The Origins of Computing and Computer Science at Purdue University

In 1947 Dr. Carl F. Kossack joined the mathematics department at Purdue University. He brought with him several research projects that required extensive computation. He had friends at IBM who offered to donate some IBM punch card equipment, and Kossack set up a statistical laboratory in one of the temporary buildings at Purdue. By 1952 the activities of the statistical laboratory had grown considerably, and a decision was made to install an IBM card-programmed calculator (CPC). The CPC was not a stored program computer, but it was a general-purpose programmed computer, and the laboratory needed someone skilled in the art of computing. Kossack was authorized to hire an assistant professor who would teach part-time in the mathematics department and also be in charge of the computational division of the statistical laboratory.