Bio: Amnon H. Eden, PhD

I am a computer scientist, a lecturer (research Asst. Prof.) with the School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, a research fellow with the Center For Inquiry, and an associate editor of Minds and Machines. I am the author of the book Codecharts: Roadmaps and Blueprints for Object-Oriented Programs (forthcoming) and of the philosophy of computer science (co-authored with Raymond Turner) entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. In the past I have worked in the high-tech industry as a programmer and software designer, chaired the software engineering diploma programme in Tel Aviv College of Management, and held academic positions in Tel Aviv University, Israel Institute of Technology—Technion, Uppsala University, and Concordia University.

I am a member of the steering committee of the European chapter of International Association for Computing And Philosophy (IACAP) and of the scientific board of Lifeboat Foundation. In the past I have (co-)chaired tracks in the European conference for Computing And Philosophy (ECAP) series, including a track in ECAP 2010 (see track's call for papers). 

My research interests span a range of subjects in software design theory & practice, the philosophy of computer science, object-oriented programming, software modelling, software engineering, artificial intelligence and the future of computing. My research is [was] funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), European Science Foundation (ESF), Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and Eshkol Fund, among others.

I received a PhD from the Department of Computer Science, Tel Aviv University in 2001 for my research in software design, and an MSc (Cum Laude) for my research in artificial intelligence and cognitive science in 1994. My education focused primarily in computer science and mathematics but I have also studied subjects in cognitive science and philosophy. My [under-]graduate research was conducted with Yehuda Elkana's Interdisciplinary Programme for Fostering Excellence (subsequently named after Adi Lautman) in Tel Aviv University.

My contributions include the book Codecharts: Roadmaps and Blueprints for Object-Oriented Programs (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming), an entry on the philosophy of computer science in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Intension/Locality hypothesis, the paradigms of computer science, and metrics for measuring software flexibility. My work on LePUS3, a visual object-oriented Design Description Language based on the building-blocks of object-oriented design axiomatized in the first-order predicate logic, has led to several spin-off languages and tools, including our own Two-Tier Programming Toolkit (my publications).

While working as a programmer and software designer, I've consulted start-ups and multinationals, specializing in software architectures, the migration to object-oriented programming, and the C++ programming language. I have also had the pleasure of programming in object-oriented (Smalltalk, Eiffel, Java), logic (PROLOG), functional (Scheme, Lisp), imperative (C, Pascal, Basic, COBOL, Fortran), modular (Ada) and machine (various architectures) programming languages.

I enjoy science fiction, freethinking, cooking, and spending time with my family. I live with my partner and son in Layer de la Haye near Colchester in Essex, United Kingdom.