Wished EEE had a more expansive view of research.
FERNANDO CORBATÓ: — which we did. That was our goal. And to form a nucleus of computer science at MIT. Until then, computer specialists had been sprinkled around in various groups and places.
ERROL MORRIS: And still no computer science department —
FERNANDO CORBATÓ: Most of the key leaders came out of the electrical engineering department. But electrical engineering at MIT was a peculiar department. It had a very, very broad view of what its charter was. It had everything, from biologists to material scientists — a rich tradition of being very spread out in its research directions. And so, most of the people that joined us, Project MAC, were part of electrical engineering, but not all. And Fano asked everyone to make their principal office in the same building where the computer was. This is turning into a longer story than I expected.
via Did My Brother Invent E-Mail With Tom Van Vleck? Part Four – NYTimes.com.