Black History Month
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
Check out the Philip Emeagwali's web site http://emeagwali.com for more Black
History Month related-articles.
TITLE: Bill Gates of Africa Talks About Nigeria
(Published in the Philadelphia Sun, June 29, 1997)
IT was difficult tracking down Philip Emeagwali. "I'm fully booked for one
year ahead", he'd said, "and I am terribly behind." "I'm sorry too," I
pleaded, "my editor, Eluem Emeka Izeze, personally requested that I get an
interview with you by all means." It helps in this kind of situation to
invoke the authority of the editor and make it look like the newspaper will
collapse if the prospective interviewee doesn't oblige. It worked. Emeagwali
softened a little. "But I am surprised. Nigerian newspapers are usually not
interested in science. I am a scientist, not a politician." I had to tell
him that when last year, he was honored at the 50th anniversary of the
computer, as one of the individuals who have made significant contributions
to computer technology, Nigerians celebrated not only that achievement, but
his 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, the highest honor in Computer science which
Emeagwali had won for inventing the fastest computer in the world. This
newspaper did an editorial on him; other Nigerian newspapers as well. He is
after all, a national hero. At a time when Nigerians are looked down upon
internationally as crooks, Emeagwali's distinction in the field of parallel
computing brings a new shine to Nigeria, and advertises the genius of our
people.
Born in Akure, 42 years ago to Igbo parents, Emeagwali who dropped out of
Christ the King's College at 14, and had to sit for his General Certificate
Examination as a private student, holds five degrees in four fields, a
Bachelors, three Masters, and a doctorate in Scientific Computing, Ocean and
Marine Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Applied
Mathematics. He holds six world records in computer technology, several
awards and consulting appointments with top US institutions including a
two-year consultancy for the US Army. In 1989, Emeagwali programmed a Cray
Connection Machine to arrive at the world's fastest computer computation, a
record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors.
This achievement helped to solve one of America's 20 Grand Challenges: how
oil flows underground. Oil companies are now using Emeagwali's
supercomputing to recover maximum amounts of oil in seconds. In April 1996,
he had another breakthrough when he presented a 816 page description of a
new computer to the US Office of Patents and Trademarks. This new computer,
the Hyperball computer, is based on what he calls "the theory of tessellated
models" and its design is inspired by Emeagwali's observations of a bee's
honeycomb. He says the computer will be more efficient in predicting the
world's weather patterns a century ahead of time, something no scientist has
ever attempted. Emeagwali has been described as "one of the fastest humans
in the world." He has been called the "Bill Gates of Africa." The London
Guardian described him as "the new bright boy of the Information Age."
But still, he couldn't fit me into his busy schedule. Emeagwali works
seven days a week, 16 hours a day, with little breaks in between, and
constant travel across the United States: "I don't know any other way. It's
what I am used to. I have to work." When eventually Emeagwali agreed to talk
to this writer, he chose the medium in which he works: an electronic
interview via the computer. Over a period of seven months, we exchanged
about twenty-five electronic mails through his web site
(http://emeagwali.com). The product is a 20-page discussion which focuses on
Emeagwali's background, experience, motivations, current research, Deep Blue
and Africa's status in an age of information. Still, I needed to meet him
in person. A technological interview may have become inevitable now that the
whole world is wired but nothing can replace the one-on-one interview of the
traditional reporter.
We met last Friday evening at Songhai Restaurant in Washington, D.C., a
spacious, well appointed restaurant/club on U Street, owned by another
Nigerian. Songhai is where many Igbos and other Nigerians in the Washington
area hang out on Friday evenings. Wearing an Adire Kaftan, Emeagwali was
accompanied by his African American wife, Dale Brown - an award winner in
her own right, with a doctorate in molecular biology. Not with us was their
seven-year old son, a precocious lad who reads a book of seventy pages every
day. Amidst the din of Congo soukous music, the sweet smell of goat
peppersoup, fish and jollof rice, and the well-meaning interruptions of
other Igbo brothers sitting at the next table, Emeagwali talked about
Nigeria.
He says he is surprised how badly things have turned out in less than 15
years. "In 1982, Nigeria's per capita income was $1,200, by 1994, it had
dropped to $250. That's terrible. Of course to those of us who are overseas,
it's meaningless because it's just numbers to you. But for people in
Nigeria, it must be really tough. That's quite a drop. And yet the people at
home want those of us who are here to return." Emeagwali thinks if he were
to return to Nigeria, life would be very frustrating for him or he'd
probably get killed. The last time he was in the country, he tried to stop a
policeman from taking a bribe. "Everyone including the policeman thought I
was insane." Emeagwali says he doesn't visit Nigeria that often. The first
of nine children, every member of his family including his parents all now
live in the United States.
He says the only reason countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and South Korea
are progressing and Nigeria is stagnant is because Nigeria does not invest
in people. "These countries invested in people, and now they are spending a
lot of money to get to the information age. In Nigeria, we imported a lot of
cars 25 years ago, all those cars are down now because we didn't invest in
people. Labour is cheap in Nigeria. People can stay in that country and do a
lot of international work if they have the skills. But there is no emphasis
on skills. Nigerians just want to get rich. You can't buy your way to
civilization. You need to have an educational system that is strong from
first grade. You can't build a country when everybody is into petty
trading."
I had to remind Emeagwali that petty trading is very profitable, and that
many of his kinsmen will disagree with him. He shot back: "People are not
enlightened. You can create wealth for yourself or for society. Our people
prefer to respect people who create wealth for themselves. You might be
familiar with the Ozo title. That's what I mean. Igbos are very
individualistic and their focus is on creating wealth for themselves. Nobody
gives you an Ozo if you create wealth for society. We need a shift in the
way we think."
"Another problem," he says, "is that people don't appreciate the fact that
Nigeria is over-populated. Part of our development plan should include
asking couples to have a maximum of one child and if possible, not to have a
child at all because it is not necessary. We have enough people. If we had
limited our population to 10 million after independence and managed the
petroleum money well, we would have been in a lot better shape." Our
culture, I quietly remarked, favours large scale procreation. He explains:
"Culture is dynamic. It has to adapt to the time. There were reasons in the
past to have more children because infant mortality was high but now, it's
in the individual's best interest to have only one child. I didn't have a
child for the first nine years that I was married. I've been married 16
years and I only have a child who is seven years old. You see, you don't
have to have a large family. The reason Nigerians have many children is that
they don't spend a lot raising a child. Which is bad because this is our
future..."
By now, the club had become busy, the music had turned heavy; before us
were meatless bones of fish and meat, and empty glasses of beer on tap; we'd
spent five hours already. Emeagwali was beginning to talk of leaving. He
wanted to return to his on-going work, what he calls the AFRICA ONE
project, a communication design that will bring fiber optics technology to
41 points on Africa's coastlines, making it possible for the continent to
make the best use of the information revolution within the next two years.
He also wanted to return to the privacy of his life. His work has brought
him recognition but also a lot of hate and racism from white supremacists.
His response is to continue working, and to keep away from possible danger.
Emeagwali is one out of about one million Nigerians overseas who are
distinguished in several fields. They are not at home, and they are not
coming home, because their beloved country has become a wasteland of hopes.
Original article distributed on June 24, 1997 by the OneWorld News Service
(United Kingdom, http://www.oneworld.org).
Check out the Philip Emeagwali's web site http://emeagwali.com for more Black
History Month related-articles.
In article <788boj$eqi$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>,
patrici...@hotmail.com wrote:
> Check out the Philip Emeagwali's web site http://emeagwali.com for more Black
> History Month related-articles.
>
> TITLE: Bill Gates of Africa Talks About Nigeria
>
> (Published in the Philadelphia Sun, June 29, 1997)
>
> IT was difficult tracking down Philip Emeagwali. "I'm fully booked for one
> year ahead", he'd said, "and I am terribly behind." "I'm sorry too," I
> pleaded, "my editor, Eluem Emeka Izeze, personally requested that I get an
> interview with you by all means." It helps in this kind of situation to
> invoke the authority of the editor and make it look like the newspaper will
> collapse if the prospective interviewee doesn't oblige. It worked. Emeagwali
> softened a little. "But I am surprised. Nigerian newspapers are usually not
> interested in science. I am a scientist, not a politician." I had to tell
> him that when last year, he was honored at the 50th anniversary of the
> computer, as one of the individuals who have made significant contributions
> to computer technology, Nigerians celebrated not only that achievement, but
> his 1989 Gordon Bell Prize, the highest honor in Computer science which
> Emeagwali had won for inventing the fastest computer in the world. This
> newspaper did an editorial on him; other Nigerian newspapers as well. He is
> after all, a national hero. At a time when Nigerians are looked down upon
> internationally as crooks, Emeagwali's distinction in the field of parallel
> computing brings a new shine to Nigeria, and advertises the genius of our
> people.
>
> Born in Akure, 42 years ago to Igbo parents, Emeagwali who dropped out of
> Christ the King's College at 14, and had to sit for his General Certificate
> Examination as a private student, holds five degrees in four fields, a
> Bachelors, three Masters, and a doctorate in Scientific Computing, Ocean and
> Marine Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering and Applied
> Mathematics. He holds six world records in computer technology, several
> awards and consulting appointments with top US institutions including a
> two-year consultancy for the US Army. In 1989, Emeagwali programmed a Cray
> Connection Machine to arrive at the world's fastest computer computation, a
> record 3.1 billion calculations per second using 65,536 processors.
>
> This achievement helped to solve one of America's 20 Grand Challenges: how
> oil flows underground. Oil companies are now using Emeagwali's
> supercomputing to recover maximum amounts of oil in seconds. In April 1996,
> he had another breakthrough when he presented a 816 page description of
a
> new computer to the US Office of Patents and Trademarks. This new computer,
> the Hyperball computer, is based on what he calls "the theory of tessellated
> models" and its design is inspired by Emeagwali's observations of a bee's
> honeycomb. He says the computer will be more efficient in predicting the
> world's weather patterns a century ahead of time, something no
scientist has
> ever attempted. Emeagwali has been described as "one of the fastest humans
> in the world." He has been called the "Bill Gates of Africa." The London
> Guardian described him as "the new bright boy of the Information Age."
>
> But still, he couldn't fit me into his busy schedule. Emeagwali works
> seven days a week, 16 hours a day, with little breaks in between, and
> constant travel across the United States: "I don't know any other way. It's
> what I am used to. I have to work." When eventually Emeagwali agreed to talk
> to this writer, he chose the medium in which he works: an electronic
> interview via the computer. Over a period of seven months, we
exchanged
> about twenty-five electronic mails through his web site
> (http://emeagwali.com). The product is a 20-page discussion which focuses on
> Emeagwali's background, experience, motivations, current research, Deep Blue
> and Africa's status in an age of information. Still, I needed to meet
him
> in person. A technological interview may have become inevitable now that the
> whole world is wired but nothing can replace the one-on-one interview of the
> traditional reporter.
>
> Check out the Philip Emeagwali's web site http://emeagwali.com for more Black
> History Month related-articles.
---- Posted via Deja News ----
-- Visit the The Inventors Cafe community
-- http://www.dejanews.com/~scientists
view for bookmarking text only mail this message to a friend post reply
<< prev · next
>>
subscribe to dejanews.comm.scientists
SPONSORED LINKS Yellow Pages · Save$$ at uBid · Express by Infoseek ·
Shopping · Free Stuff AutoConnect · Trade with Datek · Auctions &
Classifieds · GET IT NOW @ NECX
Home · Communities · My Deja News · Power Search · Post
---- Posted via Deja News ----
-- Visit the The Inventors Cafe community
-- http://www.dejanews.com/~scientists
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
http://emeagwali celebrating the contributions of African Americans to
American history.
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
speech posted at http://emeagwali.com celebrating the contributions of African
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
speech posted at http://emeagwali.com celebrating the contributions of African
Americans to American history.
Enjoy,
Patricia Turner
THIS MAN IS HOT!!!!
Supercomputers that put men on the moon are unheard of in
Africa. But not to this Nigerian lad who dropped out of school
at age 14. Now a ripe 41-year-old, Philip Emeagwali is turning
the American supercomputer and oil industries upside down,
and the Americans can't believe it! Baffour Ankomah talked to
him in his home in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
Philip Emeagwali is not a normal Nigerian. Even
after amassing degrees in five different fields, his
name still comes bald with no attachments - not
even a mere Dr.
Coming from a country where even engineers
(Engineer Ololo) and other lesser mortals (Dr Mrs
Chief Alhajia Olusoga; Ambassador Baba Kuti)
prefix their names with a chaotic mix of titles,
Emeagwali's eschewal of the national fixation shows
why, in the words of the American magazine
Michigan Today, he is "one of the world's fastest
humans."
In 1989 he became the first man on earth to
perform the world's fastest computer computation -
a staggering 3.1 billion calculations per second. That
surpassed even the theoretical peak speed of the
more expensive supercomputers costing between
$10m and $30m a piece then in use in the US.
Philip Emeagwali sits in front of the Connection
Machine with which he made his
record-breaking 3.1 billion per second
calculation that changed the global oil industry
Emeagwali's achievement also helped solve one of
America's 20 Grand Challenges --- understanding
how oil flows underground so companies could
extract the most of the "black gold."
Emeagwali's breakthrough won him the prestigious
Gordon Bell Prize in the US. Though worth only
$1,000 in cash and awarded by the American
Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers,
the Gordon Bell is considered to be the Nobel Prize
of computing.
Pure Genius
Emeagwali captured it while making mince-meat of
the previous winners' efforts. His 3.1 billion
calculations per second was twice the speed
achieved by the 1988 winner and 24 times faster
than the 1987 winner. And what's more - he was
the first solo winner of the award. Usually, teams
from corporations and national laboratories capture
the $1,000 cheque. But Emeagwali, a "novice" by
American computing standards at the time he
started his project, spent only eight months on a
relatively new type of computer - the Connection
Machine - before clinching the award.
The Nigerian embassy in Washington milked the
applause:
"By this great accomplishment," Dr
Hamzat Ahmadu the then Nigerian
ambassador in Washington wrote to
Philip, "you have shown the world that,
contrary to many negative press
[reports] that tend to portray the
generality of Nigerians in bad light
particularly in the USA, Nigerians are
capable of achieving greatness and do
indeed excel in many fields. I hope that
other Nigerians both within and outside
your community will emulate you and
set similar high standards of
excellence."
This is what Nigerians at home call "reaping where
you've not sown." For, Emeagwali achieved his
greatness without any help from the Nigerian
government.
At age 14, Philip dropped out of school in Onitsha
where he grew up because his father, James, (a
nurse) could not pay his school fees.
Philip, an Ibo born at Akure in Yorubaland, was the
first of his father's nine children. The Nigerian
government, despite all the oil money, did not help
the poor boy to continue his education.
But before he dropped out of school, Philip had
shown a clear head for mathematics. His father
James was so encouraged that he continued to
teach him mathematics in the evenings. Philip was
such a mathematical genuis that his mates soon
nicknamed him "Calculus." Even his father, the
evening teacher, could not keep up with him. "He
gave up because he said I knew more than he did,"
Philip told New African.
Having dropped out of school, Philip made the
public library his second home where, through
library books, he taught himself college-level
mathematics, physics, chemistry and English. He
studied hard and passed his GCE from the
University of London with ease.
The American Dream
Luck smiled on him when he was 17. He won a
scholarship to the Oregon State University in the
US where he majored in mathematics. He had
arrived in Oregon wide-eyed in 1974, not knowing
what the future held for him. But he has since
earned four other degrees - a PhD in Scientific
Computing from the University of Michigan; two
Masters Degrees from the George Washington
University, one in Ocean and Marine Engineering
and the other in Civil and Environmental
Engineering. He has another Masters Degree in
Applied Mathematics from the University of
Maryland.
His working life has seen him in Maryland and
Wyoming as a civil engineer, and as a computer
scientist at the US National Weather Service for
which he wrote a thesis on mathematical
calculations used in forecasting floods. He also
worked at the US Army High Performance
Computing Research Centre in Minneapolis from
1991 to 1993.
He has since won several awards including the
Scientist of the Year Award 1991 given by the
National Society of Black Engineers in the US ("in
recognition of his outstanding contribution to the
scientific field which benefitted all mankind"); the
Computer Scientist of the Year Award 1993 given
by the National Technical Association; and the
Pioneer of the Year Award 1996, again given by
the National Society of Black Engineers.
Greatest Achievement
But Emeagwali's greatest achievement to date is his
1989 breakthrough in making scientists better
understand how oil flows underground.
The project was for his doctoral dissertation.
Instead of using one supercomputer which cost
$30m a pop and uses eight high-powered
processors, the Nigerian resorted to the Internet to
access 65,536 smaller computers each working in
parallel on a small part of the problem.
"The result was phenomenal: a computer that
performed computations more than three times
faster than a supercomputer," wrote Marsha Lakes
Matyas for the American Association for the
Advancement of Science.
Emeagwali was estactic: "I like to work on
problems that are important to society because you
get satisfaction," he told New African. "Research is
hard work, so you might as well work on important
research".
He tells how he did it.
"The Connection Machine had only been developed
in 1986, three years before my breakthrough, and it
had a poor reputation. People were sceptical about
the Machine and denigraded it because, typically,
researchers needed a year to learn how to use it and
its software was scarce.
The Connection Machine
"I was one of the first persons crazy enough to try
it. I'm more confident in pursuing ideas that are not
very well accepted. It has something to do with my
personality. If everyone goes east, I go west, so I
will be the first to find the solution." But not many
believed in what he was doing.
"To be really honest, I thought he was getting
caught between the cracks," confessed Trevor
Mudge, Director of the Advanced Computer
Architecture Laboratory at the University of
Michigan where Emeagwali studied.
But the Nigerian knew what he was doing. He
linked up 65,536 processors - each comparable to a
desk top computer - via the Internet to the
Connection Machine. He figured that more points
would provide better results.
He says: "Just picture the conventional
supercomputer, costing $30m each, as eight oxen
pulling a cart and the Connection Machine as about
65,000 chickens pulling the same cart.
"The old thinking is that the oxen will do a better
job, but if the chickens coordinate their efforts,
they'll do a better job than the oxen. That's what
my 65,536 small computers achieved: 3.1 billion
calculations per second. The supercomputer was
nowhere in sight with all its $30m purchase price."
20 Grand Challenges
In the US, the government has a list of the 20
most difficult problems in science and engineering
called the 20 Grand Challenges. One of them is
petroleum reservior simulation. Emeagwali wanted
to crack this.
He explains: "Oil is usually found underground,
trapped in rocks. Until my experiment, en-gineers
were able to recover only about 10% of the oil in
any reservior by using supercomputers to simulate
oil fields and track the oil flow.
I chose this problem because in this field, in order
to have the most impact, you have to work on the
most serious problems." Coming from Nigeria, he
knew that an oil field was not just a huge
underground cave.
"Oil is found in pores within rocks," he continues,
"and oil companies must pump gas or water into
fields to force the oil to nearby wells.
Seismic survey in the Niger Delta
"But if the oil is sucked out too quickly at one well,
then oil elsewhere may not flow naturally to the
same well and is virtually trapped. The company
must then drill another well at considerable expense
to extract the trapped oil.
"The money involved is staggering. That's why I set
myself to understand the flow within oil fields and
how many barrels can be removed at any one well".
To help him overcome the problem, Emeagwali
looked elsewhere. He knew that in the early 1930s,
the German mathematician Paul Fillunger had
formulated a theory on partial differential equations.
But Fillunger was not "successful." A sceptical
panel of experts publicly announced in March 1937
that the German had failed to solve the equations.
Fillunger felt so humiliated that he and his wife
committed suicide. After their deaths, the Russian
mathematician B. K Risenkampf seized on
Fillunger's idea, but he too was only able to partially
solve the equations. But Philip Emeagwali showed
in 1989 that Fillunger's original equations were
correct.
He modified Fillunger's equations on his computer
and then divided the simulated oil field into eight
million points, assigning 128 points to each of the
65,536 processors linked to the Connection
Machine.
Emeagwali in front of the partial differential
equations that won him the Gordon Bell in 1989
He had written his programme to instruct each point
in the 65,536-chain to talk with six neighbours
simultaneously. The results were phenomenal!
The Breakthrough
if he were Archimedes, the great Greek
mathematician, he would have run out of his bath
shouting "eureka, eureka" (I've found it, I've found
it).
But Emeagwali was Nigerian. When the Connection
Machine popped up the results, his eyes went wild!
He screamed and punched the air. He had achieved
3.1 billion calculations per second! And not only
that: His calculations had determined the amount of
oil in the simulated oil field, its direction of flow and
speed at each point.
For the entire oil field, (all eight million points), his
calculations had taken one-sixth of a second, which
mimicked a few hours of actual oil flow. one of
America's 20 Grand Challenges had been solved -
by a Nigerian who dropped out of school at age 14!
"When he told me the results, I thought he had
made a mistake," says William Martin, Director of
the University of Michigan's Laboratory for
Scientific Computation where Emeagwali spent 13
hours a day for eight months working on the
project.
It was enough to win him the Gordon Bell Prize.
Said the Gordon Bell Committee: "The amount of
money at stake is staggering. For example, you can
typically expect to recover 10% of a field's oil. If
you can improve your production schedule to get
just 1% more oil, you will increase your yield by
$400m (at $20 per barrel in a 20-billion-barrel
field)".
Emeagwali's breakthrough made this possible. It
changed the view of a sceptical petroleum industry
that massively parallel computers could be used to
recover more oil. Today, seven years on, 10% of
all massively parallel computers are purchased by
the oil industry alone. And the speed of
Emeagwali's calculations are helping the OPEC
nations to extract more oil and increase their oil
revenue.
Since the breakthrough, Emeagwali has gone from
strength to strength. In March this year, he was
adjudged the Pioneer of the Year by the National
Society of Black Engineers in the US. The award
was presented to him at a ceremony in Nashville,
Tennesse, attended by 6,000 international scientists
and engineers. It is the most prestigious recognition
bestowed by the Society on individuals whose
"intellectual contributions have benefitted all
mankind."
Emeagwali was cited for his "discoveries and
inventions that led to the acceptance of massively
parallel computing technology, and in particular
their use in the petroleum industry to recover more
oil." The award greatly pleased Emeagwali as he got
it ahead of other eminent scientists and engineers
like the US-based Ghanaian Dr Thomas Mensah
who is currently leading the design of advanced
laser-guided weapons (also known as Smart
Weapons) such as the US Patriot missiles which
became famous during the Gulf War.
Dr Mensah holds seven patents in fiber optics -
three in fiber optics guided missile technolgy, and
four in manufacturing fiber optics inexpensively
which, experts say, will impact hugely on the use of
fax machines, electronic banking and other
communications gadgetry.
Despite the fame, Philip Emeagwali is not resting on
his oars. This April, he presented a 819-page
description of a revolutionary hyperball computer
to the US Office of Patents and Trademarks. His
new computer will enable scientists to better
understand the long-term effects of greenhouse
gases and global warming.
Revolutionary Invention
Emeagwali's new revolutionary hyperball
computer network was based on the theory of
tesselated models. Each red dot represents a
processor and each red line represents the path
used in sending and receiving information
between the processors.
He based the new computer on the "theory of
tessellated models" which he formulated himself.
This theory demonstrates that tessellations (sphere
packings) and fast parallel computations are related
fields.
16 Processor Hypertree Computer Network
Parallel computers in use today are based on the
hypercube or hypertree networks which do not map
efficiently over the Earth's surface. Emeagwali's
hyperball is different. It was inspired by the
complex geometries and patterns he observed in
nature - the arrangements of molecules in crystals
and the structure of bee's honeycombs.
16 Processor Hypertree Computer Network
His invention divides the Earth's atmosphere into
sections that simulate a bee's honeycomb. Bees, he
says, use the most efficient method to construct
their honeycombs, so a computer network which
emulated the honeycomb will be more efficient and
powerful in forecasting the world's weather patterns
a century or more ahead of time.
Emeagwali's Tessellation
"At the moment, there is no computer that can do
this. My hyperball will make this possible," he says.
Hot Stuff
Married to an African-American microbiologist,
Dale Brown, who has borne him a 6-year-old son,
Emeagwali is enjoying his days in St Paul,
Minnesota. He is an Internet freak - his personal
Website (http://emeagwali.com) is so hot that it is
accessed by 800 people a day from all over the
world.
Dale and Philip Emeagwali
"They like to know more about my work, and I do
my best not to disappoint them, he says. "But I
would be happier when Africa finally gets
connected to the information superhighway through
the proposed Africa ONE project. I can't wait for
that day."
Reported in the July/August 1996 issue of New
African (London, England).
Philip Emeagwali can be reached at
500-437-2330 or
phi...@emeagwali.com
African American history is American history. Check out Philip Emeagwali's
speech posted at http://emeagwali.com celebrating the contributions of African
Americans to American history.
Enjoy,
Patricia Turner
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
speech posted at http://emeagwali.com celebrating the contributions of
celebrations.
patrici...@my-dejanews.com
Enjoy,
Patricia Turner
THIS MAN IS HOT!!!!
Pure Genius
The American Dream
Greatest Achievement
The Connection Machine
20 Grand Challenges
The Breakthrough
Revolutionary Invention
Emeagwali's Tessellation
Hot Stuff
Dale and Philip Emeagwali
Enjoy,
Patricia Turner
We know of the famous African-American inventors of the past, Lewis H.
Latimer who provided the filament that made Thomas Edison's light bulb burn
so brightly; George Washington Carver, who developed peanut butter and
countless other inventions from the peanut; and Garrett Morgan, who invented
the first automated stoplight and gas mask. But, what about the inventors of
today? We searched the country to find those special African-Americans whose
creativity and ingenuity have, in one way or another, shaped our lives.
Dr. Philip Emeagwali
Research Scientist, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Who developed the fastest computer on earth? Dr. Philip Emeagwali, an
interdisciplinary computer scientist/inventor, used 65,000 processors to
perform the world's fastest computation of 3.1 billion calculations per
second. His design was inspired by the complex geometries of nature. From
geometrical theories, Emeagwali proved that bees use the most efficient
method to construct their honeycombs, so a computer which emulated the
honeycomb will be efficient and powerful. Emeagwali's computers are currently
being used to forecast the weather and predict future global warming.
Dr. Thomas C. Cannon Jr.
Head of User Devices
Research Department
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Murray Hill, N.J.
Dr. Thomas C. Cannon Jr. lead a group
of engineers that developed the Tactical
Optical Fiber Connector (TOFC). The
TOFC was designed to terminate optical
fiber cables used in military combat.
Optical fiber cables are preferable to
conventional copper cables because they
are immune to electrical interference,
lightweight, have a high signal carrying
capacity, and do not radiate any
electromagnetic energy which might be
detected by the enemy. TOFC was the
first fiber optic connector actually
deployed under battlefied conditions, and
saw action in the Gulf War where it was
used to transmit firing signals to the
Patriot missile.
Ernest J. Jamieson
Retired Chemist
Brooklyn, N.Y.
During his tenure at the cities Service Oil
Co. in the late '60s, Ernest J. Jamieson
patented four inventions on the
improvement of current gasoline
compositions. One invention improved
hydrocarbon fuel compositions for use in
internal combustion engines by adding a
detergent that prevents icing and
corrosion. Another invention improved a
hydrocarbon fuel composition by adding
a X hydrocarbylacid phosphate salt that
reduced icing in the carburetor and 1
improved water tolerance, thus reducing
rust and hydrocarbon content in the
exhaust.
Kenneth J. Dunkley
President, Holospace Laboratories Inc.
Camp Hill, Pa.
Kenneth J. Dunkley discovered the
existence of two points located on the
periphery of a person's vision that, if
obstructed, will cause an ordinary picture
to appear three-dimensional. This
discovery led to the invention of the
Three-Dimensional Viewing Glasses
(3-DVG). The invention achieves 3-D
effects without lenses, mirrors or optical
elements of any kind.
Ruane Jeter
Industrial Designer
Ruje Designs
Los Angeles
Ruane Jeter invented a toaster with a
digital clock. It is called a Tiltster and
desired brownness is selected on a
control panel. The Tiltster not only toasts
bread, but bagels, waffles and Pop Tarts
as well. Jeter is currently seeking
investors for her invention.
Maxwell R. Mitchell
President
On-Line/Off-Line Inc.
Capitol Heights, Md.
Applying his many years of experience in
photography, Maxwell R. Mitchell has
developed a method to reduce documents
without losing resolution. The MICRO
ID SYSTEM, unlike a microfiche, can be
read easily using a special magnifying
glass --- no large, cumbersome machine
to operate. This special magnifying glass
is small enough to hold in your hand. To
envision the capability of this device,
imagine a 60-page document reduced to a
4 x 6-inch card. The system is relatively
inexpensive, costing under $100.
Kedrich Jackson
Hardware Design Engineer
Hewlett Packard
Camas, Wash.
Kedrich Jackson played an integral role in
the development of Hewlett Packard's
latest printers, HP's DeskJet 850C and
855C. The printers were almost delayed
for distribution because of the printer's
high noise level. But, Jackson developed
a spur gear which dampened the
vibration and thus reduced the noise. He
also invented a method to improve the
print quality of the printers.
Dr. Patricia E. Bath
Professor Emeritus of Ophthalmology
Los Angeles
Dr. Patricia E. Bath is a world-renowned
scientist who has dedicated most of her
life to the prevention and treatment of
blindness in African-Americans. She
revolutionized, cataract surgery by
inventing a laser called the Laserphaco