“How the Computer on My Desk Got to Me” Lecture on John Vincent Atanasoff

19:00 Sofia Gallery

This year we celebrate 110 years since the birth of the great inventor of Bulgarian descent John Vincent Atanasoff. In 1937, after significant research and practical investigations at Iowa State College (now University), Atanasoff conceived the core design principles of electronic digital computing and then implemented a working prototype of his computer in 1939. Atanasoff was the first to use digital electronics to implement arithmetic operations. His design principles invented at the beginning of the WWII propagated via the early ENIAC and EDVAC computers to most of the modern computer technologies, and remain at the core of the electronic digital computing revolution today.

Title: How the Computer on My Desk Got to Me?

Presenter: Professor Vladimir Getov, University of Westminster, London

Vladimir Getov graduated with distinction from the Technical University of Sofia (Bulgaria) and earned his PhD in Computer Science from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in 1980. As a Senior Research Fellow he spent several years leading both R&D and academic research projects in Bulgaria. During that time Dr Getov was Project Manager of the first Bulgarian IBM PC/XT compatible computer (1984). In 1989 he moved to England where he joined initially the University of Southampton and then moved to the University of Westminster in 1995. Professor Vladimir Getov has an extensive track record of international achievement and recognition. Since 2005, he has been on the International Steering Committee of the John Vincent Atanasoff Initiative (http://www.atanasoff.org), working towards worldwide recognition of the inventor of electronic digital computing.