University of Utah
Department of Computer Science

Computer Science History

History of Computer Science at University of Utah

The Computer Science Department at the University of Utah has a long history of distinguished faculty and alumni who have made substantial contributions to research and industry. This web page represents a brief overview of some of the most well-known people and their work.

"Almost every influential person in the modern computer-graphics community either passed through the University of Utah or came into contact with it in some way"

From The Algorithmic Image: Graphic Visions of the Computer Age, by Robert Rivlin

Companies founded by Utah faculty and alumni

Major contributions by Utah faculty and alumni

Time Line: Distinguished Utah faculty and alumni

David Evans
Computer Science Faculty 1965-1980

Founded the computer science department and was its first chairman from 1965-1973

Co-founder of Evans & Sutherland

Ivan Sutherland
Computer Science Faculty 1968-1974

ACM Turing Award (1988) for numerous contributions to computer graphics.

1998 IEEE Medal: John von Neumann Medal "for pioneering contributions to computer graphics and microelectronic design and leadership in the support of computer science and engineering research".

First recipient of the ACM SIGGRAPH Coons Award for contributions to computer graphics.

Co-founder of Evans & Sutherland
Inventor of the first interactive graphics program with geometric constraints, Sketchpad
Developed head-mounted display technology - an early example of virtual reality
Member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Robert Barton, Computer Science Faculty 1968-1973

Invented the first stack machine architecture.
Principal architect of all Burroughs computers.
Co-inventor of dataflow.

Tom Stockham, Computer Science Faculty 1969-1981

Created the field of digital recording.
1998 IEEE Medal: Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal "for pioneering the field of digital audio processing".
Founder of Soundstream Inc. , which pioneered digital music recording and editing that led to the large-scale production of compact discs and CD players.
One of six experts selected to determine whether someone had deliberately erased Nixon's White House tapes in the Watergate scandal (the infamous 18.5 minute gap). The panel's results provided evidence of a cover-up, which led to President Nixon's resignation.
Recipient of the first Technical Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences in 1993.
Recipient of an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in 1988.

Alan Kay
Ph.D. 1969

Developed the notion of a graphical user interface at Xerox PARC, which led to the design of Apple MacIntosh computers.

Developed Smalltalk

Fellow at Apple Computer

For more information, click on

Bio #1, Bio #2

John Warnock
Ph.D. 1969

Worked on the Illiac 4 Project, a NASA space flight simulator, and airplane simulators at Evans & Sutherland
Developed the Warnock recursive subdivision algorithm for hidden surface elimination.
Founder of Adobe Systems , which developed the Postscript language for desktop publishing.

Chuck Seitz
Computer Science Faculty 1970-1973

Pioneer in asyncronous circuits.
Co-designer of the first graphics machine, LDS-1 (Line Drawing System).
Designed the Cosmic Cube machine as a research prototype that led to the design of the Intel iPSC.
Founder of Myricom

Nolan Bushnell , B.S. 1969

Developed the table tennis game Pong in 1972, which launched the video game industry.

Founder of Atari , which became the leading company in video games by 1982.
Founder of Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theater.

Ronald Resch
Computer Science Faculty 1970-1979

Pioneer in the field of computer art.
Built the first physical structure designed entirely with computer-aided geometric modeling software: a large Easter egg which is still standing in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada. Vegreville prides itself as "The Easter Egg Capitol of the World".
Had major art exhibits in national galleries of sculptures he designed and modeled using computers. The sculptures were appreciated by the art community without regard for the computer contribution.

Alan Ashton
Ph.D. 1970

Former faculty at Brigham Young University
Founder of WordPerfect

Tony Hearn
Computer Science Faculty 1971-1981

Second department chairman, 1973-1981.
Developed the oldest algebraic mathematics package (REDUCE) still in active use.

Duane Call
Ph.D. 1971

Former faculty at Brigham Young University
Founder of Computer Systems Architects (CSA)
Designer of FPS-120 supercomputer, specializing in vector calculations

Henri Gouraud
Ph.D. 1971

Developed the Gouraud shading method for polygon smoothing - a simple rendering method that dramatically improved the appearance of objects.

Elliott Organick
Computer Science Faculty 1973-1985

Founder of SIGSCE (ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education).
Won Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education award from SIGSCE in March 1985.
Author of several widely used computer science textbooks, including A FORTRAN Primer (later revised as FORTRAN IV ), Computer Science: A First Course , and Programming Language Structures

Ed Catmull
Ph.D. 1974

Pioneer in computer animation

Developed the first computer animation course in the world.

Co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios , a leading computer graphics company which has done work for LucasFilm and was recently involved in the production of the movie Toy Story.
Received a technical Academy Award (with Tom Porter, Tom Duff, and Alvy Ray Smith ) on March 2, 1996 in Beverly Hills from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) for "pioneering inventions in Digital Image Compositing".

Jim Clark
Ph.D. 1974

Rebuilt the head-mounted display and 3-D wand to see and interact with 3-dimensional graphic spaces.

Former faculty at Stanford University

Founder of Silicon Graphics Inc.,
Chairman of Netscape Communications Corporation

For more information, click on Bio

Bui Tuong-Phong
Ph.D. 1975

Invented the Phong shading method for capturing highlights in graphical images by modeling specular reflection. Phong's lighting model is still one of the most widely used methods for illumination in computer graphics.

Henry Fuchs
Ph.D. 1975

Federico Gil Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Research in high-performance graphics hardware; 3D medical imaging; head-mounted display and virtual environments.

Founder of Pixel Planes

For more information, click on Bio

Martin Newell, Ph.D. 1975
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1979

Developed procedural modeling for object rendering

Co-developed the Painter's algorithm for surface rendering

Founder of Ashlar, Inc. , which develops computer-assisted design software.

Frank Crow
Ph.D. 1975

Developed anti-aliasing methods for edge smoothing

Former faculty at University of Texas at Austin and Ohio State University

Martin Griss
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1983

Developed Portable Standard LISP (PSL).

Suhas Patil
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1981

Founder of CIRRUS Logic (originally known as Patil Systems)

Developed the first Petri Net-based circuit synthesis system for asynchronous circuit design.

James Blinn
Ph.D. 1978

Invented the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images.

Scientist at JPL, where he worked on computer animation of the Voyager fly-bys.

Produced a PBS series called The Mechanical Universe , which used animation to teach the basic principles of physics and mathematics.

Collaborates with Tom Apostle on Project Mathematics! , an educational video series about mathematics.

Jim Kajiya
Ph.D. 1979

Developed the frame buffer concept for storing and displaying single-raster images.

Robert Johnson
Computer Science Faculty 1987-1993

Invented the magnetic ink printing technology used on virtually every check we write.

Invented the Johnson counter logic circuit.

Former Vice President of Engineering for Burroughs.

For information about the current faculty and research projects in the computer science department at the University of Utah, click here:

DISCLAIMER: We have tried to be as accurate and fair as possible, but please let us know if you find any errors, notice important omissions, or have additional information that might benefit this page! Please send mail to:
riloff@cs.utah.edu

University of Utah Department of Computer Science

Companies founded by Utah faculty and alumni

Major contributions by Utah faculty and alumni

David Evans Computer Science Faculty 1965-1980

Ivan Sutherland Computer Science Faculty 1968-1974

Robert Barton, Computer Science Faculty 1968-1973

Tom Stockham, Computer Science Faculty 1969-1981

Alan Kay Ph.D. 1969

John Warnock Ph.D. 1969

Chuck Seitz Computer Science Faculty 1970-1973

Nolan Bushnell , B.S. 1969

Ronald Resch Computer Science Faculty 1970-1979

Alan Ashton Ph.D. 1970

Tony Hearn Computer Science Faculty 1971-1981

Duane Call Ph.D. 1971

Henri Gouraud Ph.D. 1971

Elliott Organick Computer Science Faculty 1973-1985

Ed Catmull Ph.D. 1974

Jim Clark Ph.D. 1974

Bui Tuong-Phong Ph.D. 1975

Henry Fuchs Ph.D. 1975

Martin Newell, Ph.D. 1975 Computer Science Faculty 1977-1979

Frank Crow Ph.D. 1975

Martin Griss Computer Science Faculty 1977-1983

Suhas Patil Computer Science Faculty 1977-1981

James Blinn Ph.D. 1978

Jim Kajiya Ph.D. 1979

Robert Johnson Computer Science Faculty 1987-1993

University of Utah
Department of Computer Science

David Evans
Computer Science Faculty 1965-1980

Ivan Sutherland
Computer Science Faculty 1968-1974

Alan Kay
Ph.D. 1969

John Warnock
Ph.D. 1969

Chuck Seitz
Computer Science Faculty 1970-1973

Ronald Resch
Computer Science Faculty 1970-1979

Alan Ashton
Ph.D. 1970

Tony Hearn
Computer Science Faculty 1971-1981

Duane Call
Ph.D. 1971

Henri Gouraud
Ph.D. 1971

Elliott Organick
Computer Science Faculty 1973-1985

Ed Catmull
Ph.D. 1974

Jim Clark
Ph.D. 1974

Bui Tuong-Phong
Ph.D. 1975

Henry Fuchs
Ph.D. 1975

Martin Newell, Ph.D. 1975
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1979

Frank Crow
Ph.D. 1975

Martin Griss
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1983

Suhas Patil
Computer Science Faculty 1977-1981

James Blinn
Ph.D. 1978

Jim Kajiya
Ph.D. 1979

Robert Johnson
Computer Science Faculty 1987-1993