I've finally run out of material from our reunion, and there are (happily) no obituaries this month. Only one classmate sent me some news, and the rest of what you read here is sewn together from thin cloth.
The Institution of Engineering and Technology is the British equivalent of the IEEE. In a column on their web site published Jan. 19, 2009 [http://kn.theiet.org/magazine/issues/0901/people-make-it-happen-4-0901.cfm#] there's a column called "The People Who Make It Happen", short biographies of 25 people that the IET has selected the 25 of the most influential figures in the world of engineering and technology today. Our own *Victor Scheinman is among them. Vic is described in the article as "The Godfather of Robotics". Vic graduated in Course 16 (Aero Astro) and is quoted as saying he's proud to be an MIT alum because "… I think that it had a profound effect on my career, in that I feel I was able to apply my aerospace background to robot design, which included lightweight structures and good control systems.” While working at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab in the late 1960s as a mechanical engineer, Vic designed several hydraulic arms that were very fast, but which were very difficult to control and not really compatible with the computer environment. Eventually he invented the Stanford Arm, a six-degrees of freedom all-electric mechanical manipulator that was one of the first robots designed exclusively for computer control. In 1973 he came to the AI lab at MIT to work with Marvin Minksy. Vic said, “He asked me to build the smallest robot that I could build that would still be practical. I designed what became the PUMA robot - it was a small robot with the mechanism weighing about 15 lbs - it had six degrees of freedom again.” The PUMA (Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly, or Programmable Universal Manipulation Arm) was the forerunner of the industrial robot. He told E&T: “I consider myself to be a true robotisist, but I am more than that: I really feel that I am an engineer and I feel very strongly about that.” On the IET web site Vic is just a few column inches away from a few other notable engineers - Archimedes, Leonardo DaVinci, Michael Faraday, Nikola Tesla, Guglielmo Marconi and the Wright Brothers. Good company. Congratulations to "The Godfather."
We're entering the season of the half centuries. This year most of us have celebrated our 50 year high school reunions. *Ira Blumenthal, *Bob Kurtz, *Frank Model and *Lewis Neuman attended various events for the 50 year reunion of the Bronx High School of Science class of 1959 in New York City, over the May 1-3 weekend. I helped organize this reunion, and I was very much looking forward to going, because Barbara, my wife of 45 years and a frequent visitor to MIT during our days there, met in our American History class senior year of high school. Unfortunately I was laid up with some health problems (now on the mend) and I only got to go to one of the 3 scheduled events. But I had very good care - Bob Kurtz was my doctor during that strange week in New York. In 1959 Bronx Science sent 16 of its sons and one daughter, to MIT. Actually the daughter, Gloria Goldberg Bloom, left Bronx Science after her junior year and graduated from MIT with the class of 1962. Of the 16 sons, 14 graduated with us, and 2 went on to other universities.
For the last 5 years I've been a volunteer docent at the Palomar Observatory in San Diego County. I lead public tours at this famous place. I call Palomar "The Cathedral of Astronomy." I think that when people imagine an observatory the picture that comes to mind is the gleaming white building on Palomar Mountain that houses the 200 inch Hale Telescope. The Observatory includes much more than the Hale Telescope, of course, but that's the image people call up. Palomar is owned and operated by Cal Tech, and I often take some ribbing from the observatory staff when I wear my MIT sweatshirt on days when I'm leading tours. But I point out to them that Palomar Observatory was founded by George Ellery Hale, MIT class of 1890, who with Robert Millikan (of oil drop experiment and electron charge fame) transformed the obscure Pasadena technical school called the Throop Institute into the modern powerhouse of education and research that we know today as Cal Tech. There's a bust of Hale in the lobby of the 200 inch building, and I always rub his nose for good luck when I enter the building. I've become something of a "Hale-ophile", and tomorrow (May 28) I'm giving a talk to the MIT Club of Southern California Orange County Group about Hale and his MIT years. One of the features of the talk is a copy of Hale's MIT transcript (his grade point average was about 4.1). I wonder if anyone will be looking at my MIT transcript 119 years after I graduated from the Institute. Hale was an important solar astronomer, and for his senior thesis in Course 8 in 1890 he invented the spectroheliograph, a device for taking pictures of the surface of the Sun in daylight. The spectroheliograph revolutionized solar astronomy.
Regards to all. You can reach me at: Mike Bertin, 22 Gillman St, Irvine, CA 92612. E-mail: MCB1@aol.com. If you want to schmooze, call me at (949) 786-9450