Howard Hathaway Aiken

Howard Hathaway Aiken (1900-1973) was a US pioneer of computing.

Howard Aiken

Life

Howard Hathaway Aiken was born on March 8, 1900 in Hoboken, New Jersey. He received a BS in electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1923. He worked at Madison Gas, 1923-28; as general engineer, Westinghouse Electrical and Manufacturing Company 1928-31; and Line Material Company 1931-32. He earned MA (1937) and PhD (1939) degrees in physics at Harvard University.

Aiken began research on large-scale calculating machines with IBM in 1939. At Harvard University he was Faculty instructor 1939-41; Associate Professor 1941-46; Professor 1946; and Director of the Computation Laboratory from 1946-1961. During the Second World War Aiken was commissioned as a Commander in the United States Naval Reserve and served as officer-in-charge of the calculation project of the Navy Board of Ordnance. He was a Professor of Information Technology at Miami University from 1961-1973, where he helped create a computer science program as well as a computing center. He founded Howard Aiken Industries Inc., a New York consulting firm, and died on March 14, 1973 in St Louis, Missouri.

Contributions

Howard Aiken is known for developing the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator or Harvard Mark I, conceived in 1937 and put into operation in 1944. Aiken began construction on the Mark II for the Dahlgreen Proving Ground of the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance in 1945. Unlike the Mark I, the Mark II was built with electromagnetic parts. The construction of Mark III was completed in 1950 and was called the Aiken Dahlgreen Electronic Computer (ADEC). The Mark IV was completed in 1952 for the US Air Force. He made significant contributions to the development of applications for the new machines and to the creation of a university curriculum for computer science. Aiken served as Editor of Annals of the Computation Laboratory of Harvard University.

Aiken also completed work in mathematical linguistics, automatic translation, switching theory, and the use of magnetic cores and drums as computer components.

Publications

A selective bibliography of Aiken's publications is in the Communications of the ACM 5, no 6 (1962): 359. Google Scholar lists publications by and about Aiken. [1]

• "The automatic sequence controlled calculator — I [II, III]." With G. M. Hopper. Electrical Engineering 65, no. 8-9 (1946): 384-391; no 10: 449-454; & no 11: 522-528.
• Synthesis of Electronic Computing and Control Circuits. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1951.

Awards

Ralph E. Hackett Award for Science (1954); Navy Distinguished Public Service Award (1955), Air Force Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service (1957); University of Wisconsin Testimonial of Eminent Professional Service (1958); IEEE Computer Society Pioneer Award (1980)

Further reading

• "Howard H. Aiken." Wikipedia [2]
• Obituary. The New York Times (March 16, 1973): 44.
• Cohen, I. Bernard. "Howard H. Aiken and the computer." In: A history of scientific computing , pp. 41-52. 1990.
• Cohen, I. Bernard. Howard Aiken : portrait of a computer pioneer. Cambridge, MA : MIT Press, 1999.
• Makin' numbers : Howard Aiken and the computer. Ed. by I. B. Cohen & G. W. Welch. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
• Oettinger, Anthony. "Retiring Computer Pioneer - Howard Aiken." Communications of ACM 5, no 6 (1962): 298-299. [3]
• Strawn, George. "Howard Aiken: Mastermind of the Harvard Mark Computers." IT professional 21, no 6 (Nov. 2019): 66-68.

Papers

• Harvard University Archives. Records of the Computation Laboratory, 1944-1961. Contains correspondence of H.H. Aiken, Director of the Laboratory. [4]