Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771

ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

Monday, May 8, 2006 / 3:30 PM, Building 3 Auditorium

Steve Wozniak

"The Creation of the Apple I Computer"

ABSTRACT -- In 1976, Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs created the Apple I computer. Designed in Jobs bedroom and built in his garage, the Apple I was the first single circuit board computer. The pair showed the prototype Apple I (mounted on a piece of wood in which all of the components were visible) to a local computer hobbyist group called "The Homebrew Computer Club". A computer vendor saw it and requested 100 of them. In 1977, Apple Computers was incorporated and the follow-on Apple II computer model was released, making over $100,000,000 in earnings. From there, continual innovation would result in the historic Macintosh computer series and other iconic products (e.g., the iPod) that have set industry standards for decades. This talk will reflect upon the history of the creation of that first computer, the events and influences that helped spawn such innovation, and the resulting establishment of an American business icon with loyal, devoted followers.

This talk is expected to run slightly longer than the standard 45 minutes to 1 hour. People who have to leave to catch carpools may want to choose seats where it will be easy for them to leave before the end of the talk.

SPEAKER -- A Silicon Valley icon and philanthropist for the past three decades, Steve Wozniak, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Wheels of Zeus (wOz), helped shape the computing industry with his design of Apple's first line of products, the Apple I and II, and influenced the popular Macintosh. For his achievements at Apple Computer, Mr. Wozniak was awarded the National Medal of Technology by the President of the United States in 1985, the highest honor bestowed upon America's leading innovators. In 2000 Mr. Wozniak was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame and was awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment for "single-handedly designing the first personal computer and for then redirecting his lifelong passion for mathematics and electronics toward lighting the fires of excitement for education in grade school students and their teachers." Making significant investments of both his time and resources in education, Mr. Wozniak "adopted" the Los Gatos School District, providing students and teachers with hands-on teaching and donations of state-of-the-art technology equipment. Mr. Wozniak founded the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was the founding sponsor of the Tech Museum, Silicon Valley Ballet and Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose. Mr. Wozniak is currently a member of the board of directors for Jacent, a developer of cost-effective telephony solutions, and Danger, Inc., developer of an end-to-end wireless Internet platform.