It Came from University Research: The Spreadsheet!

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 12:32:05 -0500

Did you know?
Love them or hate them, spreadsheets are an important part of any office. Dan Bricklin was sitting in a classroom at Harvard Business School when he had this idea to create an “electronic spreadsheet” or “Calcu-ledger” – a way for managers to do complex accounting using a computer or project how their revenues might grow under different scenarios. Bricklin, a 1973 MIT graduate, and fellow MIT alum Bob Frankston rented time late at night on an MIT mainframe computer (it cost $1 an hour to use) to write the program that would become VisiCalc. It led to programs like Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel.

Undergraduate Research Awards (URA) provide up to $1500 for your research or creative work. Applications are due by Feb. 16 and are available at :

ur.umbc.edu/ura