Ivan Sutherland is
considered a pioneer in the realm of computer graphics.
Sutherland's computer career started when he was in high school on a relay-based system called SIMON [1]. He wrote the first program that allowed the computer to divide, which also ended up being the longest program ever written for SIMON. It was eight pages long [1].
When Sutherland entered the Masschusetts Institute of Technology for study on his PhD, he developed Sketchpad, the first ever graphical user interface [1]. He developed it on a TX-2 computer, one that was operated by a lightpen on a monitor [1].
After developing Sketchpad, Sutherland went on to work for ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet. He also was a professor at Harvard University, the University of Utah, and Caltech [1].
While teaching, Sutherland continued his research. He developed several 3D graphics techniques still in use today, especially techniques using polygons as the simplest graphical element [2]. He is also considered the inventor of the window, a separate work space in a GUI [2].
For more information:
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/classes/cs6751_97_fall/projects/abowd_team/ivan/ivan.html
http://www.sun.com/960710/feature3/ivan-publish.html
Jeff Sutherland (not
related)
MCCNM 336
April 23, 2002