Robert W. Taylor
E48702
Robert W. Taylor was an influential American computer scientist and research manager who played a key role in the development of ARPANET and modern computer networking.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Robert W. Taylor canonical | 2 |
| Robert William Taylor | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T52503 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert W. Taylor Context triple: [The Computer as a Communication Device, author, Robert W. Taylor]
-
A.
Harold A. Wheeler
Harold A. Wheeler was an influential American electrical engineer and inventor known for his pioneering contributions to radio and radar technology.
-
B.
Joseph E. Sheffield
Joseph E. Sheffield was a 19th-century American railroad executive and philanthropist whose major donations to Yale University led to the establishment of the Sheffield Scientific School.
-
C.
Matthias N. Forney
Matthias N. Forney was a 19th-century American mechanical engineer and locomotive designer who played a key role in the early professionalization of mechanical engineering in the United States.
-
D.
George P. Davis
George P. Davis was the taxpayer whose challenge to the Social Security Act’s payroll tax provisions led to the landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case Helvering v. Davis.
-
E.
John R. Steelman
John R. Steelman was an American administrator and labor mediator who served as a top aide to President Harry S. Truman and became one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the postwar White House.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Robert W. Taylor Target entity description: Robert W. Taylor was an influential American computer scientist and research manager who played a key role in the development of ARPANET and modern computer networking.
-
A.
Harold A. Wheeler
Harold A. Wheeler was an influential American electrical engineer and inventor known for his pioneering contributions to radio and radar technology.
-
B.
Joseph E. Sheffield
Joseph E. Sheffield was a 19th-century American railroad executive and philanthropist whose major donations to Yale University led to the establishment of the Sheffield Scientific School.
-
C.
Matthias N. Forney
Matthias N. Forney was a 19th-century American mechanical engineer and locomotive designer who played a key role in the early professionalization of mechanical engineering in the United States.
-
D.
George P. Davis
George P. Davis was the taxpayer whose challenge to the Social Security Act’s payroll tax provisions led to the landmark 1937 U.S. Supreme Court case Helvering v. Davis.
-
E.
John R. Steelman
John R. Steelman was an American administrator and labor mediator who served as a top aide to President Harry S. Truman and became one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in the postwar White House.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American
ⓘ
computer scientist ⓘ human ⓘ research manager ⓘ |
| awardReceived |
ACM Software System Award
ⓘ
IEEE John von Neumann Medal ⓘ National Medal of Technology and Innovation ⓘ |
| birthDate | 1932-02-10 ⓘ |
| birthPlace |
Dallas, Texas
ⓘ
surface form:
Dallas, Texas, United States
|
| causeOfDeath |
Parkinson's disease
ⓘ
surface form:
Parkinson’s disease
|
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| deathDate | 2017-04-13 ⓘ |
| degree | bachelor’s degree in experimental psychology ⓘ |
| educatedAt |
Southern Methodist University
ⓘ
University of Texas at Austin ⓘ |
| employer |
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
ⓘ
surface form:
Advanced Research Projects Agency
Digital Equipment Corporation ⓘ Xerox PARC ⓘ |
| familyName | Taylor ⓘ |
| fieldOfWork |
computer networking
ⓘ
computer science ⓘ human–computer interaction ⓘ |
| fullName |
Robert W. Taylor
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Robert William Taylor
|
| givenName | Robert ⓘ |
| hasRole |
program manager
ⓘ
research director ⓘ visionary in interactive computing ⓘ |
| influenced |
development of personal computing environments
ⓘ
development of the internet ⓘ |
| knownFor |
contributions to modern computer networking
ⓘ
funding and managing early internet research ⓘ leadership in development of ARPANET ⓘ |
| languageSpoken | English ⓘ |
| notableStudent |
researchers at DEC Systems Research Center
ⓘ
researchers at Xerox PARC Computer Science Laboratory ⓘ |
| notableWork |
oversight of ARPANET initial development contracts
ⓘ
support of time-sharing and interactive computing research ⓘ |
| positionHeld |
director of the Information Processing Techniques Office at ARPA
ⓘ
founder and manager of the DEC Systems Research Center ⓘ founder and manager of the Xerox PARC Computer Science Laboratory ⓘ founder and manager of the Xerox PARC Systems Science Laboratory ⓘ |
| residence |
Woodside, California
ⓘ
surface form:
Woodside, California, United States
|
| spouse | Iris Taylor ⓘ |
| workedOn |
ARPANET
ⓘ
distributed systems research at DEC ⓘ networked personal computing at Xerox PARC ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Robert W. Taylor Description of subject: Robert W. Taylor was an influential American computer scientist and research manager who played a key role in the development of ARPANET and modern computer networking.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Robert William Taylor