Dedication of Computing Center Will Feature University's 7090; Pusey to Address 150 Scientists

President Pusey and Harvey Brooks, dean of Engineering and Applied Physics, will address 150 computer scientists Friday at the dedication of the Harvard Computing Center in the Jefferson Physical Laboratory.

The Center was created this year to provide research facilities for all departments and is housed in Harvard's Computation Laboratory.

Anthony G. Oettinger, associate professor of Applied Mathematics and head of the faculty committee in charge of the Center, said that its major aim "will be to develop new and advanced computing theory and to open up new fields of application." It is hoped that the Center's facilities will benefit research groups both within and outside of the University, he said.

Incorporated in the Computing Center is a unique training program which will allow graduate and postdoctoral students and computer experts from industry to spend a year or two at the Center, taking courses in their own fields and in computer usage and theory.

Old Computers Replaced

The main attraction of the new Center is the new IBM 7090 computer. It has replaced most of the large machines formerly housed in the Computation Laboratory, with only sections of Mark I, the world's first large-scale digital computer, being retained.

Mark I was developed some 20 years ago by Howard H. Alken, professor emeritus of Applied Mathematics, in collaboration with IBM engineers.

High-speed computers have become an irreplaceable research aid in nearly every department and school of the University. Using machines at Harvard and M.I.T., scientists have, in past years, programmed a computer to simulate a complex business operation, to create a "model" river system now being used on problems of water logging and salinity in the Indus River Basin, and to help determine the authors of the Federalist Papers.