March 15, 2012 (vol. 122, iss. 108) • Page Image 9
… students typing away on MacBooks, some taking careful notes, others idly surfing the Internet via MWire- less. But in the early '80s, as personal computing was just beginning to establish itself as an…
… industry, then-Dean of Engineering James Duderstadt found himself with a problem he desperately needed to solve. "It turned out very few members of our faculty had ever used computers," he remembered. His…
… solution? Give every faculty member easy access to a computer, but with one important caveat. "I'd only let them have (a computer) if they'd take two of them, and one of them they'd have to take home…
…," Duderstadt said. "They might not use it themselves, (but) their wife or their children would use it." Sure enough, the home computers of many engi- neering professors were taken overby their children. The…
… substantial investment in the latest available technology. "We worked hard to acquire the latest and greatest technology," said Daniel Atkins, professor of electrical and computer engineering. "We provide…
… said. "(But) we built systems with Apple TV in them, so as long as you're in the network, you can actually project whatever you have in your hand to the big screen. It allows collabora- tion to happen…