Information Sciences Institute

Keith Uncapher

DARPA logo

USC Bovard Hall

The Information Sciences Institute has a history of solving difficult problems – beginning with its own creation.

In 1972, technology maverick Keith Uncapher received an unusual offer. His work at Santa Monica, California-based think tank RAND Corporation, where Uncapher directed the computer science division, had drawn the attention of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Create and lead a center for emerging technologies, said DARPA officials, and the agency would provide financial support.

DARPA was particularly intrigued by Uncapher’s work in packet switching, a communications technology in which digital messages are broken down, transmitted over a network and reassembled at their destination. One of those in the vanguard of packet switching research at labs and universities, Uncapher realized early that the technology –later fundamental to the Internet – could revolutionize computer communications.

Uncapher proposed the new center to RAND. But RAND, which saw its mandate largely as public policy and research, declined. Uncapher next approached the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), where he was told a decision would take 15 months.

He then appealed to George Bekey, chair of Electrical Engineering Systems at the University of Southern California and a consultant to Rand. Bekey helped arrange for Uncapher to meet with USC Dean of Engineering Zohrab Kaprielian, who wielded considerable influence – and who thought Uncapher’s concept had tremendous promise.