Professor receives 2 awards for technology book

Assistant professor of informatics and computing Eden Medina’s book “Cybernetic Revolutionaries: Technology and Politics in Allende’s Chile” has been awarded both the Computer History Museum Prize and the Edelstein Prize, according to a press release issued last week.

The book examines the role of early computer networks in Chile’s economic transition to socialism during the  mid-1900s.

“To understand the dynamics of technological development — and perhaps  thereby do a better job of encouraging it — we must broaden our view of where technological innovation occurs,” Medina said in the press release.

The Edelstein Prize, presented by the Society for the History of Technology, is awarded to the author of an “outstanding book in the history of technology published during the preceding three years,” the release said.

According to the press release, Medina’s work is the first book about computer history to receive the Prize. 

— Kirsten Clark