Santa Barbara Computer Used by Harvard Group For Mathematical Study

A computer 3000 miles away is being used in a seminar at Harvard studying mathematics and how to teach it.

A television-like receiver in Cambridge is connected by cable and microwave with the computer, which is at the University of California in Santa Barbara.

The computer accepts problems wired from Cambridge and translates its calculations into televised diagrams showing the step-by-step process of solving the problems.

Anthony G. Oettinger '51, Gordon McKay Professor of Applied Mathematics and leader of the graduate seminar "Technological Aids to Creative Thought," first thought of linking Harvard to the Santa Barbara computer more than a year ago.

The hook-up, completed last December, will be used until the $5 million expansion of the Harvard Computing Center is finished in 1963.

Research grants from the Advance Research Projects Agency of the Defense Department paid the $10,000 tab for the hook-up with Santa Barbara.

Norman, Zachary, manager of the Harvard Computing Center, said yesterday that at least one of the computers to be installed as part of Harvard's computer expansion program will be equipped to transmit televised answers as the Santa Barbara computer does.

Harvard may then become a regional center for teaching by computer, Zechary said.