Elaine Rich
Elaine Rich researches user models and has written computing textbooks and teaching tools. Her 1979 Carnegie Mellon doctoral work produced Grundy, a novel recommender that modeled users and incorporated feedback. She taught at Texas and later worked at MCC, leading its AI laboratory from 1988 to 1993. Her Artificial Intelligence textbook appeared in 1983, with later shared editions. She developed the FREGE logic-learning environment, piloted in 2014, and retired from Texas in December 2016.
- Works
- 30
- Citations
- 2,484
- h-index
- 13
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1979
Grundy and user models
Rich earned her Carnegie Mellon doctorate in 1979 with a dissertation on building and exploiting user models. Grundy recommended novels using models of books and readers. The system asked for feedback and updated its user model and group-based assumptions.
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1979–1993
University and industrial AI work
Rich held a Texas assistant professorship from 1979 to 1984, followed by MCC work on knowledge-based language processing and interfaces. She directed MCC’s AI laboratory from 1988–1993. She conducted research in academic and industrial settings.
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1983–2009
AI textbooks
Rich published her first Artificial Intelligence textbook in 1983 and a second edition with Kevin Knight in 1991. A 2009 edition of her textbook included revisions by S. B. Nair. They also explained AI methods.
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2014–2016
Logic education and retirement
In 2014, Rich piloted FREGE, an interactive environment for introductory logic and discrete mathematics. It was used in a university course in 2015 and 2016. Rich states that she retired from Texas in December 2016.
Sources and credits
Photo: www.cs.utexas.edu; creator not stated. License: Not stated by source. Source: cs.utexas.edu. Cropped to a square and resized. Ask us to remove or replace this photo.