Tom Leighton '78 delivers keynote address at Automotive Internet Roundtable
Thomson Leighton '78, gave the keynote at the 2008 Automotive Internet Roundtable, an event organized to present ways that the Internet could be better utilized to market and sell cars. It was hosted by J.D. Powers and Associates at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas.
Leighton’s presentation looked at the possible impact of the Internet on the automotive industry over the next ten years, which was based on his experience in Web technology and applied mathematics.
Leighton is a professor of applied mathematics at MIT and has served as the head of the Algorithms Group in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory since its inception in 1996. In 1998, he co-founded Akamai Technologies a company that delivers Internet content for large internet, media and computer companies. He serves as the company’s chief scientist.
Leighton was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and from 2003 to 2005 served as chair of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee. He received a B.S.E. in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton and a doctorate in mathematics from MIT.
