Browsing by Subject "Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton, N.J.)"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Oral history interview with Antonín Svoboda
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1979-11-15) Svoboda, Antonín
    Svoboda describes his research on computing in Czechoslovakia, France, and the United States. He begins by discussing his early career: his electrical engineering education in Prague, the differential analyzer he built for the French during World War II for fire control, and his work in New York for the ABAX Corporation on Bofort anti-aircraft guns. He explains how MIT became interested in his work on linkage computers for aiming guns automatically and describes the two-part linkage computer system he built for them, the OMAR and the Mark 56. On his return to Czechoslovakia in 1948, the Research Institute of Mathematics asked Svoboda to develop computing machines, and funded his visits to major digital computer projects. He recounts visits to Harvard, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1951 he began work on Czechoslovakia's first (electromechanical) digital computer, the SAPO, and its successful completion despite interference from the Communist government. He also mentions the EPOS computer he built in Czechoslovakia in the early 1960s. Svoboda describes his escape to the U.S. in 1964 and his appointment at UCLA. He concludes by assessing his greatest contributions: the use of graphical and mechanical means to teach logical design, the solution of multiple output optimization, and the Boolean analyzer (a parallel processing unit on Boolean algebra).
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    Oral history interview with David J. Wheeler
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1987-05-14) Wheeler, David J., 1927-
    Wheeler, who was a research student at the University Mathematical Laboratory at Cambridge from 1948-51, begins with a discussion of the EDSAC project during his tenure. He compares the research orientation and the programming methods at Cambridge with those at the Institute for Advanced Study. He points out that, while the Cambridge group was motivated to process many smaller projects from the larger university community, the Institute was involved with a smaller number of larger projects. Wheeler mentions some of the projects that were run on the EDSAC, the user-oriented programming methods that developed at the laboratory, and the influence of the EDSAC model on the ILLIAC, the ORDVAC, and the IBM 701. He also discusses the weekly meetings held in conjunction with the National Physical Laboratory, the University of Birmingham, and the Telecommunications Research Establishment. These were attended by visitors from other British institutions as well as from the continent and the United States. Wheeler notes visits by Douglas Hartree (of Cavendish Laboratory), Nelson Blackman (of ONR), Peter Naur, Aad van Wijngarden, Arthur van der Poel, Friedrich L. Bauer, and Louis Couffignal. In the final part of the interview Wheeler discusses his visit to Illinois where he worked on the ILLIAC and taught from September 1951 to September 1953.
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    Oral history interview with Herman H. Goldstine
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1980-08-11) Goldstine, Herman Heine, 1913-
    Goldstine, associate director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) computer project from 1945 to 1956, discusses his role in the project. He describes the acquisition of funding from the Office of Naval Research, the hiring of staff, and his relationship with John von Neumann. Goldstine explains that von Neumann was responsible for convincing the Institute to sponsor the computer project. Goldstine praises von Neumann's contributions, among which he counts the first logical design of a computer and the concept of stored programming. Goldstine turns next to the relations between the project and one of its funders, the Atomic Energy Commission. He points out the conflict of interest of IAS director Robert Oppenheimer, who chaired the AEC General Advisory Committee, and von Neumann who sat on this committee, when other AEC officials discontinued funding for the project. Goldstine also recounts the problems that arose during the project over patent rights and their resolution. Goldstine concludes by discussing the many visitors to the project and the many computers (Whirlwind, ILLIAC, JOHNNIAC, IBM 70l) modeled after the IAS computer.
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    Oral history interview with James Pomerene
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1980-09-26) Pomerene, James
    Pomerene describes his experiences working for the Institute for Advanced Study Computer Project as the first engineer to work on the electronic components in 1946 and as the project's chief engineer from 1951. He reviews the personal interactions and technical decisions that surrounded the project's development. He discusses the roles of John von Neumann and Herman Goldstine, the personalities of some of the project staff, and the aborted attempt to employ the RCA Selectron electrostatic memory tube.
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    Oral history interview with James T. Pendergrass
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1985-03-28) Pendergrass, James T.
    Pendergrass discusses his work in the Navy and the early use of computers there. He discusses his decoding and production work during the second world war, particularly on the Enigma project in which he used IBM, Kodak, and NCR equipment. After the war Pendergrass remained in the Navy and worked with Rear Admiral Leonard Winger and others in the Naval Security Group. Pendergrass reviews his computer training in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania Moore School for Electrical Engineering and his subsequent work for the Navy with Engineering Research Associates, the Institute for Advanced Study, and IBM. He concludes with a discussion of his Navy work on the Atlas project and advances in computer technology in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
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    Oral history interview with Philip Thompson
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 1986-12-05) Thompson, Philip Duncan
    Thompson describes his career in numerical meteorology. He discusses attitudes of the early 1940s, including those of Victor Starr and Jules Charney, towards the work of L. F. Richardson and the possibilities of predicting the weather numerically. He describes the Numerical Meteorology Project at the Institute for Advanced Study and the roles of Charney and John von Neumann in that project, partly from his first-hand experience there in 1946-47. Next he recounts the activities of the meteorology research group he organized at the Cambridge Air Force Research Center and the calculations they did in the early 1950s on electromechanical calculators and on an IBM 701. He describes the establishment of the Joint Numerical Weather Prediction Unit in Washington, and his work there from its founding in 1954 until 1958. Thompson discusses the U.S. Air Force research center he established in Sweden in association with the work being conducted at the Institute of Meteorology at the University of Stockholm. He then recalls how he left Stockholm in 1960 to become associate director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. His interview concludes with some general comments about recent research in numerical meteorology and the revolutionary impact of the computer on meteorology.
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    Oral history interview with Willis Ware
    (Charles Babbage Institute, 2003-08-11) Ware, Willis H.
    Distinguished computer scientist, longtime head of the Computer Science Department at the RAND Corporation, and pioneer and leader on issues of computer security and privacy discusses the history of Computer Science at RAND and other topics. This includes the transition of RAND to digital computing with the Johnniac project and RAND’s programming and software work. Dr. Ware also talks about his work and leadership in organizations such as ACM and AFIPS, as well as on the issues of computer security and privacy with the Ware Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Computer Security, HEW’s Advisory Committee on Automated Personal Data, and the Privacy Protection Study Commission. Finally, Dr. Ware outlines broad changes and developments within the RAND Corporation, particularly as they relate to research in computing and software at the organization.