from Oregon State University in 1948, a B.Eng.
from UC Berkeley in 1952 [1], and a Ph.D. in EECS from
UC Berkeley in 1955. While at Oregon State,
he was a member of Sigma Phi Epsilon social fraternity.
As a World War II naval radio
technician based in the Philippines, Engelbart
was inspired by Vannevar Bush's article "As We May Think".
After the war, he studied at UC Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1955, and where
he was involved in the construction of the CALDIC as
a student. He spent over a year trying to create
an unsuccessful startup, Digital Techniques, to commercialize some of his doctorate
research into storage devices, then worked
with Hewitt Crane on magnetic logic devices at the
Stanford Research Institute (SRI), now headquartered in Menlo Park, while the
organization was still affiliated with
Stanford University.
pRofeSsiOnal bAcKgrOund
Engelbart slipped into relative obscurity after 1976 due to
various misfortunes and misunderstandings.
Several of Engelbart's best researchers became
alienated from him and left his organization for Xerox
PARC, in part due to
frustration, and in part due to differing views of the future of
computing. Engelbart saw the future in
timeshare (client/server) computing, which younger programmers rejected
in favor of the personal computer. The conflict
was both technical and social: Engelbart came from a time
in which only timeshare computing was achievable,
and also believed in joint effort; the younger programmers
came from an era where centralized power
was highly suspect, and personal computing was
just barely on the horizon.
In his book about Engelbart, Bardini points out that in the early
1970s, several key ARC personnel were briefly involved in
Erhard Seminars Training. Although EST seemed like a
good idea at first, the controversial nature of EST reduced
the morale and social cohesion of the ARC community.
gO to mY hOme pAge
various misfortunes and misunderstandings.
Several of Engelbart's best researchers became
alienated from him and left his organization for Xerox
PARC, in part due to
frustration, and in part due to differing views of the future of
computing. Engelbart saw the future in
timeshare (client/server) computing, which younger programmers rejected
in favor of the personal computer. The conflict
was both technical and social: Engelbart came from a time
in which only timeshare computing was achievable,
and also believed in joint effort; the younger programmers
came from an era where centralized power
was highly suspect, and personal computing was
just barely on the horizon.
In his book about Engelbart, Bardini points out that in the early
1970s, several key ARC personnel were briefly involved in
Erhard Seminars Training. Although EST seemed like a
good idea at first, the controversial nature of EST reduced
the morale and social cohesion of the ARC community.
gO to mY hOme pAge