By Erin Macnab
When Brian Kernighan (6T4) encountered his first computer, a lumbering IBM 650, he was in his second year of Engineering Physics — a program that in his words was, “for kids who were good at math and thought they might be engineers but didn’t know what kind.” As a young man, working with one of the first ever (giant) computers would be a transformative experience for both him and the world of programming. Little did he realize that years later he would be known as a pioneer of programming languages (AWK & AMPL) central to our boundless technology driven generation.