UC Irvine Celebrates 40 Years of Computing

UCI.edu

​Computing at UC Irvine is bearing down on middle age!

Friday's "Celebrating 40 Years of Computing @ UCIrvine: Innovating for a Better World: yesterday's vision... today's research... tomorrow's technology" features events and panel discussions about the digital revolution's reach to the Irvine campus.

It's also turning into a big faculty and student reunion, as professors who worked there as long ago as 1968 and students who got a degree as long ago as 1970 return to take part in the festivities.

And the university's new Center for Computer Games and Virtual Worlds will use the celebration to show off its newest Game Lab, where games made by students, faculty and alumni are displayed, according to Venita De Souza, director of Research Development at the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences.

A panel of former faculty members speaks from 2-3 p.m. Their names, years at UCI and current employers are: David Farber, 1968-'78, Carnegie Mellon; Jonathan Grudin, 1991-'99, Microsoft Research; Michael Pazzani, 1988-'05, Rutgers; and Susan Leigh Star, 1987-'90, University of Pittsburgh.

An alumni panel takes over from 3-4 p.m.: Larry Rowe, 1970 (and Ph.D. in '76), FXPal; Roy Fielding, 1988 (Ph.D. in '00), Day Software; C. Suzanne Iacono, MA in 1975 (Ph.D. in '81), NSF; and Daniel Russel, Ph.D. in 1997, Google.

A networking hour begins at 4 p.m., with demonstrations and poster sessions by ICS Research Centers.

John Seely Brown, who was on the UCI faculty from 1969 to 1975, gives the keynote address at 5 p.m. "The Big Shift" Celebration runs from 6-7:30 p.m.

Everything is free and open to the public, but participants are encouraged  RSVP online at www.ics.uci.edu/40.

The Game Lab, which is on the first floor of Donald Bren Hall, will be open to the public Friday from 12:30-2 p.m. and again from 4-5 p.m.