Curry On
London!
July 15-16th, 2019


Logo, A Computer Language to Grow With
Cynthia Solomon


Abstract

Logo was the first computer language designed for children. It became a banner for changing the way we think about children as learners. They could design, create and debug projects based on their own procedural thinking. They also saw themselves as teachers as they taught computers how to do things. I was part of the initial design team shaping Logo for learning and teaching. Another factor in Logo’s history was that its growth took place in research labs focused on making machines think like humans. My chief mentors were Seymour Papert and Marvin Minsky, then co-directors of the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab. My work was continually enhanced by their contributions as together we gave breadth and depth to the Logo Computer Culture.

Bio

Cynthia Solomon is an American computer scientist known for her work in artificial intelligence and popularizing computer science for students. She is a pioneer in the fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, and educational computing. While working as a researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Solomon took it upon herself to understand and program in the programming language Lisp. As she began learning this language she realized the need for a programming language that was more accessible and understandable for children. Throughout her research studies in education, Dr. Solomon worked full-time as a computer teacher in elementary and secondary schools. Her work has mainly focused on research on human-computer interaction and children as designers. While working at Bolt, Beranek and Newman, she created the first programming language for children, Logo, with Wally Feurzeig and Seymour Papert.