Thomas A. Throop

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Thomas A. (Tom) Throop, an American mechanical engineer, pioneer in Bridge programming, and founder of Great Game Products, the makers of Bridge Baron. He is strong bridge, chess and correspondence chess player, and has written a first computer bridge program on a UNIVAC I at a US Navy laboratory in Washington, D.C. in 1958. In 1982, he completed the first version of Bridge Baron, and founded Great Game Products in 1985. In collaboration with Vaxchess programmer Tony Guilfoyle, Bridge Baron won the Gold medals in 1990/91 at the 2nd and 3rd Computer Olympiad, and the Silver medal at the 4th Computer Olympiad, 1992, the 1990 version commercialized as Micro Bridge Companion. Along with Dana S. Nau and Stephen J.J. Smith, Throop developed sophisticated AI-planning techniques in Bridge Baron, when it became the first world champion in 1997. In 2001, Thomas A. Throop, Senior passed along the role of managing the company to his son, Thomas Throop, Junior.

=Selected Publications=

1960 ...

 * Thomas A. Throop (1966). Thoughts on the Development of Computer Learning Programs. Defense Technical Information Center
 * Thomas A. Throop (1967). Computer Intelligence to Enhance War Gaming. Defense Technical Information Center
 * Albert D. Tholen, Thomas A. Throop (1968). Time-sharing Systems for War-gaming Applications. Defense Technical Information Center

1980 ...

 * Tom Throop (1980). New Chess Products. Personal Computing, Vol. 4, No. 9, pp. 75
 * Thomas A. Throop (1983). Computer Bridge. Hayden Book

1990 ...

 * Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1992). A hierarchical approach to strategic planning with non-cooperating agents under conditions of uncertainty. Proceedings of the First International Conference on AI Planning Systems
 * Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1996). A Planning Approach to Declarer Play in Contract Bridge. Computational Intelligence, Vol. 12
 * Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1996). Total-Order Multi-Agent Task-Network Planning for Contract Bridge. AAAI 1996
 * Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1998). Success in Spades: Using AI Planning Techniques to Win the World Championship of Computer Bridge. AAAI 1998
 * Stephen J.J. Smith, Dana S. Nau, Thomas A. Throop (1998). Computer Bridge: A Big Win for AI Planning. AI Magazine, Vol. 19, No. 2, pdf

=External Links=
 * Great Game Products
 * Great Game Products - About Us


 * Tom Throop's ICGA Tournaments
 * The chess games of T Throop from chessgames.com

=References= Up one level