Let Dr. Bonnie Bachman, professor of Economics, and John Lovitt, 1970 computer science alum, and investor and advisor to technology and startup companies, take you on a “Journey to Innovation and Entreprenuership at Missouri S&T.  Since June 2014, an initiative to build a collaborative learning and doing community has created a stir in all corners of the campus. Sign up for the Tuesday, November 17 WebEx session at 8 pm CST to learn about:

• innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E)  activities contributing to this initiative such as the  NSF Innovation-Corps (I-Corps) project teams,
• mapping the campus innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem, I&E campus  goals,
• creation of a core student (University Innovation Fellows) who become agents of change for I&E,
• new courses and proposed new minor, Innovation Fund to support activities,
• new innovation competition teams (Enactus),  development of mentor networks and much more.

The campus is igniting with the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship, learn how you can catch it too!  Register yourself and invite a college to register too.  See details below.

The Hackathon for Humanity (H4H) contest kickoff runs from 12:30-1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, in Room 209 of the computer science building with live streaming for remote participation.  Read more at:  http://news.mst.edu/2015/09/missouri-st-computer-teams-can-hack-it-in-competition/

Professor Ralph Lee standing with the first Missouri S&T computer, an LPG-30 or Librascope Precision General computer.

Professor of Mathematics, Dr. Ralph Lee, taught the first Missouri S&T (then MSM) computer class in 1957. He established the campus computer center in the 1959-60 academic year.   A press release, likely from 1979, celebrates Dr. Lee’s 20th anniversary as director of the computer center.  Here are some highlights from that press release.

About Dr. Lee

• Lee became interested in computers while working as a senior research engineer for North American Aviation in Downey, CA during the summer of 1956.
• One of Dr. Lee’s students in the 1957 computer class in Rolla became the first director of the Mizzou computing center in Columbia.
• In 1959, Professor Lee was one of 12 faculty members in the United States to receive special training in computers at the National Bureau of Standards.
• By the time of the press release, Dr. Lee had been the chairman of the Computer Center Management Symposium for the Association of Computing Machinery for seven years.  In the ten years prior, he had also conducted over 50 national workshops and symposia on the management of university computer facilities, and the development and evaluation of computer science degree programs.

About the campus Computing Center

• The computing center was established in 1959 with a grant from the National Science Foundation with one computer.  The press release doesn’t mention what computer, but other sources indicate the first computer was an LGP-30, a Librascope General Precision computer.
• At the time of the press release:
  • The campus had 11 computers and 70 terminals, as well as access to computers at the other University of Missouri campuses.
  • Approximately 90% of the students and 50% of the faculty used the services.  Mechanical Engineering was the largest academic user, but administrative data processing accounted for more usage (about 15%) than any one department.
  • The computer center had 20 full time employees and 15 student assistants.   The center ran about 40,000 jobs per month.

You can read the complete press release below.

Grace Hopper Visits University of Missouri-Rolla in 1974.

Alumni Memories from Bob Gaebler

Editor’s Note:  Grace Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. She was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer in 1944, and she invented the first compiler for a computer programming language. Hopper helped promote the idea of machine-independent programming languages which led to the development of COBOL. She is also credited with popularizing the term “debugging” for fixing computer glitches (in one instance, removing a moth from a computer).  Grace Hopper visited Rolla in 1974 and Alumus, Bob Gaebler, shares his memory of that event.

I attended Grace Hopper’s lecture in the evening. It was not only very charming, but it was informative and inspiring to the point that I still apply some of the insights and lessons she transmitted in that talk.
As for the charming part, she presented her now famous object lesson in which she learned what a nanosecond was – holding up a piece of wire about a foot long, and relating how, early in her career, an engineer explained to her that light travels that distance in the space of a nanosecond, cutting a piece of wire to length so that she could better visualize it. She then related how, when that engineer later mentioned a microsecond, she asked for help in visualizing THAT small time interval. The engineer cut for her a visual aid for that unit of time as well – at this point Grace held up a huge coil of wire about 100 yards long, to universal laughter from the audience. At the end of her evening talk, she passed out free samples of a nanosecond, to any who were interested, as souvenirs of her visit.

Bob Gaebler
B.S. Computer Science, 1977
Marion, IA

Alumni and students are invited to participate in Missouri S&T’s first ever Hackathon for Humanity (H4H), one of the many ways we are celebrating 50 years of computer science excellence.  Team prizes are:  $1000 for 1st place, $600 for 2rd place, and $400 for 3rd place!

The Hackathon for Humanity kickoff is Thursday, September 3, 2015 from 12:30-1:30 pm Central Time in CS 209.   Free food and beverages for those who can attend in person.  For remote attendees (e.g., alumni, students who just woke up), if you just want to watch, use the passive live stream at https://www.kaltura.com/tiny/dge9i or, if you want to actively participate, then use this WebEx link with meeting number 637 816 875 and password hackathon.   During this event, examples of apps serving society will be provided and the procedures for forming teams and submitting entries demonstrated. This is the perfect opportunity for Q&A and to form teams on the spot.

Key dates are shown below and complete information, including inspiring examples and hackathon rules,  can be found at the Hackathon for Humanity website.

9/3/2015 – Competition Start Date, Kickoff with live streaming in Room CS 209

9/21/2015 – Competition End Date

9/22 – 9/30/2015 – Judging

10/1/2015 – Winners informed and invited to awards ceremony at Homecoming

10/23/2015 – Homecoming Awards Ceremony with winning submission videos presentation

This article was updated on September 1, 2015 to include the URLs for live streaming and WebEx participation.

Rollamo 1964 Photo 1: Anyone know these secretaries who are typing hollerith cards?

Please use the comment section to identify people, places, or equipment in these photos from the 1964 Rollamo yearbook.  If these photos jog other memories of your time on campus, please comment on that too. Please note that comments are moderated to weed out spammers, but genuine comments are most welcome and will be posted upon review.

Rollamo 1964 Photo 1: Overlapping pictures of students using computer equipment, but what models and who are these guys?