Philip Emeagwali “Father of the internet” invented a formula that spawned the Internet

Philip Emeagwali is often referred to as the “Father of the internet” because of his ground-breaking work that led to the development of supercomputers and the internet as we know it today. All the innovations in the world have been made by very intelligent men and women. Africans have impacted on the world immensely in various aspects including film, music, innovation, talent, science, and technology and Philip Emeagwali is one of them.

As a result of his academic success, the Nigerian-born engineer, mathematician, and computer scientist was offered a scholarship by Oregon State University in the United States at the young age of 17. However, it was during his doctoral program at the University of Michigan’s Civil Engineering, his journey to becoming one of the greatest minds in the information age began with his discovery of a formula.

In 1982, Emeagwali invented a formula (no scientist could understand at the time) that allows Supercomputers powered by thousands of processors to perform the world’s fastest calculations. His discovery inspired the reinvention of computers into supercomputers (the technology that spawned the internet) that utilise thousands of processors.

His discovery was inspired by the 20 grand challenges facing the world in the area of science and engineering, including the petroleum reservoir simulation challenge. One of the major challenges facing the petroleum industry was the difficulty in targeting the exact location of oil in reservoirs, which resulted in millions of dollars in lost revenue. The genius realized that he could use the power of supercomputers to simulate reservoirs and predict the flow of oil, which would help oil companies save millions of dollars in lost revenue.

In 1922, Lewis Fry Richardson wrote a science fiction article Weather Prediction by Numerical Process suggesting that 60,000 mathematicians could perform a weather forecast for the entire planet. From this article, Emeagwali drew inspiration and, with the help of mathematicians Paul Fillunger and B.K. Risenkampf, he realized that instead of using a supercomputer with only 8 processors, he could use 65,536 microprocessors commonly found in desktop computers.

This decision was based on a concept that many chickens working together could be more efficient and powerful than a small number of oxen. By utilizing this system, the African Giant was able to perform essential computations that would have been impossible otherwise. It just goes to show that sometimes thinking outside of the box can lead to innovative solutions.

To achieve this, his nine formulas application used computational fluid dynamics for oil-reservoir modeling. He utilized a device developed by thinking machines that could interconnect up to 65,536 microprocessors, each having its own RAM processing bit by bit. He used this device to connect thousands of processors and simulate oil reservoirs, which culminated in the development of the world’s fastest supercomputer that could perform 3.1 million calculations per second.

Seven years later, it was discovered that 10% of a large number of parable computers had been paid for by the petroleum industry. Besides that, it was also running through the theory of connecting computers over the world to enable a scalable network in which it used in processing information. Base on the relation with the exciting internet backbone, the World Wide Web (www) would occur as a new finding giving birth to communication and strengthening commerce, this gives an outstanding and high performance in computer applications.

Emeagwali’s contributions to computer science didn’t end with the development of supercomputers. He also explored new theories and concepts for computer design, many of which were based on nature. One of these concepts was his hyper ball computer, which was designed based on the honeycomb tessellation model used by bees.

He realized that bees could be efficient when developing their honeycombs, and he used this principle to develop a computer that would work optimally. He believed that his hyper ball computer would enable weather forecasting far into the future and also help to simulate global warming trends to address the problem.

Philip Emeagwali stated, “The Connection Machines owned by the United States government laboratories were made available to me because they were considered impossible to program and there was no great demand for them at that time”. While adding “The Connection Machine was the most powerful supercomputer in the world. It is a complex supercomputer and it will take forever to completely describe how it works”.

“The Internet as we know it today did not cross my mind,” Emeagwali told TIME. “I was hypothesizing a planetary-sized supercomputer and, broadly speaking, my focus was on how the present creates the future and how our image of the future inspires the present.”

As an improvement to his previous concept, Emeagwali has developed hundreds more. He had taught around the world. He won more than 100 prizes for his work and Apple computer has used his microprocessor technology in their Power Mac G4 model.In 1991, he was named Pioneer of the Year and Scientists of the year by the National Society of Black Engineers. He also earned the Computer Scientists of the year award by the National Technical Association in 1993 with dozens of tributes. He won the 1989 Gordon Bell Prize.

He was recognized as “the father of the internet” by CNN, “the awesome hero behind the internet” by Time Magazine, and “one of the great minds of the information age” by former US President Bill Clinton.

The history of the World Wide Web is a fascinating one, filled with a multitude of mathematicians and scientists who played a crucial role in its development. As early as the 1950s, it was discovered computers could send signals to each other, but it was the ingenuity of Philip Emeagwali in 1982 that truly paved the way for the internet as we know it today. It will be his ground-breaking formula and technology that would allow everyone around the globe to access information and connect with each other at the same time, in new and exciting ways.

Find out more on the “Father of the internet” Philip Emeagwali invention here: How I invented a new supercomputer

“Africa is a continent rich in Intelligence, Exhaustive Talent, Human and Natural Resources and we are crediting the African Giant”. — Africa Giant