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Camden Ogier. CSCE 221 Fall 2014. Claude Shannon. The Father of I nformation Theory. 1916–2001. Early Life. Son of Claude Shannon Sr. and Mabel Shannon. Father was businessman and a judge for a short while. Mother was a language teacher and principle.
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Camden Ogier CSCE 221 Fall 2014 Claude Shannon The Father of Information Theory 1916–2001
Early Life • Son of Claude Shannon Sr. and Mabel Shannon. • Father was businessman and a judge for a short while. Mother was a language teacher and principle. • Grew up in Gaylord, Michigan and went to the high school where his mother worked. • As a child he admired Thomas Edison and eventually learned he was a distant cousin.
Education • Graduated in 1936 from the University of Michigan with bachelor’s degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics. • 1937: Received master’s degree in electrical engineering at MIT. • 1940: Received Ph.D. in philosophy at MIT.
1937 Master’s Thesis • Written at 21 years old. • Declared by Howard Gardner as “possibly the most important, and also the most famous, master's thesis of the century“ • Proved that the arrangement of relays could be represented using Boolean algebra. • Proved relays can be used to solve Boolean algebra problems. • Thesis became foundation for practical digital circuits.
World War II Research • Worked in cryptography at Bell Labs and met Alan Turing. • Also worked on fire-control systems. • Proved that the cryptographic one-time pad is unbreakable.
One-Time Pad Unbreakable If: • Key is truly random • Key is at least as long as the message • No part of any key is ever reused • Key is kept completely secret (duh)
Shannon’s Mouse • Created mechanical mouse that searched maze for a target. • The mouse remembers the layout of any part of the maze it has visited before. • If placed in an unfamiliar location, the mouse searches for one that is familiar.
Inventions and Hobbies • Juggling • Unicycling • Chess • Rocket powered flying disk • Motorized pogo stick • Flame throwing trumpet • Enjoyed going to Las Vegas and card counting on weekends with his wife and Ed Thorp.
The “Ultimate Machine” • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt3csIz3hEk
Sources • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Shannon • http://www.nyu.edu/pages/linguistics/courses/v610003/shan.html • http://www.bell-labs.com/news/2001/february/26/1.html