WEBVTT

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(electronic music)

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- [Narrator] Computer
scientist Leonard Kleinrock

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arrived at UCLA in 1963

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fresh from receiving his PhD from MIT.

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Kleinrock's research
was on data networking

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and packet switching.

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- Well, the underlying
technology of the internet

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is packet switching.

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That's the way your messages,
your videos, your voice,

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your pictures, your data are transmitted

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in little chunks called packets.

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So a long messages broken
up into smaller packets,

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each packet is addressed
and sent through the network

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like a bunch of postcards
carrying a long letter

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independently making their
way through the network

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arriving at the other end,
being put back together again

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and delivered to you as an entity,

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as a longer message.

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- [Narrator] In the late 1960s

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the Advanced Research Project Agency

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decided that UCLA under
Kleinrock's leadership

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would become the first
node of the ARPANET,

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a fledgling network of computers connected

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to various research
universities across the country.

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The first switch known as an
interface message processor

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arrived on Labor Day weekend, 1969.

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The switch was connected
to a host computer at UCLA

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on September 2nd.

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- You might say at September 2nd

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that infant internet, that one node

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took its first breath of
life in that it was born

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and met the outside world

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which was in the form of
our time-shared computer.

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But one node does not make a network.

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- [Narrator] One month later,

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a second switch was delivered to

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Stanford Research Institute.

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Then on October 29th, 1969,

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right here at UCLA on the
3rd floor of Boelter Hall

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Kleinrock's group attempted
to log into the node

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at Stanford Research Institute.

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This would be the first
message sent on the internet.

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- Now to login we have to type L-O-G

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and the remote computer is smart enough

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to know what we're trying to do.

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It types the I-N for us.

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So I had Charlie Klein
at my end and Mr. Duval

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at the other end, programmers,

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and instructed Charlie
to type in the L-O-G

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and he had a telephone
connection with Duval.

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So Charlie typed L, he said,

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"Did you get the L?"

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"Yep, got the L."

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Typed the O, "Got the O?"

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"Got the O."

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Typed the G, "Get the G?"

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(clap hands)
Crash!

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The SRI computer crashed.

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So the first message ever
on the internet was lo.

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As in, lo and behold.

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We didn't plan it but we
could not have come up with

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a better message.

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Short, prophetic, planning
what the future would be.

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- [Narrator] In the early
days of the internet.

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Kleinrock directed the
Network Measurement Center

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at UCLA Engineering,

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designed to test, measure and stress

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the limits of the emerging network.

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- We tried to break the network.

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We sent lots of traffic
to individual sites.

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We sucked up a lot of traffic ourselves.

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We basically tried to send
strange messages, heavy messages,

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to test the outer envelope of the network.

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That was our job.

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And we did.

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We found that just what
the network was capable of,

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where it would break,

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what we would need to
extend its capabilities.

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- [Narrator] In 45 years at UCLA,

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Leonard Kleinrock has
graduated 47 PhD students

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and more are still in the pipeline.

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- Getting a PhD is learning
how to do research.

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And so, as their mentor,
as their supervisor

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it's my responsibility
to make sure they have

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the right approach to doing research.

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We must teach our students

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to take a longterm view on research,

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not a short-term, narrow view,

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but a longterm, broad view, innovative,

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dangerous and exciting.

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That's the kind of mentality
you want to carry on

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generation after generation.

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- [Narrator] For his pioneering work

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on the technological
foundation of the internet

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and for mentoring generations

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of outstanding computer scientists,

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Leonard Kleinrock received
the National Medal of Science

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in September, 2008.

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The metal is the nation's
highest scientific honor.

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For more than 40 years, UCLA
professor Leonard Kleinrock

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has been a leader, an innovator,
a scholar and a mentor

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in the computer science field.

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His pioneering internet
work at UCLA Engineering

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has a global reach and will
have a long-lasting impact.

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The UCLA Henry Samueli
School of Engineering

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and Applied Science, the
birthplace of the internet.

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(electronic music ends)