Computing, IT & AI
First computers at ISI Kolkata and the ISIJU-1
1953-1964 CESamarendra Kumar Mitra, Indian Statistical Institute and Jadavpur UniversityISI analog computer (1953); HEC-2M (1956); ISIJU-1 (1964)West Bengal
1953
India's first analog computer, its first imported digital computers, and its first transistorised computer.
- Dated
- 1953–1964
- As scholars put it
- 1953-1964 CE
- Originator
- Samarendra Kumar Mitra, Indian Statistical Institute and Jadavpur University
- Source text
- ISI analog computer (1953); HEC-2M (1956); ISIJU-1 (1964)
- Region
- West Bengal
- Discipline
- Computing, IT & AI
- Evidence
- Documented
- Confidence
- High
- Verification
- Verified-web
Background
At P. C. Mahalanobis's Indian Statistical Institute, Samarendra Kumar Mitra designed an analog computer in 1953 to solve simultaneous linear equations. ISI then hosted the first digital computers in South Asia: a British HEC-2M (1956) and a Soviet URAL-1 (1959). With Jadavpur University it built the transistor-based ISIJU-1, operational in 1964.
Significance
The first second-generation (transistorised) computer built in India. ISI hosted the first convention of the Computer Society of India in 1965 and became a centre for pattern recognition and computer vision research.
Path to modern innovation
ISI remains a leading centre for statistics, computer science and cryptology.
Global impact
- Computing at ISI supported the large-scale national sample surveys used for economic planning.
Further reading
Related
Corrections and additional sources: edit IND-375 on GitHub.