{{Short description|American computer scientist}} {{Infobox person | name = Benjamin Kuipers | image = | image_size = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|4|7|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Grand Rapids]], [[Michigan]], United States | employer = [[University of Michigan]] | alma_mater = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], [[Swarthmore College]] | occupation = [[Computer Scientist]], [[Professor]] | title = Fellow of the [[Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence|AAAI]] and the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science|AAAS]] | website = {{URL|http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/}} }}
'''Benjamin Kuipers''' (born 7 April 1949) is an American computer scientist at the [[University of Michigan]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers |title=Benjamin Kuipers' home page |date= |website= |publisher=Benjamin Kuipers |accessdate=30 November 2012}}</ref> known for his research in [[qualitative simulation]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kuipers |first1=Benjamin |year=2001 |title=Qualitative Simulation |journal=Artificial Intelligence |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=289–338 |doi=10.1016/0004-3702(86)90073-1 |authorlink=}}</ref>
== Biography == Kuipers graduated from [[Swarthmore College]] in 1970 with a [[Bachelor of Arts|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]].<ref name="bio">{{cite web |url=http://web.eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/bio.html |title=Benjamin Kuipers' Bio |date= |website= |publisher=Benjamin Kuipers |accessdate=30 November 2012}}</ref> He soon discovered the field of [[Artificial Intelligence]], and spent most of his time at the [[MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory|MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab]], where his advisor was [[Marvin Minsky]]. He received his [[Doctor of Philosophy|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 joined the Computer Science Department at the [[University of Texas, Austin|University of Texas at Austin]] in 1985 and became department chair in 1997. In January 2009, he moved to the University of Michigan, where he is now a professor of Computer Science and Engineering.<ref name="bio"/>
Kuipers is an elected fellow of the [[Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence|AAAI]] and the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science|AAAS]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aaai.org/Awards/fellows-current.php |title=Current AAAI Fellows |date= |website= |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |accessdate=30 November 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/fellows/2012.shtml |title=AAAS - 2012 Fellows |date=November 2012 |website= |publisher=American Association for the Advancement of Science |accessdate=30 November 2012 |archive-date=23 March 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130323142745/http://www.aaas.org/aboutaaas/fellows/2012.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==Personal stance on military funding== 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/opinions/no-military-funding.html |title=Why don't I take military funding?s |date= |website= |publisher=Benjamin Kuipers |accessdate=22 November 2011}}</ref>
== Selected publications == * Kuipers, Benjamin. ''Qualitative reasoning: modeling and simulation with incomplete knowledge.'' MIT press, 1994.
=== Articles, a selection === Source:<ref>[https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=H1XVLwsAAAAJ Google Scholar profile]</ref> * Kuipers, Benjamin. "[http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1207/s15516709cog0202_3/pdf Modeling Spatial Knowledge ]." ''Cognitive science'' 2.2 (1978): 129–153. * Kuipers, Benjamin. "Qualitative simulation." Artificial intelligence 29.3 (1986): 289–338. * Kuipers, Benjamin, and Yung-Tai Byun. "A robot exploration and mapping strategy based on a semantic hierarchy of spatial representations." ''Robotics and autonomous systems'' 8.1 (1991): 47–63.
== References == {{Reflist}}
==External links== *{{official website|http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~kuipers/}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuipers, Benjamin}} [[Category:1949 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:American computer scientists]] [[Category:American artificial intelligence researchers]] [[Category:MIT School of Science alumni]] [[Category:University of Michigan faculty]] [[Category:Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence]] [[Category:Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]]