Russell A. Kirsch
What We Did and Should Have Done In The Past Half Century of Computing

Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Building 3 Auditorium - 3:30 PM
(Refreshments at 3:00 PM)

Using over a half century of Computer Science and Engineering experience, we describe both some of our past accomplishments and improvements upon them, some of which have already been realized and others which will be accomplished in the future. For the future, we can demonstrate some beginnings of what we believe can be done. When we built America's first internally programmable computer, SEAC, at the National Bureau of Standards in 1950, we used it to provide a working demonstration that inspired many further developments, by others, in the computer field. It is my purpose here to do the same for future developments in several areas. These include Hardware design, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Imaging, Information Retrieval , Radar Ranging, Physical Modeling, and Applied Mathematics.

Russell A. Kirsch received his scientific training at the Bronx High School of Science, graduating in 1946, with subsequent refinements at NYU, Harvard, and MIT. Mr. Kirsch worked at the National Bureau of Standards on the design and operation of SEAC, America's first internally stored program computer which began productive computation in 1950. During 57 years affiliation with NBS/NIST he has been a pioneer in several computer applications including Digital Imaging, Artificial Intelligence, Information Retrieval, Language Theory, and Fine Arts. He is a member of the ACM and the IEEE and has been elected as a Fellow of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science.

IS&T Colloquium Committee Host: J. Anthony Gualtieri