African American Innovators in Tech | Dr. Clarence “Skip” Ellis

Dr. Clarence Ellis was a Computer Scientist, and he was the first African-American to become a fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).  Ellis was also the first African-American to obtain a Ph.D. in Computer Science. Without him, programs like Google Docs would probably not exist.

Ellis grew up in the South Side of Chigaco and didn’t have life easy. As a teen, he took up a computer operating job to support his family. Dr. Clarence Ellis supervisors gave him only menial tasks, but his curiosity led him to train himself. He read every computer manual he could find until he expertly understood the inner workings of a computer.

After his Ph.D, Ellis worked with some prominent companies and universities like IBM, Xerox, and Los Alamos Scientific Labs. Dr. Clarence Ellis was the trailblazer of ‘groupware’, a computer program that allows multiple users to work on a document simultaneously. His technology helped the creation of programs like Google docs and Microsoft’s Sharepoint.

Ellis invented the technology of sending commands to the computer by clicking icons on the screen. He also led the team at Palo Alto Research Center that created a program called Officetalk. Officetalk used icons and the internet to make long-distance collaboration possible.

Dr. Clarence Ellis Legacy

Ellis’ contributions to computer science extended beyond the development of groupware and graphical user interfaces. He also made significant contributions to the field of artificial intelligence (AI). In the 1980s, he led a team at the University of Colorado that developed one of the first AI systems capable of generating natural language responses to user input. The system was called “DENNY,” and it was used to create a natural language interface for a database of information about energy resources.

Ellis’ work on natural language processing and groupware paved the way for the development of tech today. Without his groundbreaking work, we might not have the intuitive and collaborative tools that we take for granted in our daily lives. Dr. Clarence Ellis was a true pioneer in the field of computer science, and his legacy continues to inspire and influence new generations of innovators.