History of MIT

Writing for Quanta Magazine, Joshua Sokol spotlights the untold story and seminal role of two MIT computer programmers, Ellen Fetter and Margaret Hamilton, in developing the “specific programs that revealed the signatures of chaos.”

Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney writes about the opening of a time capsule housed at MIT’s Stata Center. The capsule held an “array of tech treasures, including the original 1992 proposal for the World Wide Web; a 1979 user manual for VisiCalc, an early spreadsheet program developed by MIT alumni Bob Frankston and Dan Bricklin; and an Altair BASIC interpreter that was donated by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.”

CSAIL unsealed a time capsule containing artifacts from computing history at MIT after a self-taught programmer cracked the capsule’s cryptopuzzle, reports Kathryn Sotnik for NECN. MIT alumnus, Bob Frankston, who programmed the first electronic spreadsheet, noted “it’s really a reminder in a sense how long ago it was, and how much people today take these things for granted.”

Eric Kane reports for 7 News on how a time capsule at the Stata Center was unsealed at MIT this week after a Belgium programmer solved the cryptopuzzle sealing the container. The time capsule contained “MIT computing artifacts and material relating to the invention of the Internet, the ethernet, and the digital spreadsheet.”

Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney writes that a programmer has cracked a 20-year-old cryptographic puzzle that was created to celebrate 35 years of research at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science (now CSAIL). When he created the puzzle, Prof. Ron Rivest expected it would require “35 years of continuous computation to solve, with the computer being replaced every year by the next fastest model available.”

A cryptographic puzzle used to seal a time capsule at the Stata Center has been solved, reports Tim Caputo for WHDH News. Prof. Ron Rivest explains that the puzzle is based on a fairly simple operation. “Multiply a number by itself, divide by a third number and take the remainder,” he explains. “But, you do that over and over and over again.”

A cryptographic puzzle developed to honor MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science (now CSAIL) has been cracked by a programmer from Belgium, reports Spencer Buell for Boston Magazine. Buell explains that the answer to the puzzle reveals a “‘secret message’ that unlocks a time capsule designed by architect Frank Gehry, which contains geeky artifacts contributed by early computing luminaries, including Bill Gates and Tim Berners-Lee.”

Wired reporter Daniel Oberhaus spotlights how a programmer has solved the cryptographic puzzle that was used to ceremonially seal a time capsule of early computer history at the Ray and Maria Stata Center. The puzzle, which was designed by Institute Professor Ron Rivest, “involved finding the number that results from running a squaring operation nearly 80 trillion times.”

Motherboard reporter Nicole Carpenter explores the history of the source code for the text adventure game Zork, which was developed in 1977 by members of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science. Carpenter explains that for a niche group of programmers, the source code, could serve as “a collection of information that’ll propel their research forward.”

Writing for The Boston Globe Magazine, Andrew Nemethy chronicles the work of Prof. Maria Telkes, who was known as the “Sun Queen” and developed the first habitable building heated by the sun. Nemethy writes that “almost everything she did broke ground. As a prominent and outspoken female scientist, she defied stereotypes.”

Writing for Smithsonian, Alice George highlights Margaret Hamilton’s work leading the team at the MIT Instrumentation Lab that developed the software for the Apollo 11 mission. “She was a pioneer when it came to development of software engineering,” says Teasel Muir-Harmony, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum, and “a pioneer as a woman in the workplace contributing to this type of program, taking on this type of role.”

In an article marking the 30^th anniversary of the World Wide Web, Vox reporter Aja Romano highlights how in 1961 two MIT graduate students developed the concept for ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet. Romano writes that Leonard Kleinrock “developed his thesis around the idea that computers could talk to each other if they could carve up their information into tiny, easily transferrable packets.”

Heather Goldstone and Elsa Partan report for WCAI’s Living Lab Radio that 50 years ago, faculty and students at MIT held a teach-in protesting the Vietnam War. Alan Chodos, a visiting student at the time who helped organize the gathering, explains that the idea was inspired by the question, “What could MIT do to make it clear that scientists, in particular, were very concerned about this.”

In an article for The New York Times Magazine about the history of women working in the field of computer programming, Clive Thompson highlights the work of Mary Allen Wilkes, a “programming whiz” who worked at MIT’s Lincoln Lab back in the 1960s on the creation of the LINC.

Writing for Smithsonian, Leila McNeill spotlights Ellen Swallow Richards, the first female student at MIT, who was known for her work using chemistry as a tool to help empower women. “By harnessing the knowledge that women in the home already had and then applying scientific principles,” writes McNeill, “Richards believed women would spark a change that would resonate beyond the kitchen table and transform society.”