Draft:Oliver Aberth

Oliver George Aberth (23 July 1929 – 10 March 2019) was an American mathematician and computer scientist. After serving as Technical Corporal at Camp Detrick (now Fort Detrick), Maryland, from 1953 to 1955, Aberth studied physics at The City College of New York, followed by graduate study in Electrical Engineering at MIT.

In early 1951, while at MIT, Aberth created the world's first real-time computer demonstration, on the Lincoln Laboratory's Whirlwind I computer. The demonstration made use of Whirlwind's Cathode Ray Tube display, showing a 'bouncing ball', made up of a single dot, which would appear at the top of the screen, fall to the 'floor' and the bounce along, accompanied by sounds from the computer's speaker. The following year, Aberth's colleagues turned his demonstration into a game, but adding a gap in the floor, enabling players to aim the ball through the gap. This adapted version of 'bouncing ball' is the earliest known game played on a computer utilizing realtime graphics.

After completing his Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering at MIT, Abert earned a Doctorate in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. Aberth subsequently worked as a programmer for the early commercial computer UNIVAC I. Aberth taught Mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Rutgers University, The City College of New York, and for 29 years at Texas A&M University where he was a tenured professor. He was the author of numerous articles and books in the fields of computer science and mathematics, including Precise Numerical Analysis (1988), and Computable Calculus (2001).