Remembrance of Things Past
Luncheon Speech to the 1985 Conference on Decision and Control
George Zames
Program, which eventually came to be known
as Project ATP and gave rise to the so-called
ATP language. My specific task was to implement what was then an absolutely revohtionary idea, namely, agraphics program
which would show these ashtrays before they
were actually milled.
It was a lot of fun for a while,but then the
programming got terribly boring, particularly as one had to feed in the data on tape
into a telex machine. Also, it was frustrating
not knowing how to blank out hidden lines.
So, in a moment of desperation, I switched to
the communications group of Y. W . Lee and
the late Norbert Wiener.
Norbert Wiener
There is a tradition that has been established by the previous two recipients of the
Control SystemsScienceand
Engineering
Award of taking five minutes to reminisce
about the “early days.” Let me not argue with
tradition. My earlydays were in the late
1950s when I arrived at MIT as a student,
from Canada via England and an assortment
of other countries.
One Computer
Gordon Brown had just pronounced controls dead, and ordered us (he was not a man
whose orders were taken lightly) to go into
computers, which I did- in the singular:
there was then one computer in the Boston
area. Called Whirlwind, it occupied a twostory building on Mass Avenue and, if one
were lucky, it would run an entire hour before one of its 16,000 vacuum tubes conked
out. If it ever had to be shut down and restarted, lights dimmed in the entire neighborhood because it used so much power.
The project I became associated with had
the object of developing a language for programming the numerically controlled milling
machine, which had just been developed at
the servo lab. The language would be used to
instruct the machine to manufacture small
metal parts. I picked up an ashtray off a
nearby table and said, “why don’t we start
with ashtrays,” and this became the Ashtray
April 1986
Norbert Wiener, as you know, was the
celebrated mathematicianwhocoined
the
term cybernetics. He was famousfor his
many eccentricities. He did his mental work
walking up and down the corridors, and every once in a while he would stop by our lab.
where six or seven graduate students had
desks. He would sit down at a handy desk
and try to engage us in shop talk. Since he
was a mathematician, he liked to talk about
hardware, because this was the late 1950s
and then, as now, it was very important to
show that one was “practical.” So he would
talk about components and, in particular,
about multipliers. He was convinced that the
future of science depended on the development of a very reliable analog multiplier.
Few in those days believed that real-time
simulation could be done economically by
digital means.
Wiener would embarrass us lowly students
from time to time by asking our opinion:
“What do you think ofmy latest work on
Wiener-Hemite polynomials? Do you think
my paper is any good? Do you think what
I’m doing is worthwhile?” And we, in all
seriousness, would reassure the great man
that his mathematics was vital to the future of
technology. At that point, he would switch
topics and, as he liked to show off his knowledgeof many languages, wouldproceed
to impart invaluable bits of information such
as, “Say, do you know how to say ‘chewing gum’ in Spanish?; or ‘cauliflower’ in
Chinese?’
I will spare you the story of how, in one of
the great events in the annals of science, Nor-
bert Wiener met the late Niels Bohr, with
myself as intermediary, playing the role of
“typical American student.” I will not mention any Kalman stories, of which there are
many. or even any Lofti Zadeh stories. Instead let us skipacoupleof
years to the
arrival in Cambridge of a bright-eyed, streetsmart young lad in a Sears-Roebuck outfit,
from Cleveland,Ohio, whosename was
Roger Brockett, followed shortly thereafter
by the ebullient and irrepressible Michael
Athanasiades ( k h a n s ) . Thethree of us
shared office space in the basement of what
is now LIDS (the Laboratory for Information
and Decision Systems). In the tradition of
MIT(!), we were the best of friends, always
cooperating, and helping, but occasionally,
unavoidably, elbowing each other. In fact, I
do recall on one memorable occasion, in a
particularly tense and competitive moment,
being shoved inmy ribs by Michael, and
have held him in the greatest respect and
even fond esteem ever since.
NASA Cambridge
The scene then shifts a few years to the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Cambridge. A number of us concluded that the only way wecould do research
and live in the style to which we hoped to
become accustomed was to persuadethat
venerable organization that the future of the
space effort depended on research in control
theory. So the Office of Control Theory was
founded. It was headed by the late Hugo
Schuck and George Kovatch, and the charter
memberswereMurrayWonham,Steve
Morse, Bill Wollovich, Marvin Freedman,
Peter Falb, Harold Kushner, and myself.
I must apologize for some “in” stories, but
Peter Falb used to approach us individually
in the men’s room, and whisper: “Psst, do
you want to write a paper together?” Harold
Kushnerappliedhisstochasticfiltering
theory, and some quantum mechanics that
he was busy learning on the side, to the problem of communicating with distant civilizations-or Mars. Murray Wonham applied
geometric andalgebraiccontrol
theory to
come up with an absolutely remarkable invention. He (or was it Marvin Freedman?)
invented an airport runway whose shape was
circular. This was going to solve the airport
congestion problem, or perhaps the pollution
31
problem. Anyway,it was something very
socially redeeming.Steve Morse was the
gourmet in residence, and Bill Wollovich,
who was then a youngster, was everybody's
mascot and occasional messengerboy.
In 1970, President Nixon inhis wisdom,
decided to close the center. He fired all the
scientists, but wisely kept all the secretaries
he
not fire
and
staff.
Since
them nearly as easily, he converted the enterprise into a center for transportation systems.
And that is how I started my present career,
which, as many of you know, is that of expert
on public transit systems. Theother members
of this group, whose names I mentioned, all
went their separate ways. never to be heard
from again! I wonderwherethey all are now.*
My five minutes are up. I have always
thought that doing research is its own reward.One has so much fun atit that it is
embarrassing to accept pay for what I consider to be playing. But, despite this embarrassment. I do enjo? the recognitiorz. In fact,
I love it.' Thank you very much.
*For the
benefit
of anyone so uninformed,
they
are
all famousprofessorsandhouseholdnamesin
control.
State of the Society
William R. Perkins, Society President -1985
finances under control, and we seem to have
finally reached that goal. We gratefully appreciate your support and understanding of
the corrective measures we have had to take.
including increased dues. careful page control in the lEEE Transactions on Automatic
Conrrol, and a slowdown in the development
of the IEEE Control Sxsrems Maga:ine. The
financial base of the Society must be strong.
or all of our major decisions will be financedriven. an unfortunate circumstance for any
technical society. With Alex's excellent management, and with Jim Melsa's continuing
careful control as Financial Vice President
for 1986. we can now turn to other issues.
Finances
As you recall, we suffered threeconsecutive years of deficits in 1980, 1981, and
1982. Following some corrective actions we
enjoyed surpluses in 1983 and 1984, and we
are heading for our third consecutive surplus
in 1985. Financial Vice President Alex Levis
is predicting a surplus for 1985 of more than
$100K, bringing ow reserves above $300K.
We need to reach reserves around WOOK to
meet IEEE guidelines. For several years your
Society officers have worked to bring our
From Luncheon Speech at the IEEE Conference on
Decisionand Control, Fort Lauderdale, Florida,
December 12, 1985.
32
Magazine
MembershipVicePresident
Jim h.Ielsa
reports a membership growth in 1985 of less
than 1 a.Of evengreaterconcern
is the
large yearly turnover in ourmembership.
President-Elect Jerry hlendel made member
retention a focus of his Long Range Planning
Committee in 1985. and he will continue to
concentrateonthisissue
as President in
1986, as will incoming IMembership Vice
President Jane Cullum.
Herb Rauch has had a strong first year as
Editor of the IEEE Control Svstems Magazine. I am sure you have been pleased with
this year's articles. Your Board of Governors
has decided that one of the f i s t consequences
of our improved financial situation will be an
expansion of the Magazine. You can look
forward to six issues of the Magazine in
1986. The membership will welcome this increased frequency. as well as the increased
total pages. I am sure, and the Magazine
will become an even more valuable societal
activity.
Local Chapters
Transactions
TransactionsEditor Abe Haddad and I
were recently invited to Pittsburgh by the
localChapterChairman.GeneKing
of
Alcoa, to discuss the relevance of the Society
to engineers in industry.Communications
between Society officersand the chapters
have been virtually nonexistent for our Society. and for most other IEEE societies as
ujell. Thus. we welcomed this opportunity
for communication, even on atopic so potentially lethal as relevance. I asked the people
at that meeting what we might do to assist
chapters and to establish useful communica-
Transactions Editor Abe Haddad and the
AssociateEditorshaveaccomplished
the
near-miraculous: the backlog for the.iEEE
Transactions on Automatic Control is now
zero. so the delay following receipt of the
final manuscript from the author is only that
time required to do the typesetting and printing.
Membership
It is my duty to report to you on the state
of the IEEE Control Systems Society. This
duty is a pleasant one, as most of the news is
encouraging.
tion between chapters and the Society. One
suggestion was to help in obtaining speakers
for local chapters. This suggestion fit in well
with some of our plans. Jim Melsa and the
Chairman of the Chapter Activities Committee, Craig Sims. have prepared a plan for a
Distinguished Lecture Series. which was approved by the Board of Governors at its
meeting on December 10, 1985. This plan,
involving some cost-sharing of speakers, will
begin during 1986. Chapter chairmen will
receive all of the pertinent information.
Initiatives
Thereallymajornewsconcerning
the
IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control has
I E E E Control Systems Mogozine