RAND

The RAND Corporation is a US "think tank" organisation first formed to offer research and analysis to the US military, but which has since expanded to working with other government and commercial organizations. RAND has around 1100 employees based at four sites: Santa Monica (California), Arlington (Virginia), Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania), and Leiden (The Netherlands). The corporation's name is a contraction of the phrase "research and development".

Table of contents

1 Project RAND 2 Mission Statement 3 Achievements and Expertise 4 RAND alumni 5 External link

Project RAND

RAND was set up, in 1945, by the USAAF as Project RAND, under contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company, and in 1945 they released the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship. In May 1948, Project RAND was separated from Douglas and became an independent organization.

Mission Statement

RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit organisation to "further promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America."

Achievements and Expertise

The achievements of RAND stem from its development of systems analysis. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and America's space program, in digital computing and in artificial intelligence.

Current areas of expertise, including that of RAND's education-related division - the Institute on Education and Training, are: child policy, civil and criminal justice, education, environment and energy, health, international policy, labor markets, national security, population and regional studies, science and technology, social welfare, terrorism, and transportation.

See also:

• James Q. Wilson (board of directors)

RAND alumni

• Paul Baran (Packet switching), which led to the Internet
• John Forbes Nash (Nash equilibrium)
• Barry Boehm
• Cecil Hastings (programmer, wrote software engineering classic, Approximations for Digital Computers Princeton 1955 )
• Allen Newell

External link

• RAND website