OLLI Course 50139: Minnesota Computer History at the U of M Charles Babbage Institute

Course Leaders: Tom Naps (thomas.naps@gmail.com) and Amanda Wick
Course Assistant: John Renwick
Time and Place: Two class sessions: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM, October 29 and November 5, Elmer L. Andersen Library, Room 120, 21st Avenue South Minneapolis.

Description: The people and organizations behind the development of computers provide a history that is long and rich. In the mid-20th century, companies in Minnesota were at the epicenter of the computer industry. What was behind the success of those companies? What led to their decline? In the first session, Tom will lead an account/discussion of some of the stories behind this period. In the second session, Amanda will provide a tour of the CBI archives and invite participants to engage with the archives to learn more about Control Data Corporation.

Course Resources – Let Tom know if there are resources you would recommend as additions to this list.

• Slides for Week 1
• Books and articles you might like to explore for more depth about the history of computing
  • Minnesota specific books
    • The Seymour Cray Era of Supercomputers: From Fast Machines to Fast Codes by Boelie Elzen, Donald MacKenzie
    • The Supermen: The Story of Seymour Cray and the Technical Wizards Behind the Supercomputer by Charles J. Murray
    • Generation of Wealth: The rise of Control Data and how it inspired an era of innovation and investment in the Upper Midwest by Donald M. Hall
    • A Few Good Men From Univac by David E. Lundstrom and William Aspray
    • Digital State: The Story of Minnesota’s Computing Industry by Thomas J. Misa
  • More general books
    • Computer: A History of the Information Machine by Martin Campbell-Kelly, William Aspray, Nathan Ensmenger, Jeffrey R. Yost (current director of CBI)
    • The Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
  • Article-length materials
    • Ada Lovelace, the First Tech Visionary by Betsy Morais in The New Yorker, October 15 2013
• Solid State: Minnesota’s High-Tech History a TPT documentary from the Minnesota Experience series
• The Oral History Collection at CBI has quite a few that focus on people involved in Minnesota computing during this period
  • John L. Hill. An electronics engineer at Engineering Research Associates (ERA), one of the pioneering firms that established Minnesota as a global center for computer development in the mid-20th century.
  • William C. Norris.Founder and longtime CEO of Control Data Corporation (CDC), central to supercomputers and the expansion of Minnesota’s computer industry.
  • Reminiscences of computer architecture and computer design at Control Data Corporation. Organized discussion moderated by Neil R. Lincoln with eighteen Control Data Corporation (CDC) engineers.
  • Univac Conference. The meeting involved over twenty-five engineers, programmers, marketing representatives, and salesmen who were involved with the UNIVAC.
  • Arnold Cohen - first interview 1983. Engineer at Engineering Research Associates (ERA)
  • Arnold Cohen - second interview 1987.
  • Vipin Kumar. Regents Professor and William C. Norris Chair of Computer Science at UMN
  • John Parker. Co-founder and first president of Engineering Research Associates (ERA). Later instrumental in the formation of Remington-Rand.
  • Erwin Tomash. Originally with Engineering Research Associates, left to found the Dataproducts Corporation.
• Bonita Hill’s story of her father from her family history album

Accommodations

OLLI is committed to making our courses accessible for members, and we expect our course leaders to help us make that happen. OLLI recommends that Course leaders teaching in classrooms wear voice amplifiers, and we set up our Zoom courses so that live captioning is an option. The OLLI office may contact you to make additional accommodations on a case by case basis. If you require additional accommodations, please contact OLLI@umn.edu and we will do our best to support your needs.

Disability statement

The University of Minnesota is committed to providing equitable access to learning opportunities for all students. If you have, or think you have, a disability in any area such as, mental health, attention, learning, chronic health, sensory, or physical, please contact the DRC office on your campus (UM Twin Cities - 612.626.1333) to arrange a confidential discussion regarding equitable access and reasonable accommodations. Additional information is available on the DRC website: https://disability.umn.edu or email drc@umn.edu.