IBM's Centennial and Almaden's 25th Anniversary Celebration

IBM senior vice president and director of research, John Kelly poses with IBM Research - Almaden vice president and lab director Josephine Cheng, and former lab directors, IBM Fellows, Distinguished Engineers and Academy of Technology members to celebrate IBM's Centennial and Almaden's 25th Anniversary.

With nearly 100 years under its belt, IBM's vision for the future has given scientists here at Almaden and around the world the freedom to work on long-term exploratory research to push the boundaries of science and technology, along with the responsibility to help make IBM succeed today. During Almaden's 25th Anniversary and IBM's Centennial celebration at the research lab in San Jose, California, an audience of over 300 current and former IBMers reflected on some of the discoveries that put IBM's San Jose Research division on the map, and learned about the projects of today that will change the way the world works.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed: "IBM was in San Jose and the Silicon Valley before there even was a Silicon Valley."

The celebratory event, held on Friday, June 3rd, featured esteemed speakers from inside and outside of IBM. San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed shared opening remarks to kick off the program, beaming with pride over IBM's 70+ years of technological achievements in San Jose that ultimately led to the creation of the Silicon Valley. Beyond the hard disk drives and relational database inventions, Mayor Reed pointed out IBM's role as one of the top 10 largest employers in the city - and commended IBM for allowing the creation of jobs to the communities and revenues to the city. "There is no better corporate citizen than IBM," Mayor Reed said. "IBMers contribute to the community far beyond their job, helping in many other ways."

IBM Historian Emerson Pugh: Building the Information Age at the first IBM San Jose Laboratory

Beginning with a description of IBM's post World War II Efforts - like using punched card equipment to maintain personnel records for the armed forces, predict weather conditions over the English Channel, break enemy codes, calculate trajectories of artillery shells and analyze airframe designs - Emerson captivated the audience with a historical journey through IBM's early days in San Jose. He included some interesting anecdotal references; for example, during the war, the word 'computer' referred to men and women that spent their days doing calculations (computing) with pens and paper and books. The audience found it amusing that back in those days, Thomas J. Watson Sr. felt that to call an IBM product a computer would suggest that it could replace people and their work, resulting in bad publicity.

When the first IBM site was built in San Jose at 99 Notre Dame, Reynold B. Johnson was selected to manage the laboratory and doubled his staff of 30 employees to 60 over the course of a year. Over time, Johnson developed a lab concept that the number one priority of each engineer was to help other engineers in the laboratory. The second priority was to work on one’s own assignment. Johnson’s policy has been given credit by many engineers for the laboratory’s rapid technical progress.

The one project that captured the minds of the entire lab population was the invention and development of the world's first magnetic hard disk drive. At over 3 tons with 5 total MB of storage, the first delivery to a customer was in June 1956, with an estimated purchase price of about $160,000.

IBM Senior Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Jon Iwata: "It is a pleasure to be back home."

A graduate of San Jose State University, with his first IBM job being in the communications department at Almaden in 1984, Jon Iwata is very proud of his roots in San Jose and proud of his roots in this part of the company. Jon reflected on the contributions of IBM Research - Almaden that are represented across the world in IBM's 100 Icons of Progress.

"To think about IBM at 100, what is the significance of this company after a century?," Jon asked. "It isn't an easy question to answer. There aren't too many technology companies that have been around for 25 or 50 years, let alone a century."

"It's easier to measure the contributions of an oil company or a car company or a bank, but for IBM, there isn't one thing. We think there are 3 different perspectives or lenses to use to look at IBM's history."

To understand what the contributions of our company are, IBM reflects on those areas: pioneering the science of information, making the world work better and inventing the modern corporation. Taking the audience through 100 years of iconic milestones that represent each of these areas, Jon pointed out Almaden's significance in marking progress in the scientific and technical fields not just in the Silicon Valley but around the world.

IBM Senior Vice President and Director of Research, John Kelly III: "IBM believes that Research is fundamental to the success of our company, past, present and future."

The grand finale of Almaden's Centennial program featured the Senior Vice President and Director of Research, John Kelly. He posed a challenge: What will be the next RAMAC or the next microdrive; the next great discovery in San Jose that will change the world and lay the groundwork for the next 100 years of innovation?

Improvements in the performance of technology, John said, are due to continuous improvement mixed with disruptive innovation - which occurs through changes in computing paradigms and breakthroughs that overcome previous technological and physical barriers. Dr. Kelly believes the four disruptive technologies that will take us into the future - led by IBM Research on a global scale - are learning systems, big/fast data, exascale systems and nanotechnology.

"Discontinuities allow the industry to build. I believe that many companies are good at either continual improvement or disruptive innovation but few, if any, companies are good at both," John stated. "You must be good at both or you become one of the thousands of companies in our industry that have died." IBM Research in the Silicon Valley has sustained, with the Almaden lab celebrating its 25th year, while many companies in that span of time started and ended.

"We are the only company that's made it through industry phases like mechanics, electro-mechanics, vacuum tube technology, discrete transistor, integrated circuitry and nanotechnology," he said. "We are now transitioning from the integrated circuit to the nanoworld. Citing examples such as the recent MRSA treatment breakthrough and cognitive computing advances, Dr. Kelly expressed his gratitude and pride for the work Almaden is doing that will shape IBM's next 100 years.

Almaden Open House

During an open house event in the afternoon, IBMers brought their children, parents, spouses and friends through different lab tours, demonstrations and project presentations to learn all about what IBMers at Almaden are doing today. There was also a historical artifact display, which included a full section of the newspaper announcing IBM's new San Jose laboratory. At that time, a one-story home in the Willow Glen neighborhood was being offered at $14,500. A team even mocked up a 1980's office for people to check out, equipped with a Selectra/Wheelwriter Typewriter, technical notebooks from researchers in the 1980's, dot matrix printouts, floppy disks, a NOVUS calculater, a vintage PS2 monitor and computer, Rolm phone, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy game, a Motorola cell phone from the 1980's and much more.

Research teams showed the younger crowd a cool way to make music with punched card "musical notes" and also created ice cream using liquid nitrogen, with samples for everyone. IBM Fellow John Cohn, shared his experience as a Discovery Channel reality television star, as a member of "The Colony" cast - a group of selected industry experts, challenged to live life under post-apocalypse conditions - only given a few trinkets and tools, from which the team assembled gas powered vehicles, solar panels, water filters and a means to prepare food.

An overall entertaining day for IBMers, IBM alumni and retirees, and friends and family, IBM's Centennial celebration and Almaden's 25th Anniversary was a truly historical event that will be remembered for years to come. You can view more pictures from the event here. Also, you can download a historical timeline highlighting IBM Research accomplishments in San Jose here.