Howard Aiken

Howard Aiken was a professor of mathematics at Harvard, who best known for being responsible for the creation of a major early electro-mechanical computing device, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (or ASCC, also widely called the Harvard Mark I). It was an intermediate step between Babbage's proposed Analytical Engine, and the ENIAC in its initial form; it was first conceived of in 1937, and went into service in 1944. Its considerable use trained many people in the details of mathematics on machines.

Interestingly, Aiken, unlike many of those involved with later early computing devices, and the first early computers, was well-acquainted with Babbage's work, which may well have been an inspiration for him.

He also had a major impact, through the people whom he hired to work to work on the ASCC (such as Grace Hopper), and through his many students at Harvard (such as Gerrit Blaauw, Kenneth Iverson, and Frederick Brooks).

Further reading

• I. Bernard Cohen, Howard Aiken: Portrait of a Computer Pioneer, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999
• I. Bernard Cohen, Gregory W. Welch (editors), Makin' Numbers: Howard Aiken and the Computer, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1999

External links

• Howard H. Aiken - Award Recipient - IEEE biography page
• Howard Aiken: The Forgotten Father of the Computer Age - a good survey of his influence
• Howard Aiken – Biography, History and Inventions - contains interesting details of his early life