Paul Gray saw the near future.
Back within the 1980s, well before other universities chose to create an info Science program, Gray had been founding one at CGU.
\”Paul was a real pioneer. He was amazing,\” said President Len Jessup, who studied management computer as a graduate student and frequently met Gray at information systems conferences. \”And this exhibit is a superb tribute to his leadership within the field.\”
Jessup joined a sizable group of Gray's former colleagues, friends, and admirers at the end of September to celebrate the re-launch of the Paul Gray Pc Museum. Also speaking in the event were Cultural Studies alumna Kiera Peacock (who come up with new exhibit), History Department Chair Josh Goode, CISAT Director Lorne Olfman, and Terri Childs, Gray's daughter.
For many years, specimens from Gray's assortment of early computers have been a familiar sight in the lobby from the university's Academic Computing Building. But Peacock, who also studied Museum Studies, decided to take her desire for museum work and apply it to refreshing the exhibit-and giving greater attention to the work assertive who touched a lot of endures campus and off.
\”The work that I did for [a transdisciplinary course about technology and science museums] developed into a masters thesis project and finally led to a specific item within the museum today,\” said Peacock, who is even the museum’s executive director.
Six large exhibit cases, located on the third and fourth floors of the ACB lobby, greet visitors with holy relics from the dawn from the personal computing era.
There you’ll discover the do-it-yourself Altair 8800 (1974), Tandy/Radioshack's TRS-80 (1977), and 1985's Commodore Amiga along with the IBM Thinkpad (1994), the ground-breaking Apple II (1977) — the first personal computer with color graphics — and many more.
Gray's daughter expressed her thanks to the university for its support of her father and her gratitude for that exhibit developed by Peacock.
\”I never met Dr. Gray, but I think we would have gotten along,\” Peacock said. \”I recently heard an anecdote about him, that he could be seen speeding around campus, hunched over in his haste to get to work. I really like that, it makes me feel a kind of kinship with this brilliant information scientist knowing he too had a compulsive desire to make progress on the project.\”
THE Power PERSUASION: In a recent piece published at The Conversation, CISAT's Samir Chatterjee helps make the case for implementing what is known as \”persuasive technology\” to help people manage their chronic illnesses and enhance their behavior simultaneously.
It would be a chance phone call, in March 2021, that started \”a long and fruitful collaboration\” between Chatterjee's IDEA Lab and Loma Linda University SACHS Heart Clinic.
Working with Loma Linda \”was a vital part of helping my lab identify the potential and pitfalls of using digital technologies to improve chronic disease management,\” writes Chatterjee, who's the Fletcher Jones Chair of Technology Design & Management.
How did Chatterjee and the Loma Linda counterparts help heart failure patients better handle their circumstances?
Chatterjee explains how external motivators-like a MyHeart app, a Bluetooth-enabled weight scale, blood glucose meter, and other equipment-provide patients having a greater sense of control and empowerment using their situations.
Read much more of Chatterjee's article.
