IEEE recognized Weitzek as a milestone in the history of computing. Impressions from the ceremony held at the Weizmann Institute

The World Association of Electronics Engineers recognized the WEIZAC computer of the Weizmann Institute as a milestone in the history of computing. On Tuesday this week, a festive ceremony was held at the institute

This article was prepared for the Daily Mail by the People and Computers Group

If we were to carry out a project today like the construction of the Wyczak computer in 1953-4, the budget would be 40 million dollars. This is how the president of the Weizmann Institute, Prof. Daniel Zeifman, illustrates the cost of the first computer in the Middle East installed at the Weizmann Institute. The computer then cost 50 thousand dollars, about a fifth of the Weizmann Institute's budget at the time. The institute's budget today stands at 200 million dollars. The name of the computer is actually the acronym Weizmann Automatic Computer. It was actually a copy, improved by the way (in memory size), of von Neumann's computer in Boston. According to Prof. Zeifman, this was also the first attempt to transfer technology between a university abroad and an institution in Israel. And this was the starting point of the high-tech industry in Israel.

Prof. Zeifman was among the speakers at a special ceremony on the occasion of the announcement of the Waitzk computer as one of the milestones in the history of computing by the World Association of Electronics and Electrical Engineers, known by its initials as the Standards Organization - IEEE. The head of the mathematics department Zvi Elstein, who moderated the event, said that even Einstein was surprised and asked why Israel needed a computer (in English A COMPUTER, meaning emphasis on being unique).

Present and absent at the ceremony was the head of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics at the Weizmann Institute in the XNUMXs and XNUMXs, Prof. Haim Leib Pekris, who pressed Haim Weizmann to help him find funding for a computer to attract good Jewish scientists to Israel as well as to perform scientific calculations for the mathematics department and for other users, including the army.
Prof. Aviezri Frankel, who in his youth was one of the group that built and operated the computer, said that one of the interesting calculations made on the Weitzak computer was an attempt to find the pattern of tidal waves, considering the position of the sun and moon. He discovered a point in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between Africa and South America where the tidal phenomenon is not felt. It turns out that even the scientists involved in the field did not believe it, but they sent ships there that measured and found that he was right.

In order to get computer time, the army required Ben-Gurion's intervention with Prof. Pekris

Prof. Frankel said at the event that the man who was invited to build the computer, Jerry Estrin from John von Neumann's laboratory in Boston, arrived in Israel at the end of 1953 on an immigrant ship that docked in the port of Haifa and was surprised to see that there were no people in Israel who knew how to operate the computer, nor did they exchange - no vacuum tubes and no other part. Most of the parts were imported and some of them were manufactured in Israel in the shack of a small family factory in the area - which can be defined as the first high-tech company in Israel.

"Witzak was established within a year and a half and retired in 1963. The late Jerry Estrin Zvi Rizal and myself were computer builders." Frankel number. "On the day when we had to turn on the computer for the first time, Pekris appeared with a number of ammunition and an explosion occurred due to a short circuit. The members fled the room because of the smoke." Another anecdote is that due to the enormous heat it was necessary to build an entire cooling plant for the computer."

Prof. Frankel also said that when the army wanted computer time, the person responsible for the specific calculation had to contact the Chief of Staff, who contacted Ben Gurion, who made sure to contact Pekris, who did not always give the computer time. Von Neumann said about him that if you can't find a computer working 24 hours a day, Pekris will make sure to work with him. By the way, Jerry Estrin, the computer builder, is still alive and even sent congratulatory words that were read at the event, in which he said that he was satisfied that he had contributed to the creation of an active high-tech industry.

Engineers are needed

Elisha Yanai, Vice President of Motorola Global and Chairman of the Israel Electronics Industries Association, presented the state of Israeli hi-tech and complimented the Weizmann Institute, but said that in order to increase the number of engineers, the state should also allow colleges to train engineers. "Maybe they are not engineers at the same level, but there is a demand for engineers at all levels, and we need all the engineers to double the industry's exports from 16 billion to 32 billion dollars within five years. According to Elisha Yanai, Veitzek today has 1,200 descendants in the form of Israeli high-tech companies in the fields of computing and communication.

Additional lectures at the event dealt with the connection between the computer and the brain, Prof. Shimon Ullman, asked if it is possible to compare the methods of operation and the result of the operation between the brain and the computer? Why, he asked, can the computer replace a financial analyst, but not a taxi driver? Ullman later spoke about artificial intelligence and said that we lack an understanding of how to bring the brain to an insight similar to the human brain, and this is not a question of the power of computers. Prof. Ullman also talked about computers that today are able to allow disabled people to move their limbs using brain commands.
Dr. Eran Segal, whose research was recently published in the science pages of the New York Times, spoke about the important role of computers in the study of the human genome.

One of the cabinets that housed the computer's components was placed in the entrance lobby of the Ziskind building, one of the buildings at the Weizmann Institute used by the computer science department. The plaque from the nearby memorial board was removed by Prof. Michael Leitner, IEEE president, who was acknowledged by the organization's representatives in Israel, led by Prof. Yaakov Baal Shem, who brought the request to recognize the computer as a milestone in the development of computing to the history committee of the organization, and after examining the data and interviews with those involved, decided The organization to recognize Weitzek's historic contribution to the Israeli high-tech industry.