History

• 1945: Orley Brown, a Professor in the Math Department, establishes a lab on the fourth floor of Case Main containing an early analog computing machine called a Henrici Harmonic analyzer.
• 1956: The modern era of digital computing at Case begins with the rental of an IBM 650 and the gift of a Univac I from Sperry-Rand arranged by Case President T. Keith Glennan. Faculty and students are involved in language development, artificial intelligence, numerical methods, logical design, graphics, operating systems design and analysis, and database design and research. The department then becomes the Department of Computer Engineering and Science.
• 1960: The IBM 650 was replaced by a Burroughs B-220. This machine was much used by students for research. In fact, Donald Knuth dedicated Volume I of his famous The Art of Programming to the IBM 650. He developed the first sports analytics program for the Case basketball team on the IBM 650 and the first computer games (including tic-tac-toe) on the Burroughs B-220.
• 1962: The Univac I was replaced by the famous Univac 1107. It basically came with no software and Case faculty, staff and students wrote much of the software for it.  One of the big developments during this era was the remote interface for the Univac 1004 card reader/printer unit. These proliferated around campus in places like the campus level of Crawford Hall and even in Yost Hall. An astute observer would have seen the beginnings of distributed computing on campus.
• 1963: A major gift from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation established the Andrew R. Jennings Computing Center in memory of Martha Holden Jennings’ husband Andrew, who was European General Manager of IBM. Many alumni remember punching cards on IBM card punches and submitting programs through the Univac 1004’s located around campus.
• 1967: The university decided it needed more computing capacity and formed a computer company called Chi Corporation, which purchased a Univac 1108 and operated it in the University Circle Research Center I, across Cedar Avenue from Emerson Gym.
• 1971: The Case Western Reserve University computer engineering program becomes the first accredited program of its type in the nation. That same year, Case Western Reserve was one of the first universities connected to the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET, the National Science Foundation-funded precursor to the modern internet. ARPANET launched in 1969 as a way to streamline resources across initiatives that received funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; CWRU joined two years later.
• 1986: Although not directly associated with the Computer Engineering and Science department, the CWRU Community Telecomputing Laboratory establishes the CLEVELAND FREENET Community Computer System—a free public computer network that allows dial-in users internet access. The Freenet is the first of its kind and helps inspire an international trend.
• 1987: The Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science is approved.
• 1991: The Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science is approved; almost everything is done on Unix Workstations.
• 1996: The Computer Engineering and Science department moves to its current quarters in the Olin Building. The department creates a Windows NT lab.
• 1998: Case Western Reserve Board of Trustees approves the merger among the Systems, Control and Industrial Engineering department, the Computer Engineering and Science department and the Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics department to form a new department in the Case School of Engineering: the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
• 2003: A significant review and revision of the departmental mission, vision and objectives takes place, resulting in a restructuring of the department into divisions: the Electrical and Computer Engineering Division (ECE) and the Computer Science Division (CS). This clarifies responsibilities for curricula and gives a sense of "ownership" and responsibility within the divisions by providing an identity for faculty and programs. Faculty members may be in both divisions.
• 2011: In spring 2011, the department voted to rename the ECE division to Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (ECSE).
• 2019: As technology is ever advancing and enrollment in technology fields is growing, the EECS department decides to become two separate departments. Approved by the Board of Trustees on June 1, 2019, the former EECS department now operates as the Computer and Data Sciences (CDS) and the Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering (ECSE) departments.

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