Matches in DBpedia 2016-04 for { ?s ?p "Douglas A. Lawson (born 1947) is a geologist, paleontologist, and computer scientist.In 1971, while working with Wann Langston, Jr., Lawson discovered a partial wing (fragments of huge wing bones imbedded in asandstone outcropping) of what he later named Quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur, in Texas' Big Bend National Park. Lawson found the remains of the giant pterosaur while searching for the bones of titanosaur sauropods such as Alamosaurus. At the time of reporting of its discovery (1975) Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying creature known. In 1976, he reassigned Arrhinoceratops utahensis to Torosaurus utahensis.A fellow researcher challenged Lawson's estimates of Quetzalcoatlus' wing architecture dimensions. Lawson responded by demonstrating that, while his estimates were inconsistent with those of modern-day birds, they were, in fact, consistent with extrapolations of other pterosaurs such as Pterodactylus antiquus.Lawson’s discovery of the remains of Quetzalcoatlus northropi caused scientists to rethink both the evolution of flight and the habitats of giant fliers.In 2010, the U.S. National Park Service describes Quetzalcoatlus as the world's second largest known flying creature. Lawson appears in Sir David Attenborough's motion picture documentary, Flying Monsters 3D (2011), discussing Quetzalcoatlus' impressive wingspan and how estimates of that wingspan changed over time.Lawson's interest in evolving systems and swarming led him to develop as a computer scientist. For Southwest Airlines, Lawson used evolutionary computation methods to evaluate alternate means of passengers boarding aircraft. Based upon the behavior of ants, Lawson determined whether assigned seating would be faster than Southwest's \"festival seating\" by creating an ant-based routing computer simulation of passengers boarding a plane, and then trying each pattern.Additionally, Lawson has used ant-based routing in assigning aircraft arrivals to airport gates. At Southwest Airlines a software program uses swarm theory, or swarm intelligence—the idea that a colony of ants works better than one alone. \"People don't like being only 500 yards away from a gate and having to sit out there until another aircraft leaves.\" \"Each pilot or plane acts like an ant searching for the best airport gate. \"The pilot learns from his experience what's the best for him, and it turns out that that's the best solution for the airline,\" Dr. Douglas A. Lawson explains. As a result, the \"colony\" of pilots always go to gates they can arrive and depart quickly. The program can even alert a pilot of plane back-ups before they happen. \"We can anticipate that it's going to happen, so we'll have a gate available,\" Dr. Lawson saysLawson was one of 100 alumni featured in Celebrating 100 Years: 1910-2010 marking the 100th anniversary of the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin. He was among individuals selected to represent the Jackson School of Geosciences."@en }
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- Douglas_A._Lawson abstract "Douglas A. Lawson (born 1947) is a geologist, paleontologist, and computer scientist.In 1971, while working with Wann Langston, Jr., Lawson discovered a partial wing (fragments of huge wing bones imbedded in asandstone outcropping) of what he later named Quetzalcoatlus, a pterosaur, in Texas' Big Bend National Park. Lawson found the remains of the giant pterosaur while searching for the bones of titanosaur sauropods such as Alamosaurus. At the time of reporting of its discovery (1975) Quetzalcoatlus was the largest flying creature known. In 1976, he reassigned Arrhinoceratops utahensis to Torosaurus utahensis.A fellow researcher challenged Lawson's estimates of Quetzalcoatlus' wing architecture dimensions. Lawson responded by demonstrating that, while his estimates were inconsistent with those of modern-day birds, they were, in fact, consistent with extrapolations of other pterosaurs such as Pterodactylus antiquus.Lawson’s discovery of the remains of Quetzalcoatlus northropi caused scientists to rethink both the evolution of flight and the habitats of giant fliers.In 2010, the U.S. National Park Service describes Quetzalcoatlus as the world's second largest known flying creature. Lawson appears in Sir David Attenborough's motion picture documentary, Flying Monsters 3D (2011), discussing Quetzalcoatlus' impressive wingspan and how estimates of that wingspan changed over time.Lawson's interest in evolving systems and swarming led him to develop as a computer scientist. For Southwest Airlines, Lawson used evolutionary computation methods to evaluate alternate means of passengers boarding aircraft. Based upon the behavior of ants, Lawson determined whether assigned seating would be faster than Southwest's \"festival seating\" by creating an ant-based routing computer simulation of passengers boarding a plane, and then trying each pattern.Additionally, Lawson has used ant-based routing in assigning aircraft arrivals to airport gates. At Southwest Airlines a software program uses swarm theory, or swarm intelligence—the idea that a colony of ants works better than one alone. \"People don't like being only 500 yards away from a gate and having to sit out there until another aircraft leaves.\" \"Each pilot or plane acts like an ant searching for the best airport gate. \"The pilot learns from his experience what's the best for him, and it turns out that that's the best solution for the airline,\" Dr. Douglas A. Lawson explains. As a result, the \"colony\" of pilots always go to gates they can arrive and depart quickly. The program can even alert a pilot of plane back-ups before they happen. \"We can anticipate that it's going to happen, so we'll have a gate available,\" Dr. Lawson saysLawson was one of 100 alumni featured in Celebrating 100 Years: 1910-2010 marking the 100th anniversary of the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin. He was among individuals selected to represent the Jackson School of Geosciences.".