Ask HN: What makes Berkeley (UC) great? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What makes Berkeley (UC) great?

3 points_nato_4 comments

I am having a heated debate with my friend, and we are a little young to recall where Berkeley fits in the history of Engineering, relative to schools like Stanford and MIT (among others). For those who have lived through 60+ years of this evolution, why does Berkeley matter, and why is this school significant in the grand scheme of it all.

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Just did some googling; you may find this article to be interesting:

http://www.dailycal.org/2012/11/16/a-look-back-at-uc-berkele...

"Flush with federal funding after World War II, UC Berkeley commenced an unprecedented rush of computer science development that hasn’t ceased since. The computer mouse, digital libraries, the Apple desktop computer, course webcasts and online databases can all be traced back to UC Berkeley faculty"

Also, this article describes why computer science developed as a discipline at some schools but not others: http://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/107684

Both articles found by googling "berkeley computer science history"

Does it really matter? I go to UC Berkeley right now, and it's not the legacy that's important to me. It's the state of the university today. The legacy is only important to me insofar as the legacy affects the current state of affairs.

Wise words. Institutions peak and trough. People get caught up in the storied history of past institutions (myself included). Rationally, what matters is the now. If you are at an institution that was once amazing but is now a shadow of its former self, you need to understand that. Leaders of such "fallen institutions" would like to do nothing better than confound the issue and tout how great their faculty/scientists once were. In the language of my old country there is a saying "mera baap badshah tha". This translates to "my father was a king". This phrase is meant to point out one cannot rest on the laurels of the past generation.

All this said, I still have a high regard for Berkeley CS. Their systems research program/faculty is world class. Also, kinda cool that they have special parking for nobel prize winners. When I saw that, I wondered if Turing award winners could park there :-p

Anyone remember BSD?

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