Computer Memory Project: Writing the History of Computing at UC

Tales of technology’s early days on campus – and their wider impact – are being chronicled by University of Cincinnati’s Russ McMahon, associate professor of information technology in the College of Applied Science. While his project is still in its early stages, McMahon plans a Web site, book and, possibly, a video on the history of computing at UC.

The aim of the project is to put a human face on the impact of technology’s growth here on campus and beyond. That impact includes

• A pioneering UC program to train workers with disabilities as programmers
• Opportunities for women created because of computing advances
• Graduates from UC who made computing history
• Efforts by UC employees to secure the university’s domain name

“For instance,” said McMahon, “the university secured its domain name –

www.uc.edu

– in the early 1980s, a jump ahead of other institutions. We were lucky to grab our URL before the universities of Colorado, Connecticut or any of the California schools did. This history will detail these and other events.”

Much of the credit for securing UC’s domain name goes to Joe Landwehr, former director of telecommunications at UC.

Landwehr actually filled out the paper work to get the domain name and recalled the computing era of the time: “In the early 1980s, we didn’t have the Web as we do now. We had a bitnet connection, a daisy-chain connection to Ohio State which, in turn, had a connection to the next institution. It was good enough for sending e-mails, but that was about it.”

He added that it was in 1988 when he applied for UC’s current URL. “I certainly didn’t know I was making any kind of history. It didn’t seem like anything special. It wasn’t even my idea to make the application. I’m sure my boss at the time just told me to do it.”

McMahon’s history will stretch much further back than the securing of UC’s domain name in the 1980s. In some cases, it will stretch back into the late 1940s when computing was performed by human beings, usually women.

McMahon explained that from the 1920s onward, women who majored in mathematics were often hired to be human computers, especially by the military because of needs for ballistic tables related to artillery needs. “So, it was natural that when the first mechanical computers came into use, women were the first programmers,” he stated.

He added, “I’m interviewing women alums who became integral not only to later programs and projects at UC but to pioneering projects elsewhere.” For instance, McMahon is interviewing Viola Woodward, who earned a 1942 degree in mathematics from UC before earning a second teaching degree in 1943. Woodward later served as the programmer for the ENIAC, the U.S. Navy's first electronic computer. 

He’s also set to interview 1949 alum Arnold Spielberg (father of moviemaker Steven Spielberg) who worked with the first computers at RCA and at the General Electric Company, and McMahon also hopes to interview UC alum Vinod Dham, father of the Pentium chip.

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He’s also tracking down details on a 1960s project in which UC trained visually impaired workers as programmers. “I’ve been able to find people who taught in that program as well as those who benefited from it. It’s a wonderful example of the access to work and jobs that computers have brought to UC and to society,” said McMahon.

While McMahon is directing this history project, the original idea for it came from a classroom assignment he gave to students in spring quarter 2005. He recalled, “I was teaching an honors course, and I wanted the students to have some perspective on the history of computing. There were 11 students, and I asked them to interview someone who played a role in the history of the field, whether at UC or elsewhere. That assignment and their efforts eventually got me thinking about how soon this early history will be lost to us, and the project just grew from there.”