Advances in Computer and Information Technology

The following article was taken from "Michigan Engineering" (http://www.engin.umich.edu/newscenter/pubs/engineer/04SS/achievements/advances.html)

Today's computers and software provide extraordinary computational abilities at low cost to people around the world -- even those without technical skills.

Engineers can launch satellites that manufacture life-saving medications which are impossible to make on earth. Doctors can examine and repair the inside of a beating heart. Students can attend class at universities on other continents -- without ever leaving home. "Smart machinery" can make manufacturing more efficient. Reporters can write stories in Australia and editors can read them just seconds later in New York. Artists can create images digitally. A child in France can send instant messages to a parent doing business in Mexico.

Advances in computer and information technology have created a revolution in science, medicine, education, business, the media, art and entertainment. Michigan Engineering alumni have played key roles in these developments.

Claude Shannon
In 1948, a young freethinker published "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." It was a landmark paper that posed a fundamentally new idea which propelled the world into the information age. Claude Shannon (BSE EE '36, BSE EM '36, ScD hon. '61) was a fresh, exciting voice at Bell Laboratories when he wrote that paper. Today, he's considered the father of information theory and has been compared to Einstein. His study of logic and Boolean algebra at the College of Engineering convinced him that both subjects had applications in relay switching circuits used in telephone exchanges. It became the subject of his MIT master's thesis, "A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits," one of the most important master's theses of the century. The National Medal of Science and the IEEE Medal of Honor are but two of his many awards.

Lee Boysel
Metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors (known as MOS chips) and large-scale integrated (LSI) semiconductor memory systems were the forerunners of today's microchip technology. Almost all of today's digital chips -- from the wrist-watch chip to the 3GHz Pentium chip -- are based on the MOS transistor. Lee Boysel (BSE EE '62, MSE EE '63) did pioneering work on these transistors and systems during his years at IBM, Fairchild Semiconductor and McDonnell (now McDonnell-Douglas) Aerospace Corporation. He went on to found Four-Phase Systems Inc., a company that produced the computer industry's first LSI semiconductor memory system and the first LSI central processing unit (CPU) and began shipping them in data terminals as early as 1969. Many believe the MOS chip to be the first microprocessor in a commercial system. After founding Four-Phase, Boysel served as president, CEO and chairman. Motorola Inc.purchased Four-Phase in 1982.


Bill Joy
Part of the magic of this digital age has been the ability to connect a number of computers in a network and share information. The first Internet - a vast web of computers - was clumsy and limited until 1984, when the University of California at Berkeley released a new version of UNIX (4.2BSD) that included a complete implementation of the TCP/IP networking protocols -- conventions that became the backbone of the modern Internet. Bill Joy (BSE CompE '75, D.Eng. hon. '04) designed that new version of UNIX. He went on to co-found Sun Microsystems where, years later in 1995, he unveiled Java, another programming language of his design. Java harnesses the power of the Internet and plays a major role in bringing the Web to life -- the program has been integral to the development of Internet business. Joy has 44 patents issued or in progress, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Computer Museum Industry Hall of Fame. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Joy received the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Innovation in 1999 and the PC Magazine 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award. Fortune magazine has called him the "Edison of the Internet." He received the College's Alumni Society Medal -- its highest honor -- in 2000.

Larry Page
The Internet became a rich source of information for research, manufacturing, education and many other areas of daily life. However, finding relevant information in this sea of available data was a significant problem. Larry Page (BSE CompE '95) and partner Sergey Brin solved that problem in 1998 with the creation of Google, which has become the world's most popular Internet search engine. Just 26 when he co-founded Google, Inc., Page went on to receive widespread recognition. In 2002, MIT's Technology Review magazine called him a "Young innovator who will create the future." Research and Development magazine named him its Innovator of the Year. He was the first recipient of the College's Alumni Society Recent Engineering Graduate Award. And the National Academy of Engineering elected him to its membership in 2004.


Kevin O'Connor
The more comfortable and productive people became in searching the Internet, the more potential it had for marketing and sales. But businesses needed efficient ways to reach people, and for those potential consumers to shop, browse, order, remit payments, and track orders. Not surprisingly, the details were overwhelming. Kevin O'Connor (BSE EE '83) made them manageable for business with the creation of DoubleClick Inc., a technology company that develops powerful tools which advertisers, direct marketers and Web publishers use to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs. O'Connor co-founded DoubleClick in 1996 in his basement with two people; the company soon grew into a global corporation. He's a co-chair of the College's Progress & Promise 150th Anniversary Campaign.


Tony Fadell
The Internet also showed its potential as a source of entertainment. However, Internet users created a crisis for the music industry and the legal system by downloading five billion songs from various sources -- without paying for them. The problem perplexed music executives, the brightest legal minds and most computer scientists. However, Tony Fadell (BSE CompE '91) developed a solution. He created the iPod, an inexpensive device that can play music in a digital format, and he led the development of an online site from which music buffs can download any of 200,000 singles for 99 cents each. It was a technological and marketing triumph.

Fadell, senior director of Apple Computer's iPod, iSight & Special Projects Group, has created three generations of the iPod and the iSight Camera, a video camera for conferencing over broadband.