Arnaud from KU Leuven to Columbia University

Hereby I would like to take the opportunity to thank again Nokia Bell Labs to make this exchange possible. I had the great honor to be invited to Nokia Bell Labs at Murray Hill, to attend the celebration of 50 years of UNIX. It was an unforgettable two days event to say the very least. It made me appreciate and understand more how much engineers shaped the past and continue to shape present and future. Nokia Bell Labs is certainly entangled in this story and will remain so for the coming years.

The first morning was filled with panel discussions or presentations about the UNIX story. The remarkable thing was that the people who invented UNIX, C, C++, AWK, YACC and many more groundbreaking innovations in the field of programming, were present in person! One of these engineers is for example Dr. Robert Wilson, who received with Dr. Arno Allan Penzias in 1978 the Nobel prize in Physics for their discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation, while working at Nokia Bell Labs. I had the great honor of meeting and talking shortly to him.

As an Electrical Engineer I was filled with awe to be at the birthplace of my field of engineering. I could see the actual first transistor as well as the lab where it was made. This was part of the afternoon, during very interesting tours around the Nokia Bell Labs facility. I was also proud to see during the tour a PCB as “Universal copper analog-front end for XG-cables” made by Nokia Bell Labs and ESAT-MICAS. This technology is also directly related to my internship performed during the summer.

This was certainly a life changing experience to be at such an esteemed event with so many great names of the engineering world.

Some interesting references definitely worth visiting

https://www.bell-labs.com/unix50/
https://www.bell-labs.com/var/articles/there-anybody-out-there-proving-big-bang-theory/