Luis von Ahn

Luis von Ahn ( born 1979 in Guatemala City, Guatemala ) is a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

He was known primarily as one of the founding figures of crowdsourcing, by inventing the CAPTCHA and the foundation of later sold to Google reCAPTCHA company.

Life and work

From Ahn grew up in Guatemala City, where he attended the American School. After a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Duke University, he received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University with Manuel Blum.

After he had first worked with cryptography, coined by Ahn in his dissertation the term human computation to describe methods to solve by means of the combination of human cognitive abilities and computer technology problems, for which neither man nor machine would be able alone. This research field has it to this day, particularly in the form of so-called GWAPs ( games with a purpose ), ie games that solve using human computation problems. In this type of Ahn's first feature, the so-called Extra Sensory Perception Game, the players must quickly identify parts of images. The data obtained through this game, among others used in the Google Image Search. For his research in the areas CAPTCHA, human -based computation games (Game with a purpose ) and human- based information processing, he was, among other things awarded the MacArthur Fellowship and the Grace Murray Hopper Award.

Since 2011, von Ahn works in the project Duolingo that wants to translate with volunteer translators Web sites in every major language.