Antonín Svoboda (computer scientist)

In 1999, the President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel awarded him the Medal of Merit, 1st degree, in memoriam.

He worked at the University of California in Los Angeles as a professor of computer sciences, refining his theories on computer design, fault tolerance, mathematics and electrical engineering, and retired in 1977.

Svoboda left the unstable situation in Czechoslovakia in 1964, traveling first to Yugoslavia and from there to Greece, and then to the USA once more. Upon his arrival immigration officials were unmoved by his situation until he produced the medal given to him by the US Navy. Communication with certain authorities established his bona fides as a useful scientist, and he was quickly admitted to the country.

Svoboda's resistance to both Nazi Germany and, later, the USSR was a reason cited by many fleeing scientists during the 1960s from Czechoslovakia, who said he gave them the courage to dissent. His influence on computer technology is no less profound, as he was the author of one of the first books on computer science and many of the basic axioms developed in its theory were worked on by him along with many other scientists.

In 1950, he launched the Academy of Science's Institute of Mathematical Machinery, and constructed the computer known as SAPO, the world's first fault-tolerant computer design. Based on unorthodox and untried elements and designs such as electromagnetic relays and drums, its architecture was quite advanced compared to other contemporary efforts such as ENIAC.

He returned to Prague in 1946, and became the department head at Prague's CTU of the Department of Mathematics. He attempted to get tenure but initially was rebuffed, and thus in 1950 he accepted an offer from Eduard Čech, the director of the Central Institute of Mathematical Studies, to come there and set up a new institute of what was called at the time "mathematical machinery".

Svoboda arrived in the US in 1941, settling in New York City after almost a year of trials and tribulations. Svoboda participated in experiments in the Radiation Laboratory at MIT in Boston, and worked to develop a new auto-aiming targeting scope for warship anti-aircraft cannons. This was eventually developed fully as the Mark 56 Gun Fire Control System, which was mounted in the final stages of the war and was very effective in reducing the amount of damage by kamikaze airplane attacks, for which he was given a Naval Ordnance Development Award. In particular, he designed the linkage computer that was part of the Mk. 56 system. At the time, he was more proud of the design than the medal, but in later years it would come in handy.

In 1936, with war looming, Svoboda quit his positions in academia and joined the CDF and the Ministry of National Defense. Working there on a variety of projects, he was successful in vastly improving anti-aircraft artillery sights, capable of using predictive motion to "lead" a moving aircraft based on its direction and speed and adjusting the aim accordingly so that flak would hit. He worked on this project until the fall of Czechoslovakia in 1939.

Svoboda and Dolejšek worked together on several projects, including X-rays and other astronomy-related aspects, but the rapidly rising specter of what was occurring in Germany, set against the backdrop of the economic collapse during his time, made pure science difficult to pursue. Even so, Svoboda took up positions at the CTU, including becoming an assistant professor of electrical engineering. He eventually gained his PhD in 1935, working on the concepts of mathematical models in the use and transmission of electricity and current.

Antonín Svoboda (14 October 1907 – 18 May 1980) was a Czech computer scientist, mathematician, electrical engineer, and researcher. He is credited with originating the design of fault-tolerant computer systems, and with the creation of SAPO, the first Czech computer design.

Svoboda was born in Prague in 1907. Attending a series of schools, he studied at the College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU), from where he graduated in 1931. In that same year, he traveled to England briefly to study physics, but returned to Czechoslovakia to conduct research and study under Václav Dolejšek, who made very significant discoveries in X-ray spectrography.