Maes, Pattie

1961–

Software Engineer and Entrepreneur

Pattie Maes, a scholar, innovator, and entrepreneur, changed the interactive relationship between the computer and its user. Her software creations have fundamentally influenced the way that e-commerce companies compete, as well as provided a simple means for individuals to accomplish complex and tedious digital tasks.

Maes was born in Brussels in 1961. Growing up, she was fascinated with architecture and biology; however, technology was beginning to evolve quickly, and the demand for work led her to study computer science. Maes received a bachelor's degree in computer science in 1983, and a doctorate in 1987, from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium. During her undergraduate and graduate studies, Maes was a research fellow for the Belgian National Science Foundation, eventually becoming a research scientist from 1987 to 1990. In 1989, Maes left Belgium to study artificial intelligence (AI) with Rodney Brooks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Influenced by Brooks' radical approach to AI design, Maes joined MIT's Media Laboratory as an assistant professor in 1990, becoming an associate professor in 1995.

Maes has been involved in several projects at MIT. In 1990, she founded the Software Agents Group of the MIT Media Lab; the group creates and tests prototype agent systems. She also founded the MIT Media Lab's e-markets special interest group, which works to promote collaboration between sponsors and Media Lab members.

Maes' work at the Media Lab focused on the development of software applications called intelligent agents. This software gets its name from its ability to “learn” from its user. For example, an intelligent agent can be programmed to monitor scheduling tendencies, and then perform scheduling tasks automatically. If meetings are never scheduled before a certain time of day, the software recognizes this trend and will automatically schedule appointments accordingly. The software becomes artificially intelligent by learning through repetitive monitoring.

Maes' work with software agents has played a considerable role in the growth and personalization of e-commerce. Her software-agent services have been used by Barnes & Noble, among others, to provide a Web presence that supplies a form of personalization to online shopping. The Web site is capable of “remembering” the topic, author, and genre preferences of the individual consumer, and offers recommendations for similar and upcoming books.

Maes' intelligent-agent applications are employed in many different areas. One such application became commercialized in 1995 as a collaborative filter when Maes founded a Web-based service called Firefly. Firefly offered a way for individuals to develop an online community through shared interests. Users informed the Web site of what they enjoyed, and Firefly would learn individual preferences, then foster communication between users with similar interests. In 1998, Microsoft bought the company to use its technology in Microsoft's “passport” services.

With agent applications changing the ways that people gather and organize information in the digital age, Maes helped to develop a method for handling information overload. Earlier in her research, she had developed a browser for the Web that tracks and records Web pages visited by the user. The application uses key words to remember the desired information, and searches for additional pages that offer related information.

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