VNR: 50th anniversary celebration for UH Mānoa’s ground-breaking ALOHAnet

Link to video (details below): https://bit.ly/3wy1bed

WHAT: Hundreds of speakers, panelists and participants gathered virtually to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ALOHAnet with a symposium commemorating the pioneering system’s impact on technology worldwide. Born out of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Engineering in June 1971, the ALOHAnet protocol is the basis of all wireless communications—including mobile, satellite, cellular and WiFi. ALOHAnet was the first system to transmit data into a computer using radio waves, and it led to the development of Ethernet and personal wireless communication technologies. 

Norman Abramson—one of the original founders of ALOHAnet, and former UH Mānoa professor of electrical engineering and chair of the Information and Computer Sciences Department—died in December 2020.

WHEN: June 16, 2021 via Zoom

WHO:

Gov. David Ige (UH Mānoa electrical engineering alumnus) 

UH President David Lassner 

College of Engineering Dean Brennon Morioka

Google Chief Internet Evangelist and “Father of the Internet” Vint Cerf (pronounced “surf”)

ALOHAnet co-creator Frank Kuo

Oʻahu Economic Development Board President and CEO Pono Shim

Corporation for National Research Initiatives Chairman, CEO and President Robert Kahn

Additional details: 

• The university just announced a new endowed scholarship in Abramson’s name that will benefit graduate students interested in research related to wireless data networks. Visit UH Foundation’s website to learn more.

• In October 2020, ALOHAnet was recognized by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, pronounced “I-triple-E”) as an IEEE milestone.

VIDEO BROLL: (1:25)

0:00-0:06 - ALOHAnet satellite dish on the roof of Holmes Hall with some of its founders 

0:06-0:12 - Formatting of the ALOHA packets, as well as the retransmission protocols in the ALOHAnet were implemented by the ALOHA Terminal Control Unit (TCU) shown here

0:12-0:18 - Materials from ALOHAnet at an event in San Jose, California in January 2020

0:18-0:24 - ALOHAnet Symposium - College of Engineering Dean Brennon Morioka

0:24-0:30 - ALOHAnet Symposium - UH President David Lassner

0:30-0:36 - ALOHAnet Symposium - Gov. David Ige

0:36-0:42 - ALOHAnet Symposium - Panel with David Lassner, Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn

0:42-0:48 - ALOHAnet Symposium - Panel with ALOHAnet technical staff

0:48-1:25 - IEEE Dedication ceremony in October 2020

SOUNDBITES:

Brennon Morioka, UH Mānoa College of Engineering dean 

(0:13)

“ALOHAnet is just one of those primary examples on the kind of legacy that the University of Hawaiʻi and the College of Engineering can leave not just with our own community but beyond our shores.”

(0:18)

“The reach that Norm Abramson had with his students and everything that they did beyond that—beyond their time here at the university—is just amazing and it talks to the legacy and the impact of these people who were really ahead of their time.”