Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Bledsoe (November 12, 1921 – October 4, 1995) was an American

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

, and prominent educator. He is one of the founders of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

(AI), making early contributions in

pattern recognition Pattern recognition is the automated recognition of patterns and regularities in data. It has applications in statistical data analysis, signal processing, image analysis, information retrieval, bioinformatics, data compression, computer graphi ...

and

automated theorem proving Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a ma ...

. He continued to make significant contributions to AI throughout his long career. Beginning in 1966, he worked at the department of mathematics and computer science of the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

, holding the Peter O'Donnell Jr. Centennial Chair in Computing Science starting in 1987. Bledsoe joined

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

as an adult, and served in the church as a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, counselor to the Stake presidency, and Stake

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

. He also served as a leader in the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

. Bledsoe died on October 4, 1995 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease.

Selected publications

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References

External links

*
W.W. Bledsoe's publications
at

DBLP DBLP is a computer science bibliography website. Starting in 1993 at Universität Trier in Germany, it grew from a small collection of HTML files and became an organization hosting a database and logic programming bibliography site. Since Novem ...

W.W. Bledsoe
at the

chess programming Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

wiki 1921 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians American computer scientists 20th-century American educators American leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Artificial intelligence researchers Converts to Mormonism Patriarchs (LDS Church) People from Maysville, Oklahoma University of Texas at Austin faculty Mathematicians from Oklahoma Latter Day Saints from Oklahoma Latter Day Saints from Texas Presidents of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence {{LDS-bio-stub

Further reading

Selected publications

References

External links