From the advent of artificial intelligence to the teaching of algorithms, Dartmouth has an enduring legacy of excellence in computing. 

Since the 1940s, faculty and students have not only revolutionized computer hardware and software design but also pioneered the diverse applications of computation across the arts and sciences.

Dartmouth was the site of the first demonstration of remote access to a computer in 1940. The field of artificial Intelligence was famously established by Dartmouth mathematician John McCarthy, at a national conference held at Dartmouth in 1956. 

In the 1960s, John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz invented the computer language BASIC. They also implemented the first (and eventually, largest) time-sharing system that made computers freely available to college students.

In the summer of 1994, the Department of Computer Science was launched, splitting away from the Department of Mathematics.

Over the years, Professor Emeritus of Computer Science Tom Cormen has seen his textbook Introduction to Algorithms sell over a million copies in multiple editions. And professors today continue to do groundbreaking work in such fields as robotics, visual computing, mobile health, creative computing, and machine learning.

It’s no wonder, then, that Dartmouth had much to celebrate when faculty and former students this summer gathered together on the occasion of the department’s 30th anniversary.