What is the most important invention of the last century?

Frederick Fernandez, EECS senior

The transistor. Everything today is electronic, and the basis of electronics is the transistor.

Borhan Oskoorouchi, IEOR senior

I’d say electricity and the telephone, but those may be more than 100 years ago. In the last 20 years, it’s definitely been the Internet.

Ming Chun, EECS Ph.D. student

Robotics. There’s a lot of research going on in this area, and I think it will be quite useful.

Beth Lopour, ME Ph.D. student

The computer. It’s had a huge impact on not only how we do things, but the speed at which we do them.

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