The 1975 ACM Turing Award was jointly presented to Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon at the ACM Annual Conference in Minneapolis. The citation highlighted their significant contributions to artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and list processing. Newell and Simon were recognized for establishing the field of artificial intelligence, developing heuristic programming, and advancing the understanding of human cognition through symbolic systems. They also invented list processing and contributed to the concept of the computer as a system manipulating symbolic structures. In their lecture, "Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search," Newell and Simon discussed the empirical nature of computer science, emphasizing that it is a field of inquiry rather than a purely theoretical discipline. They explained the development of the notion of a physical symbol system, which is a fundamental component of intelligent action. This system consists of symbols and processes that can create, modify, and interpret symbol structures. They proposed the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis, suggesting that physical symbol systems are necessary and sufficient for general intelligent action. The lecture also covered the development of heuristic search, a key mechanism for solving problems in these systems. Heuristic search involves generating and modifying symbol structures to find solutions. The authors argued that intelligent problem-solving requires heuristics to guide the search process efficiently, given the limited resources of physical symbol systems. Overall, the lecture provided a comprehensive overview of the empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that physical symbol systems are capable of intelligent action and that heuristic search is a crucial mechanism for problem-solving in these systems.The 1975 ACM Turing Award was jointly presented to Allen Newell and Herbert A. Simon at the ACM Annual Conference in Minneapolis. The citation highlighted their significant contributions to artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, and list processing. Newell and Simon were recognized for establishing the field of artificial intelligence, developing heuristic programming, and advancing the understanding of human cognition through symbolic systems. They also invented list processing and contributed to the concept of the computer as a system manipulating symbolic structures. In their lecture, "Computer Science as Empirical Inquiry: Symbols and Search," Newell and Simon discussed the empirical nature of computer science, emphasizing that it is a field of inquiry rather than a purely theoretical discipline. They explained the development of the notion of a physical symbol system, which is a fundamental component of intelligent action. This system consists of symbols and processes that can create, modify, and interpret symbol structures. They proposed the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis, suggesting that physical symbol systems are necessary and sufficient for general intelligent action. The lecture also covered the development of heuristic search, a key mechanism for solving problems in these systems. Heuristic search involves generating and modifying symbol structures to find solutions. The authors argued that intelligent problem-solving requires heuristics to guide the search process efficiently, given the limited resources of physical symbol systems. Overall, the lecture provided a comprehensive overview of the empirical evidence supporting the hypothesis that physical symbol systems are capable of intelligent action and that heuristic search is a crucial mechanism for problem-solving in these systems.