Project History

In 1996, The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a proposal to establish HoTNET: A History of Technology Network.   The idea was to use web-base technology to capture the history of recent technology. 

The first phase of the HotNet Project, Science & Technology in the Making, started in February 1997 and included the following schools and projects:

Participants	Projects
Brown University	New York Blackouts
Stanford University	Computer Mouse
MIT	Boston Central Artery/Tunnel
UC, Berkley	Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)
UCLA	Electric Vehicle Drivers and Owners

A second phase of the HotNet Project, the Geosciences Memory Online project, started in July 1997, and includes the following professional organizations and projects:

Participants	Projects
American Institute of Physics	General Circulation Models Greenland Ice Sheet Project
American Geophysical Union	Black Smokers Origin of Earth's Magnetic Field Solar Variability and Climatic Change
American Meteorological Society	GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment (GATE) The First IPCC Report 1970 Clean Air Act

The Histories of Engineering projects began in February 1998 and include the following organizations:

Participants	Projects
American Institute of Chemical Engineers	Development of Process Simulation Software POP! Changes in Beverage Containers, 1965-1990
American Society of Civil Engineers	Washington, DC Metro Transit System Trans-Alaska Pipeline
American Society of Mechanical Engineers	Finite Element Analysis Artificial Heart Pump

In the Spring of 1998, the following groups joined forces to participate in Linking the Past to the Future:

• Institute of Electrical and Electronic (IEEE) History Center at Rutgers University

• National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

• Computing History Museum, Computer Science and Information Systems Department at American University (current site)