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Jay Wright Forrester (born July 14, 1918) is an American pioneering computer engineer and systems scientist. He was a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Forrester is known as the founder of system dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems.
Forrester had as his colleague for a time, C.Robert Wieser. [2]
Forrester was born on a farm near Anselmo, Nebraska, where "his early interest in electricity was spurred, perhaps, by the fact that the ranch had none. While in high school, he built a wind-driven, 12-volt electrical system using old car parts — it gave the ranch its first electric power."[3]
Forrester received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1939 from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and went on to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he would spend his entire career. During the 1940s and early 50s, he did research in electrical and computer engineering, heading the Whirlwind project and developing the "Multi-coordinate digital information storage device"[4] (coincident-current system), the forerunner of today's RAM. He is believed to have created the first animation in the history of computer graphics, a "jumping ball" on an oscilloscope.
In 1956, Forrester moved to the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he is currently Germeshausen Professor Emeritus and Senior Lecturer. In 1982, he received the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award.[5] In 1995, he was made a Fellow[6] of the Computer History Museum for his perfecting of core memory technology into a practical computer memory device; for fundamental contributions to early computer systems design and development. In 2006, he was inducted into the Operational Research Hall of Fame.
Forrester is the founder of system dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems. Industrial Dynamics was the first book Forrester wrote using system dynamics to analyze industrial business cycles. Several years later, interactions with former Boston Mayor John F. Collins led Forrester to write Urban Dynamics, which sparked an ongoing debate on the feasibility of modeling broader social problems.
The urban dynamics model attracted the attention of urban planners around the world, eventually leading Forrester to meet a founder of the Club of Rome. He later met with the Club of Rome to discuss issues surrounding global sustainability; the book World Dynamics followed. World Dynamics took on modeling the complex interactions of the world economy, population and ecology, which understandably met with much misunderstanding (see also Donella Meadows and Limits to Growth). Forrester has made numerous other contributions to system dynamics and has promoted system dynamics in education to the present day.
Forrester has written several books, articles and papers. Books, a selection:
Articles and papers, a selection:
Science, Cybernetics, Control theory, Systems biology, Systems engineering
Nebraska, University of Chicago, Big Ten Conference, Committee on Institutional Cooperation, University of Michigan
Computer science, Animation, Image, 3D computer graphics, Video games
Neuroscience, Artificial intelligence, Systems engineering, Control theory, Robotics
Mathematics, Feedback, Cybernetics, Systems science, Electronics
Denmark, Valdemar Poulsen, 1939 In Science, 1946 In Science, Robert Watson-Watt
Tucson, Arizona, Australia, Artificial intelligence, Mit, Cybernetics
Vienna, Biology, Psychology, Systems science, Sociology