Shannon and his famous electromechanical mouse Theseus (named after Theseus from Greek mythology) which he tried to have solve the maze in one of the first experiments in artificial intelligence. Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 - February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electronic engineer, and cryptographer known as "The father of Information Theory". He is famous for having founded Information Theory with one landmark paper that he published in 1948. However, he is also credited with founding both digital computer and digital circuit design theory in 1937, when, as a 21 year old master's degree student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he wrote his thesis demonstrating that electrical applications of boolean algebra could construct and resolve any logical, numerical relationship. It has been claimed that this was the most important master's thesis of all time. Shannon contributed to the field of cryptanalysis for national defense during World War II, including his basic work on codebreaking and secure telecommunications. He developed Alzheimer's disease, and he spent his last few years in a nursing home. He died in 2001 at the age of 84.