Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation
Main content start

Richard Fikes

Professor (Research) of Computer Science, Emeritus
Former Director, Knowledge Systems Laboratory (KSL)

Bio

Richard Fikes is an Emeritus Professor in Stanford's Computer Science Department and the former director of Stanford’s Knowledge Systems Laboratory.  Before coming to Stanford, he did seminal work in the development of automatic planning and plan execution monitoring systems for intelligent robots at SRI International’s Artificial Intelligence Center, developed knowledge-based system technology at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), and led research groups at IntelliCorp Inc. and Price Waterhouse Technology Centre.

At Stanford, Fikes was an innovative leader in the development of techniques for effectively representing and using knowledge in computer systems.  He led projects focused on developing large-scale distributed repositories of reusable computer-interpretable knowledge, collaborative development of multi-use ontologies, enabling technology for the Semantic Web, reasoning methods applicable to large-scale knowledge bases, and knowledge-based technology for intelligence analysts.  He was principal investigator of major projects for multiple Federal Government agencies including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Intelligence Community’s Advanced Research and Development Activity (ARDA).

Since retiring from Stanford, Fikes has been professionally active as a consultant on design and development of knowledge representation and reasoning technology, an expert witness in cases involving disputed patents of Artificial Intelligence technology, and a mentor of high school students learning how to do research.

CV

https://office365stanford-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/fikes_stanford_edu/EUhhMVDawrtMlsXasSR5y0IBKabHAU74d8mUJZa9G1qbbA?e=DfZ1kV 

CS222 -- Knowledge Representation and Reasoning

Fikes taught CS222 to graduate students annually from 1998 through 2004.  Here are the lectures and readings for the class in 2004:  https://office365stanford-my.sharepoint.com/:w:/g/personal/fikes_stanford_edu/EWyivcqKYSxHhBpenV0ZGNIBKAHvfeAn2QmxvxgSb3JLTQ?e=PF8ZcZ

Retirement Party Video

Richard Fikes retired from his positions at Stanford in 2006.  He was given a retirement party by the Computer Science Department that was a large gathering of early luminaries in the field of Artificial Intelligence.  A video from that party showing tributes and a career reflections speech by Fikes can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vl2XBb2uGLw.

Contact

fikes@stanford.edu
650-823-3429