stylus, wireless
network and local storage.
At Xerox PARC in the early '70s he invented Smalltalk, the first
complete, dynamic object-oriented language, development and operating
system.
His work at PARC also included bitmap displays, used in all
computers today, as well as overlapping windows, icons and the
point-click-and-drag user interface.
He also was chief scientist at Atari from 1981-84, where he set up
Atari Research Labs throughout the country. From early 1984 through
late 1996, he was a Fellow at Apple and independent researcher,
working on end-user languages, input-output devices and The Viviarium,
an educational research project that lasted nearly eight years. In
late 1996, he joined Walt Disney Imagineering, The Walt Disney
Company, as a Fellow working on digital media projects. His five-year
contract with Disney ended in September 2001. |
