UCLA – Early 1977

The faculty of the computer science department was meeting before the start of the term to discuss what they had learned from the last term. The department itself was still new, having been officially formed in 1968, they were still making their way through the new emerging field. Many of the professors were concerned with their ability to keep up with the speed at which the field was moving in the real world.

The purpose of this particular meeting was to discuss how to create and implement curriculum faster so they could try to keep up with the industry. They were one of the top schools offering programs in computer science and engineering, but as more and more schools were joining the ranks, it was harder to keep up. If they didn’t try to stay ahead of all the others they would lose ground and standing.

The current thoughts were, that since most of the industry was right in their back yard that they could work with them to keep current and offer first crack at their graduates to those same companies. It seemed like a win/win for everyone. Most concurred with this notion, but they also needed to come up with a way to not only get the information into their program but to also make sure that those teaching it were knowledgeable in it.

Offering visiting professor titles to industry experts was one way to go. Asking them to teach a couple of nights a week would be good for the university and the person’s credibility. It again seemed like a reasonable solution, but it was just a stop gap. Real solutions were needed. They had assembled in a classroom, more like a small auditorium, to have their discussion. After about an hour there was a knock at one of the doors. The professor at the time leading the talk went and answered it. Chancellor Young was standing there, the head of the University. He stepped inside and looked at the gathering of teachers.

“I have something I would like you gentlemen to evaluate for me.”

“Of course,” came the voice of one of those seated, he got up and made his way down to the front.

“Professor Estrin, if I remember right,” Young said.

“Yes sir. So, what can we do for you?”

“I have a young man here, right out of the service that would like to advance his studies. He claims to already know everything that you all can teach him and is willing to prove it.”

“Well, if we did that for all the kids, we would never get any work done. Besides out undergraduate program is very intense.”

“I’m not making this request without cause, shall we say that he has made sure your department and the school has a better position in regards to our endowment.”

“Are you saying he is bribing his way to an accelerated degree and you want us to partake in this?”

“He is not good sir,” came a voice. Soon a younger man was coming through the door with a large bag. He walked to the center of the front where a table and podium were. “Did I throw some money at your chancellor? Yes, I did. Not to buy anything though but time with you gentlemen. However, whatever you all determine I will go with. If you think me a fraud then we shall leave it at that.”

Estrin turned and looked at the man. He thought him arrogant right away. “What makes you think you don’t have to go through what everyone else does to get a BS?”

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“Good question, because I know more than all of you. That is not a boast, just fact. I will stand here and answer any and all questions, take any tests, and so forth. As a side note, I am not seeking a bachelors. I got that already while I was in the service. I want a Masters in engineering and a PhD in Computer Science.”

All the gathering of professors could do is stare at him. While they did he turned and started to write equations on the board. All of them pertained to the engineering program at the school. He then started to pull components out of the bag and laying them all on the table. “So first off my name is Todd Matherson. What I have here are common components that I have modified slightly using the information on the board behind me. I invite you all to come up and look at them.”

“To what end is this?” Estrin asked.

“That they are all legitimate. Once we can agree on that I will assemble a system that I designed and created, then all of you can test it out. All of this while you watch me and ask whatever you want.”

“Well, I suppose you did donate to the school and we are all here anyway. We can at least do that for the Chancellor.”

“Good, then I will leave you all too it,” Mt. Young said as he smiled and left the room.

Of course in reality all of this was child’s play to Todd in his other life as Tommy. He would obtain a PhD in computer engineering from MIT in 25 years. He was fixing computers that were advanced to what existed in 1977 when he was twelve. There was nothing that they could ask him he did not know is spades. The trick was to make sure he didn’t give them too much in the realm of what was to come.

The group of men studied the items on the table for over an hour. When they were all satisfied with them they took seats and talked amongst themselves for a few minutes. Finally Professor Estrin spoke, “Fine. Assemble your machine while we talk to you, but you have an hour.”

“Agreed,” Todd replied as he started to piece the machine together. Then the questions started. They were easy enough at first and he handled them without missing a beat. The stepped up their game as he went on. They thought they were being tricky by tossing in a couple of questions that either had no answer or were wrong based on the way they were presented. After forty-five minutes Todd plugged in the machine and powered it on while answering, up until then, had been their hardest question. It was still easy.

What he had assembled was a rough version of an Apple IIe, though no one besides Tommy knew that. They now came over and stared at the little computer with a color screen. Estrin was the first to start messing with it. He had to almost be pried off of it by his colleagues as he was amazed at it.

“So what does a guy have to do to get some lunch around here?” Todd asked as the teachers stood around watching whoever’s turn it was on the machine. They went through the basic programs and even a couple of games. Estrin looked up and then went to a phone on a wall and made a call. A while later a door opened and an attractive woman entered with some sandwiches. She set them on a table and then came back with some drinks. Todd saw her and winked. The fact she was looking back at him was not a big deal to him, what was, but not yet was the fact that he would see her again and again at other times.

After all of the men were done messing with the machines they sat back down. Todd could tell they were all impressed. “So is there anything else you want to ask me?”

“I think we are all impressed with your skills. But we have been talking. Simply giving you two graduate degrees would seem questionable. So what we propose is that you take all the tests for all the courses we require. Simply take this next semester to allow us to administer these as well as talk and question you more.”

“I think I can live with that. Concerning a Doctoral Thesis?”

“We all agree that you just presented it.”

“That is fabulous. Now if you don’t mind I have to go see Dr. Young again. I told him that if you fine gentlemen found me worthy that I would sign a certain royalty deal that would enable your fine University to add more to your endowment from the technology I have just shown you.” The small crowd muttered a moment.

“That could add potentially millions to our coffers,” Estrin said.

“I know.”

“Do you plan on making and selling these yourself? That seems like a lot to do.”

“Oh, heavens know, I have other things to do. Later there will be two guys named Steve coming by to sign the deal as well. They are going to make the thing. I am just the idea man.”

Soon after this day UCLA became one of the only Universities that never had to fundraise.