World's first electronic computer born at University of Pennsylvania

Alright, it's my favorite time of the week, and this week's Made in PA. It's a piece of Philadelphia history that powered the future. The world's first electronic computer was born at the University of Pennsylvania. It was a room-sized machine, in fact, built for war that eventually launched the modern digital age to what we know right now. Before the Internet, before apps and social media, there was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, also known as ENIAC. Inside the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania sits one-tenth of what once was a room-sized computer. At its 1946 unveiling, it was made up of 49-foot-high cabinets containing 18,000 vacuum tubes and 6,000 switches. Historian Paul Schaefer. It works by channeling the speed of electrons and to turn them on and off as needed. And this is the first machine to ever use electrons in that way. Before that, they used gears and levers, and computing was so slow back in those days. Schaefer says it was unlike any other computing device of its time. It was developed during World War II to address the military's need for quick and accurate computations. The brainchild of Professor John Mockley and graduate student John Eckert, Jr., along with six female mathematicians. Another problem that they were working on was the trajectory of artillery shells. They had guns that they could not put out into the war because they lacked the firing table. Now to calculate one entry in the firing table took about 12 hours on a calculator. So that's what they started to build the ENIAC for because it could do this over and over again. Their vision, to bring more firepower to U.S. troops, flipped the switch on the digital age. Creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, and a gigantic leap forward. Dr. Vijay Kumar is the dean of engineering. Ultimately, at the end of the day, it really was a model of how to do computing. Computing and computers have evolved into much more powerful, smaller PCs, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and smartwatches. The prototype for this ingenuity began right here in University City. Well, the University of Pennsylvania is very proud to have started all this, and you'd like to think that this was the machine that started the information age, and that it all started right here in Philadelphia, right here in this building at 33rd and Walnut. It's so good to be on the forefront, right? Their 80th anniversary of the first computer is actually this Sunday, February 15th. And if you want to see more of the made in PA businesses and brands that have truly stood the test of time making products that are used all around the globe, head to our website at kbc.com slash made in PA. It's just incredible to think we went from something that was the size of a room to this. Right. Yeah. Incredible. And so many firsts at Penn, too. Remarkable stuff. Thanks, Christy. Thanks, Christy.