Jacek Karpiński

Who was Jacek Karpiński?

Jacek Karpiński was a Polish pioneer in computer engineering and computer science.

During WW2 he was a soldier of Batalion Zośka of Polish Home Army, awarded multiple times with a Cross of Valour. Among the others he took a part in Operation Kutschera and Warsaw Uprising when he was heavily wounded.

Later he became a developer of one of the first machine learning algorithms, techniques for character and image recognition.

After receiving a UNESCO award in 1960, he studied for 2 years at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University.

In 1971 he designed of one of the first minicomputers, the K-202. Because of the policy on computer development in the People's Republic of Poland, belonging to the Comecon that time, K-202 was never mass-produced. Karpiński later became a pig farmer, and in 1981, after receiving a passport, emigrated to Switzerland.

He also founded the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence of the Polish Academy of Sciences in the early 1960s.