INDUSTRY

Computing experts from around the world will assemble on the Iowa State University campus for the International Symposium on Modern Computing, Oct. 30 -- Nov.1, in the Scheman Building. The academic symposium will recognize the late John Vincent Atanasoff, inventor of the electronic digital computer and former Iowa State physics and math professor. Atanasoff was born 100 years ago this month. Leading experts will discuss new computer technologies with the potential to again change the electronic world. Symposium attendees will participate in workshops within the broader areas of computational intelligence, application-specific IT infrastructures and high-performance and grid computing. Heading up the symposium are Carl Chang, professor and chair, ISU Department of Computer Science; and S.S. Venkata, Palmer Chair and professor of electrical and computer engineering. "Dr. Atanasoff is considered a giant in the history of modern computing," Chang said. "In celebrating his 100th birthday, we, as educators, are obligated to bring alive the same aspiration that the young professor, Dr. Atanasoff, once had for finding new pathways in education." Plenary speakers at the symposium include Gordon Bell, senior researcher for Microsoft, San Francisco; Douglas E. Van Houweling, president and CEO, Internet2 and professor, School of Information, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and George Strawn, chief information officer, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA and former professor and director of the Iowa State University Computation Center. Also attending will be Elena Poptodorova, Bulgaria's ambassador to the United States. That country awarded Atanasoff, whose father was Bulgarian, its highest science award. Atanasoff also was a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Science. During the Oct. 31 breakfast, a panel will discuss the court case, Honeywell vs. Sperry Rand, that, in the early 1970s, legally established Atanasoff as the creator of the first electronic digital computer. Panel members will include Alice Rowe Burks, author of the recently published "Who Invented the Computer? The Legal Battle that Changed Computing History," Ann Arbor, Mich.; Charles G. Call, an electrical engineer and patent attorney who represented Honeywell on what has become known as "the ENIAC case," West Yarmouth, Mass.; and John Gustafson, principal investigator for Sun Microsystems Inc. and a former ISU professor who helped build a replica of Atanasoff's original computer, Mountain View, Calif. "We have assembled such a large group of distinguished scholars from various institutions that events of comparable magnitude simply do not exist," Chang said. "I see this as the most appropriate way to honor Dr. Atanasoff in recognition of his scholarly accomplishments, as well as help propel more modern computing innovations in the Internet era." "My father was a unique individual -- very bright, very creative and very hard-working," John V. Atanasoff, Jr., of Boulder, CO, added. "These attributes enabled him to invent a computer that was different, with a very low probability of success and few supporters." Registration for the symposium is available online at http://www.ucs.iastate.edu/1103/jva-2003.htm, or by calling ISU Conference Services, (515) 294-5366 Celebrating John Vincent Atanasoff John Vincent Atanasoff, the father of the digital computer and an ISU alum (MS ’26 mathematics) and former professor, was born 100 years ago on Oct. 4, and Iowa State is celebrating his birthday. Also celebrating the event are the citizens and scientists of Bulgaria, the birthplace of Atanasoff’s father. The story of Atanasoff and his invention has begun to take on the polished patina of a cherished legend, but such has not always been the case. Atanasoff was born in 1903 at the home of his grandmother, in Preston Hill, N.Y. By age 10, Atanasoff had taken joyful property of the new-fangled slide rule that had arrived in the mail for his father and had begun reading his mother’s eighth grade arithmetic textbooks, where he was introduced to the intriguing subject of number bases, including base-two, the numerical language of modern-day computing. By the time he was 34, Atanasoff was a professor of mathematics and physics at Iowa State. On a cold winter’s day in 1937, he was particularly frustrated by a problem he couldn’t solve. He believed that if a mechanism could be created to solve linear algebraic equations, it would be able to perform almost any task. He jumped in his Ford V8, and drove down the Lincoln Highway. While he drove, he pondered, and before he knew it, he was crossing the Mississippi River and into Illinois. As long as he was in Illinois, he decided to stop for bourbon. (In Iowa, it was illegal for liquor to be served in restaurants or taverns.) Notes scribbled on a napkin over an Illinois bourbon became an answer and a beginning. By 1939, he and his graduate student, Clifford Berry (’39 electrical engineering), had created the prototype of the electronic digital computer. What followed were years of injustice and tragedy. He and Iowa State did not follow through to secure a patent, and his idea for the computer was stolen by John Mauchly, who patented the ENIAC. Uncertain if Atanasoff would return after he left Iowa State for war-time duties in the Navy, ISU staff members dismantled his digital machine to make room for other projects. In 1963, in the midst of an investigation and lawsuit dedicated to finding the truth about the real inventor of the computer, Atanasoff’s partner, Berry, was found dead in his rooming house, a plastic bag over his head. His death remains a mystery. But the lawsuit proved that Atanasoff was indeed the father of the electronic digital computer, and the United States and Iowa State honored him for his invention in 1974. (Bulgaria had formally recognized his accomplishments by 1970.) In recognition of his belated -- but finally recognized -- achievement, Atanasoff was awarded the National Medal of Technology by President George Bush at the White House on Nov. 13, 1990. Atanasoff died in June 1995 at his home in Maryland. Engineers at the Ames Laboratory completed years of work to construct a replica of the original Atanasoff-Berry computer (now on display at the Durham Center on the Iowa State University campus). Iowa State has spread the word about Atanasoff's achievements by taking the replica to 30 U.S. communities.