Fifteen years ACM
Franz L. Alt · Communications of the ACM · 1962
The Beginning "On January 10, 1947, at the Symposium on Large-Scale Digital Calculating Machinery at the Harvard Computation Laboratory, Professor Samuel H. Caldwell of Massachusetts Institute of Technology spoke of the need for an association of those interested in computing machinery, and of the need for communication between them.That symposium was attended by over 300 people and was the third large conference in the field of new computing machinery.Also, in the season 1946-47, the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers held a series of six meetings at Columbia University, N. Y., on digital and analogue computing machinery; each of these meetings was attended by more than 200 people.Also, in March and April 1947, the Department of Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, held six meetings on electronic computing machinery, each attended by over 100."After making some inquiries during May and June, we believe there is ample interest ~o start an informal association of many of those interested in the new machinery for computing and reasoning.Since there has to be a beginning, we are acting as a temporary committee to start such an association: E. C.