00100	Dear ---
00200	
00300		Your research assistantship in the Computer Science
00400	Department is in the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
00500	Here are some facts about the Laboratory and the assistantship:
00600	
00700		1. The Laboratory carries out basic unclassified research
00800	in artificial intelligence, mathematical theory of computation,
00900	and certain other areas of computer science.
01000	
01100		2. Topics of current activity include vision (locating
01200	and describing objects in pictures coming into the computer
01300	through a television camera), manipulation (controlling an
01400	arm to move objects and to construct objects out of parts),
01500	representation theory (how to represent in the memory of the
01600	computer general information about a present situation and
01700	the laws that determine the effects of actions), programs for
01800	checking proofs of assertions about computer programs, programs
01900	for proving theorems in logic, speech recognition, the study
02000	of human higher mental functions (Colby), natural language
02100	translation, and others.
02200	
02300		3. Besides these basic research activities, there is
02400	supporting work in time-sharing system programming, programming
02500	languages, and computer design.
02600	
02700		4. The main source of support for the Laboratory is the
02800	Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the Department of
02900	Defense.  Additional support for some projects is provided by
03000	NSF, NASA, and the National Institutes of Mental Health.
03100	
03200		5. The Director of the Laboratory is Professor John 
03300	McCarthy who is also Principal Investigator of the ARPA contract.
03400	(McCarthy will be on leave at M.I.T. from Sept. 1 to Dec. 31,1972).
03500	Professor Jerome Feldman and Dr. Arthur Samuel are associate
03600	directors of the Laboratory, Mr. Lester Earnest is Executive Officer
03700	of the Laboratory, Dr. Kenneth Colby is Principal Investigator
03800	of the work sponsored by the NIMH, and Mr. Norman Briggs is the
03900	Business Manager.
04000	
04100		6. Regrettably, there is not space for the Laboratory near
04200	the rest of the Computer Science Department, and the Lab is located
04300	at 1600 Arastradero Road about five miles from the main campus.
04400	Transportation is by car except for hardy souls who bicycle.  In
04500	compensation for this, once you get here, you will find the
04600	Lab is in a very pleasant place.
04700	
04800		7. The Lab computer system includes PDP-10 and PDP-6
04900	processors, 256K words of core, about sixty keyboard and display
05000	terminals including two in the Polya Hall library, television
05100	cameras, arms, a remotely controlled vehicle, and much other
05200	equipment for real time work.
05300	The computer is used exclusively in a time-sharing mode of operation.
05400	
05500		8. The main programming languages used are LISP, and
05600	Algol dialect called SAIL, and the FAIL assembly language for
05700	the PDP-10.  FORTRAN and Micro-planner and several others are
05800	also available.
05900	
06000		9. The documentation situation for a would-be user of the
06100	Lab is not exceptionally well organized.  The main documents
06200	required are Chapter I of the System Manual giving the monitor
06300	commands,  the SOS manual telling how to create and edit files
06400	of programs, data, and documents, and language manuals for the
06500	languages to be used.  The LISP 1.6 manual is available in the
06600	Lab, and LISP is taught in CS206 for which some course notes
06700	are available.  There is a manual for SAIL that tells all.  For
06800	machine language programming one needs the PDP-10 System Manual
06900	that describes the machine instructions and the FAIL manual
07000	that describes the assembly program.  There are also numerous
07100	memos describing individual useful programs and systems like the
07200	hand-eye system.