Post 1: Intro

Mark Dean is one of the first African American inventor of our time were web technology is concern. He was inducted in the inventor’s hall of fame, he holds three of the top nine IBM patents, he also invented the first color PC and was the chief engineer of the team that built the original home/office PC  and he built the first 1 Gigahertz processor.  The reason why I chose Mark Dean is after doing some research I realized that he is the person that actually invented the PC and he is African American which is quite impressive considering the era he grew up in.

Post 2: History

Dr. Dean was a brilliant student as a child, his favorite subject was math. He was so smart that he was already taking advance level math in elementary school. During grade school he was often asked if he was really black because he was smart and during those times African Americans were not suppose to be so smart. Dean also played sports and excelled in it. After high school, Dr. Dean attended the University of Tennessee where he majored in Electronic Engineering. After graduating he was hired by IBM, during his time with IBM he enrolled at Florida Atlantic University where received his master’s degree. After his master’s degree he invented the color adapter which allows color on the PC.

Color graphics on computer has brought it closer to real life, just like colored TV.  It is much easier now to shop online and be color specific. I also think its great educationally. The gigahertz have come a long way, in 1980 when Dr. Dean built the first 1 Gigahertz, it seemed extremely fast. This year the fastest gigahertz on 8 core desktop was OVERCLOCKED hitting a speed of 8.429GHz setting a new world record.  Clearly Dr. Dean paved the way for these new up and coming inventors.

http://www.blackinventor.com/pages/mark-dean.html

Post 3: Timeline

1975-1979 University of Tennessee Knoxville

1979-1989 Engineer with IBM

2004-2008 VP and IBM Fellow-IBM Almaden Research Center

2004-now VP and IBM Fellow- IBM Research

2008- present  VP and IBM Fellow WW Research Strategy

Mark Dean is currently concentrating on developing a new IBM technology solution to be effective in Africa.  This will help to improve the continents "IT skills and computer science workforce" (Dean, 2011).  He is currently stationed in working as the chief technology officer for IBM in the Middle East and Africa which is based in Dubai.
http://asmarterplanet.com/blog/2011/08/ibm-leads-the-way-in-the-post-pc-era.html

Post 4: Interview

Post 5: Reflection

The one thing that I had found to be the most challenging was finding an inventor who was not already chosen as well as finding an inventor who had a strong impact on the technology of today.  My favorite part of the assignment was finding an African American inventor who has had a strong impact on our world through his invention of the first colored PC and the first 1 gigahertz processor.  One thing that I would do differently in my next blog would be to find more information about his history such as a detailed examination of his education, struggles that he went through, family life, and previous jobs before IBM.