John Mauchly (1907–1980) and J. Presper Eckert (1919–1995) birthed the computer industry at the University of Pennsylvania. Mauchly, the physicist, saw the machine as a universal tool for everything from weather prediction to business, while Eckert, the engineer, ensured that 17,000 vacuum tubes could work without constant failure.
They built ENIAC, the first large-scale general-purpose electronic computer and then left academia to form the first computer startup. Their UNIVAC I moved computing from secret military laboratories into the public consciousness by predicting the 1952 US election.