Oral history interviews

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https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/59493

CBI holds one of the world's largest collections of research-grade oral history interviews relating to the history of computers, software, and networking. Most of the 300-plus oral histories have been developed in conjunction with grant-funded research projects on topics such as the development of the software industry, the influence of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and the early history of computer science departments.

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Oral History Interview with Dr. Stephen Thomas Kent
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2024-06-12) Kent (Charles Babbage Institute), Steve
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute. The interview begins with Steve Kent recounting his time in high school, and telling of how he became interested in computer science and attended Loyola University and then MIT later as a graduate student. He related the influence of Jerome (Jerry) Saltzer and Mike Schroeder on his master thesis and his career. He also discussed the experience with Dave Clark as his mentor. He shared his experiences working at a number of prominent organizations such as RAND, BBN, MITRE, partnership with Trusted Information Systems, and later his work serving on the Internet Architecture Board, GTE Internet Working Security Practices Center, and BBN Communications. Kent discussed his involvement in various projects, including Black-Crypto-Red, a crypto module at FIPS 140-1 level 3, Privacy Enhanced Mail, and his work at the IEEE Security and Privacy Symposium. Moreover, he also offered context to various research projects, from his doctoral dissertation to the report on Flip Jack algorithm, reports in 2000 from the Committee for Authentication Technologies, the Privacy Implications for Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council and his Securing Border Gateway Protocol article. He provides his perspective on the Orange Book, security economics, certification authorities, the Clipper Chip issue, and the impact of AI on security.
Oral History Interview with Dr. Chuck Easttom
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2024-06-12) Easttom (Charles Babbage Institute) , Chuck
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute. The interview begins with Chuck Easttom recounting how he got interested in computers. His interest developed from reading magazines and gradually taking up part-time jobs repairing PCs. He describes his developing interest in cybersecurity alongside the wide range of experiences that inform his work. He describes how his consulting business at Chuck Easttom Consulting grew. Described how the Certification industry was like. His first court work from 2004 as patent cases, before a private investigator's license related to digital forensic work in Dallas, Texas. Describes experiences publishing textbooks. Discusses the education of next generation of cybersecurity professionals. He related his experiences mentoring in a firm as compared to the university, and the implications of newest quantum computing technology for security at Vanderbilt University. The interview ends with final reflections on generative AI and the meaning of being an engineer in contrast with simply using the word when being a programmer.
Oral History Interview with Dr. Paul van Oorschot
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2024-06-12) van Oorschot (Charles Babbage Institute), Paul
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute. The interview is with computer security and cryptography pioneer Paul van Oorschot. He begins by recounting his time in high school, and how he obtained both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Waterloo, where he played on the basketball team. He tells of Wes Graham' influence and how working within the University of Waterloo's Computer Systems Group led him to develop interests in computer science which grew out of his longtime interest in mathematics. He began working at Bell-Northern Research (BNR) and discusses his research there. He transitioned into academe and a Professorship in Computer Science in 2002 with the Canada Research Chairs Program at Carleton University. He discusses public key infrastructure in industry and research in this area during the 1990s, and also how he and his students got into graphical password schemes. He shares briefly about his 20 patents, mostly in certificates and certificate management. He relates what the “crypto wars” were like from a political economy context in Canada. He moves on to offer context to the textbooks he has written. He relates his philosophy in teaching undergraduate and graduate students. And he also touches upon cryptocurrency from technical and societal perspective. Finally, he reflects on the implications of artificial intelligence, as well as on solving problems of interest to society and professional incentives.
Oral History with Paul Kocher
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2023-06-29) Kocher, Paul
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. It is an interview with Paul Kocher by videoconference. The interview begins with Kocher’s interest and experience programming prior to attending Stanford University, his interests in math and biology, and his goal to be a veterinarian. He relates summer jobs he had while at Stanford, first at software company Symantec and then at RSA Data Security. He discusses meeting Hellman at Stanford in his second year, support and encouragement from Hellman, and his participation as a student in a group at Stanford of Silicon Valley cryptographers. Hellman referred consulting opportunities to Kocher during the early the growth of the Internet and Web, which enabled to Kocher to pursue cryptography as an early career. Kocher formed Cryptography Research Inc. in 1995, initially with just him doing consulting but soon adding others and branching beyond consulting. Kocher discusses various projects, including his pathbreaking work with Taher Elgamal on Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3.0/Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.0, a protocol to protect communications over the Internet. He relates how his knowledge and exposure to many areas like statistics without a focus in one contributed to his discovery of timing channel attacks and power analysis attacks (both categories of side channel attacks). The interview also explores the growth of the company, the variety of technical projects it did for clients, and how consulting led to opportunities to also explore other security research. He recounts the context of the Spectre paper. He also reflects upon the field of computer security broadly in terms complexity adding to vulnerabilities/risks and the economics of computer security. He highlights that he was able to work with many great people who together achieved impactful new technologies, techniques, and understandings in the field of computer security. Kocher tells of how, as the company grew larger, it needed to internally expand more of the infrastructure typical of larger corporations, or be acquired by another corporation. The latter made more sense and Cryptography Research, Inc. merged with Rambus in 2011. Finally, he mentions how the success of the company and the merger allowed him to become more involved in philanthropy.
Oral history interview with Susan Landau
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2024-01-30) Landau, Susan
This oral history interview is sponsored by NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute. Professor Susan Landau begins with her experience at Bronx Science High School, and its strong influence on her. She then moves on to her undergraduate days at Princeton. She relates how she shifted from Math to Computer Science during her graduate studies at Cornell and then went on to MIT to earn her Ph.D. in Theoretical Computer Science. Landau comments on the gendered environments and sexism at these schools. It is a theme in her later discussing her motivation for founding the ResearcHers email list. Landau became an Assistant Professor of Computer Science within the Math Department at Wesleyan. She discusses the evolution of her research during her early years as an academic—this includes the Landau’s Algorithm for “de-nesting” radicals. Landau provides context for her thought about mathematical applications to cryptography, the state of art of privacy with regard to cryptography in the mid-1970s, the book Privacy on the Line: The Politics of Wiretapping and Encryption co-authored with Whitfield Diffie, and her book People Count. Landau then turns to her years at Sun Microsystems in the 1990s, including the establishment of the principles for Digital Rights Management and DRM Project DReaM. Landau discusses her transition to Radcliffe Institute, Google, Worcester Polytech, and finally, her long tenure and current home at Tufts University. This includes her elaborating on founding a Master’s Program in Cybersecurity and Public Policy there. She highlights recollections of her encounter with famed physicist Joseph Rotblat and his influence on her life. She also relates her longtime collaboration with Steve Bellovin and Matt Blaze at the intersection of tech, security and privacy, policy, and law. She contextualizes her testimony before Congress with the Apple 2015, 2016 (Encryption Dispute—should Apple be forced to unlock its encryption to authorities/FBI) case. And she also comments on a variety of issues including state-sponsored hacking capabilities, the great importance of communicating with broader audiences, and her style and approach in mentoring graduate students.
Oral history interview with Daniel (Dan) Boley
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2024-01-30) Boley, Daniel
This interview was conducted by CBI for CS&E, a multi-year project extending from the 50th Anniversary of the University of Minnesota Computer Science Department (now Computer Science and Engineering, CS&E). The oral history begins with Boley’s early interests, undergraduate work at Cornell, and completing a doctorate at Stanford University. It explores the Computer Science Department environment in the 1980s, its administration, Boley’s teaching, and research in various areas of numerical analysis, data science, and machine learning. This includes his work, often allowing graduate students to follow their interests, in applications such as health/medicine, navigation, etc. He discusses this work with Vipin Kumar, collaborations across departments in the College of Science and Engineering, and with other colleges such as the College of Liberal Arts, and the discussions and debates, and launch of the immediately popular and fast-growing Data Science Program.
Rebecca Herold Oral History
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2023-09) Charles Babbage Institute, Univ. of Minnesota
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute. Security and privacy pioneer Rebecca Herold discusses her education. The bulk of the oral history interview focuses on the various positions she had, the professional organizations she has been a part of, and the skills, knowledge, and leadership she has provided in privacy and security. This includes discussion of the importance of policies and the human factor to security systems. This includes her influential time at Principal Financial Group (creating a pioneering Change Control System, Anti-Malware Program and Corporate Dial-In Access solution), at other firms, and starting and developing her consultancy and Software as a Service company—and trademarking “Privacy Professor.” Herold was a long-time adjunct professor teaching at Norwich University Masters program). She also discusses her early involvement with HIPAA regulations, developing expertise, and co-authoring an important and widely read textbook on the topic, as well as influential work on standards at NIST.
Lorrie Faith Cranor Oral History
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2023-09) Charles Babbage Institute, Univ. of Minnesota
This oral history interview is sponsored by and a part of NSF 2202484 “Mining a Useable Past: Perspectives, Paradoxes, and Possibilities with Security and Privacy,” at the Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. At the start of the interview, Professor Lorrie Faith Cranor discusses early interests and studies in computer science and engineering & public policy at Washington University in St. Louis. This includes her dissertation, a pioneering work on computer voting systems. She then relates her work on privacy, security, and policy at AT&T laboratories following her D.Sc. for about a half dozen years and then transitioning to leave the lab to become a professor of Computer Science and of Engineering & Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University. Cranor talks about launching an event and co-editing an influential edited volume, that led to her founding and early General Chair leadership of Symposium on User Privacy and Security (SOUPS). With a focus on this area, she also launched a research lab, the CyLab Usable Privacy and Security (CUPS) Laboratory and educational program with NSF support. This unique focus is not matched anywhere globally and Cranor and her team’s work have been central to bringing together researchers and understanding at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer security and privacy. She also discusses her evolving research in many areas including but not limited to phishing, cyber trust indicators, passwords, etc., as well as her year as Chief Technologist at the US Federal Trade Commission. Cranor, a master quilter, also relates how engineering quilts involve overlapping engineering principles with her design work in computer science.
Oral History Interview with David Hung-Chang Du
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2022-03) Du, David Hung-Chang
This interview was conducted by CBI for CS&E in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the University of Minnesota Computer Science Department (now Computer Science and Engineering, CS&E). Professor David Hung-Chang Du begins by discussing his education at National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan and then his doctoral work and Computer Center work at the University of Washington in Computer Science. The bulk of the interview is his professional career at the University of Minnesota. He discusses his wide-ranging computer science research in integrated circuits (VLSI), disk drives/storage, artificial intelligence, computer networking, security and privacy, and other areas. This includes his work with IBM Rochester, Seagate, Unisys and other companies, and he emphasizes the importance of working with more senior managers at companies so university and company interests can be aligned and can have local buy-in at the company, that resources will come if that there. He relates his leadership with the UMN-led Center for Research and Intelligent Storage: a multi-university partnership with industry supported by National Science Foundation.
Oral History Interview with Allen R. Hanson
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2022-02) Hanson, Allen
This interview was conducted by CBI for CS&E in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the University of Minnesota Computer Science Department (now Computer Science and Engineering, CS&E). Professor Hanson briefly discusses his early education and interests through his graduate education completing his doctorate at Cornell (dissertation was on games and prediction problems). Most of the interview focuses on his career and he was one of the early faculty members of the newly formed Computer Science Department at the University of Minnesota. He discusses the early department, interaction, and teaching, and research. His research focused heavily on vision and computing, pattern recognition, and AI. He partnered on early research with University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Ed Riseman and later left University of Minnesota to join the CS faculty of UMass and lead the lab in this collaboration. Among other topics, he outlines his evolving research, applications in medicine, autonomous vehicles and other areas, as well as reflects on a range of issues on research funding, and computing and society. Finally, he briefly discusses Applied Imaging, Dataviews and concurrent enterprises he led/helped to lead.
Oral History Interview with S. Joy Mountford
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2022-02) Mountford, S. Joy
This interview is part of a series on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conducted by the Charles Babbage Institute for ACM SIGCHI (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction). In this interview Joy Mountford briefly discusses her educational background, while the bulk of the interview focuses on her pioneering work in design and human-computer interaction at Honeywell, MCC, Apple Computer, Yahoo!, Ford Motor Corporation (in Autonomous Vehicle design), and consulting work for a wide range of corporations and nonprofits. At Apple, Mountford brought experience from Honeywell and MCC to found and manage a large team (that grew to over 60), the Human Interface Group, that took the Macintosh beyond its original formulation to add size, color, and design elements to ease use and functionality. She and her team developed QuickTime VR and many path-breaking systems. At Yahoo! Mountford redesigned its front page, at the time the most visited page on the Web. In the consulting to nonprofit area (done both at companies and independently), she designed a digital display for the Internet Archives’ very large digitized book repository. She launched the International Design Expo, which has been tremendously important in advancing HCI for decades and secured funding from various corporations to foster the annual event. Throughout, she reflects on these efforts and others as well as more broadly on design theory, principals, practices, and technology development within the context of organizations.
Oral History Interview with Ernest Alan Edmonds
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2022) Edmonds, Ernest Alan
This interview is part of a series on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conducted by the Charles Babbage Institute for ACM SIGCHI (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction). In this interview, Professor Edmonds reflects on early interests in drawing and art, his development of interactive art and his research on computer-human interaction support for creativity. He describes himself as an “artist by inclination, a logician by training, and a computer scientist by accident.” The bulk of the interview explores these areas, his pioneering in work in computer based/algorithmic (from his influential Nineteen in the late 1960s forward) and interactive art (DataPack, in 1970 with Stroud Cornock, forward), as well as important contributions to computer science. This includes relating of influences of university mentors, the Constructivist school, and collaborations and friendships within the Systems Group of UK artists. He discusses his computer science contributions—at Leicester Polytechnic, Loughborough University, and University of Technology in Sydney—including his “adaptive approach” in 1970 software development challenging established “waterfall” techniques and anticipating and helping provide foundation to what later became termed as “agile.” He also relates his contributions to fostering intellectual community with computer scientists and artists, including and especially with his and Linda Candy’s impactful “Creativity and Cognition” an annual event launched 1993, becoming a SIGCHI Conference in 1997, and thriving to this day. In his career, thinking a step beyond current technology, and drawing on his concepts of “attractors, sustainers, and relators,” he has creatively advanced interaction between human and machine, and human interaction through machines.
Oral History with Susanne Bødker
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-12) Bødker, Susanne
This interview is part of a series on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) conducted by the Charles Babbage Institute for ACM SIGCHI (Association for Computing Machinery Special Interest Group on Computer Human Interaction). HCI Pioneer Susanne Bødker discusses early education and interests, and her undergraduate studies at University of Aarhus. She goes on to relate her experience for 10 months at Xerox PARC where she joined the Adele Goldberg’s Smalltalk Group, an opportunity made possible by Kristen Nygaard’s connections. The core of the interview focuses on her graduate education (studying under Morten Kyng, who she continued to collaborate with for many years) and long and impressive career. It especially emphasizes the combination of her theoretical and empirical work, and the importance of participatory design, and activity theory to her research and work. She discusses the NJMF, Utopia Project, and labor experience with technology as well as leadership she provided to the Center for Participatory Information Technology and CHMI.
Oral History Interview with James Cortada
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-12) Cortada, James; Cortada, James
James Cortada recounts his childhood and higher education before discussing his career at IBM. One main topic of the interview are his publications on business and management of computing, Spanish history, history of computing, and history of information. He discusses the various individuals and institutions he interacted with as he worked in the history of computing. Of particular note is the Charles Babbage Foundation, which he chaired. This interview is part of the series on the early history of the history of computing.
Oral History with Martin Campbell-Kelly
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-10-25) Campbell-Kelly, Martin
This is an interview with Martin Campbell-Kelly, one of the leading early figures in the history of computing. The interview discusses his upbringing and higher education, including his PhD under the supervision of Brian Randell. The interview discusses his career at Sunderland Polytechnic and the University of Warwick. It goes into detail about the circumstances of his various major publications as well as his work as a public intellectual. The second half of the interview discusses his interactions with and impressions of the various individuals and institutions in the United Kingdom, United States, and Western Europe associated with the history of computing in its early years.
Oral History Interview with JoAnne Yates
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-08) Yates, JoAnne
The interview provides an overview of Yates’s early life, education, and career. She discusses various people, including Alfred D. Chandler, who had a shaping influence on her career. Much of the interview discusses her career at MIT as a faculty member and administrator, and her research on the historical and contemporary study of organizations, including her collaborations with her husband, the political scientist Craig Murphy, and with the organizational studies scholar Wanda Orlikowski. She discusses the connections of her work to the history of computing and makes various comments about the development of the history of computing field.
Oral History with Teofilo F. Gonzalez
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-08-02) Gonzalez, Teofilo F.
This interview was conducted by CBI for CS&E in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the University of Minnesota Computer Science Department (now Computer Science and Engineering, CS&E). The interview begins with early biographical discussion and education, and then completing a degree in Computer Science at Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey A.C., Mexico. Professor Gonzalez was among the earliest cohorts of Ph.D. students in the young Computer Science Department at the University of Minnesota. He worked under Professor Sartaj Kumar Sahni and discusses him as mentor, as well as work as a TA from Marvin Stein and association with other early faculty members through work or courses such as Professors Bill Franta and Allen Hanson. The interview also addresses Prof. Teo Gonzalez distinguished career at University of Oklahoma, UT-Dallas, and the bulk of his long career at University of California, Santa Barbara. He discusses his trip back to Minnesota after 15 years to give a lecture and how Minnesota and the department changed. He responds to a number of questions about the evolution and scope of his research which includes design and analysis of algorithms, approximation algorithms, message dissemination, job shop scheduling, and other areas.
Oral history interview with Peggy Kidwell
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-01-22) Kidwell, Peggy
This is one in a series of interviews on the early history of the history of computing. In this interview, Dr. Peggy Kidwell describes her upbringing and education, and her career working primarily with the mathematical collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Among other topics, she discusses her work with Dr. Uta Merzbach and her collaboration with Dr. Paul Ceruzzi. She also gives her perspective on the general ecology of the history of computing and information processing.
Oral History with Kurt Maly
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2020-12-03) Maly, Kurt
This interview was conducted by CBI for CS&E in conjunction with the 50th Anniversary of the University of Minnesota Computer Science Department (now Computer Science and Engineering, CS&E). The first part of the interview Professor Maly discusses his education in Vienna before his doctoral work at the Courant Institute at New York University working under Jack Schwartz, and the dissertation he wrote on the programming language SETL. He joined the newly formed Computer Science Department at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s and in 1974 became the Director of Undergraduate Education for the department. After promotion to Associate Professor, he became the Department Chair. In the oral history, he discusses the early faculty member of the department such as Marvin Stein, Bill Munro, Jay Leavitt, Bill Franta, Ben Rosen, and others. Among other topics he explores are the Computer Center and its equipment, collaborating with industry to enhance resources and facilities, the early curriculum, early lessons and continuing leadership as Department Chair, serving on the board of the Microelectronics Institute (MEIC). He also highlights the early and continuing impact of the Cray Lectureship for some world-renowned computer scientists to come to the department for a short stretch to give a number of talks and interact with faculty and students. Early lecturers included Barry Boehm, Nikolas Wirth, and other computer top scientists. At Minnesota, he was learning the ropes of being Chair as rank junior to full professor in the department. Having successfully led the Department of CS to a very strong if not elite level, he decided to take on the challenge of building a program up in both research and education at Old Dominion (when he arrived it had no significant research profile). He chaired the department for many years and formed strong partnerships in the region with William Wulf and Anita Jones at Virginia, and schools in the DC area as well as with NSF.
Oral History with Brian Randell
(Charles Babbage Institute, 2021-01-07) Randell, Brian
Brian Randell tells about his upbringing and his work at English Electric, IBM, and Newcastle University. The primary topic of the interview is his work in the history of computing. He discusses his discovery of the Irish computer pioneer Percy Ludgate, the preparation of his edited volume The Origins of Digital Computers, various lectures he has given on the history of computing, his PhD supervision of Martin Campbell-Kelly, the Computer History Museum, his contribution to the second edition of A Computer Perspective, and his involvement in making public the World War 2 Bletchley Park Colossus code-breaking machines, among other topics. This interview is part of a series of interviews on the early history of the history of computing.