¡®Birth of the Computer¡¯ explores Q-C ties to inventor Atanasoff

Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø will host the ¡°Birth of the Computer: The John Atanasoff Story¡± event at 6 p.m. Feb. 23 in Wallenberg Hall, inside the Denkmann Memorial Building. 

The event, sponsored by the college and the Davenport and Rock Island public libraries, will include a viewing of the documentary ¡°Atanasoff, Father of the Computer.¡± A panel discussion will focus on John Atanasoff, the inventor of the electronic digital computer, and his ties to the Quad-Cities area. A reception will follow at Bent River Brewing Company, 512 24th St., Rock Island.

Panel presenters include Dr. Ashfaq Khokar, chair of electrical and computer engineering at Iowa State University; Mark Ridolfi, managing editor of the North Scott Press who interviewed Atanasoff; and Shawn Beattie, manager of educational technology at Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø. 

The event is one of more than 35 activities marking the 150th anniversary of the Rock Island Public Library. 

¡°This particular event looks at the link between Rock Island and the invention of the first electronic digital computer by Iowa State physicist John Atanasoff,¡± Beattie said. ¡°He spent an evening in Rock Island in the winter of 1937-38. While here, he came up with four concepts for his first computer that are still in use in today's computers.¡±

Beattie helped bring the full-size replica of Atanasoff¡¯s computer to Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø in 1998 and said he has long held an interest in the inventor. 

Atanasoff was born in 1903 outside of Hamilton, N.Y. He earned a bachelor of science in electrical engineering from the University of Florida in 1925 and a master¡¯s in mathematics from Iowa State Å·ÖÞ±­ÍøͶ_Å·ÖÞ±­ÍâΧapp-Ͷע¹ÙÍø in 1926. 

It was while working on his doctoral thesis that he became interested in developing a better and faster computing machine. At that time he was working with a Monroe calculator, the most advanced calculating machine at the time. 

He earned a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the University of Wisconsin in July 1930 and returned to Iowa State as an assistant professor in mathematics and physics with a focus on creating a better computing tool.

Frustrated by his continued quest, his biography notes, he drove 200 miles in the winter of 1937 and is believed to have ended up at a roadhouse in the Quad Cities. He ordered a bourbon and wrote down his ideas on a cocktail napkin. These ideas were instrumental in his invention of the ABC (Atanasoff-Berry computer) as the first electronic digital computer.