From the Argives: When the Computer Came to Campus

Features • September 22 • Hope Cognata

Wesleyan’s computer science department, with over 40 years to its name, can trace its wide-reaching roots back to a single machine in the basement of the Van Vleck Observatory (VVO). When the computer came to campus, Wesleyan’s electronic enthusiasm swiftly overshadowed its capacity, a familiar pattern. The Argus put together a timeline of Wesleyan’s first reckoning with a revolutionary digital technology, in accordance with patterns and parallels present in current discourse. Professors John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert at the University of Pennsylvania’s Moore School of Electrical Engineering began designing ...