CSAIL History

Our laboratory was formed on July 1, 1963, under the name Project MAC (Machine Aided Cognition) by Professor Robert Fano. Our founders believed that computation would be used widely by many people for many reasons. They set out to allow multiple users to compute simultaneously on a single computer, the first step toward personal computing and machine-enhancement of human interaction and experience. CSAIL has pursued this goal ever since.

Over the last six decades, our researchers have been instrumental in the biggest accomplishments in artificial intelligence, systems, theory, and applications. CSAIL researchers have developed the first time-sharing computer system, started the field of artificial intelligence, developed the first computer to display graphics, the first computer conversationalist (Eliza), the GUI systems that brought graphics into consumer computing, the first large-scale computer-algebra system (Macsyma), and one of the first object-oriented programming languages (CLU).

The roots of many technologies that have become integral to society are in the work conducted by CSAIL researchers, including the Ethernet, the Internet, the World Wide Web, the optical mouse, the computer password, email, electronic health-record systems, parallel supercomputers, distributed-computing systems, the free-software movement, sublinear-time algorithms, cryptography, computer security, mobile robotics, machine learning, speech understanding, and massively open online courses (MOOCs).