Below are the first 10 and last 10 pages of uncorrected machine-read text (when available) of this chapter, followed by the top 30 algorithmically extracted key phrases from the chapter as a whole.
Intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text on the opening pages of each chapter.
Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
Do not use for reproduction, copying, pasting, or reading; exclusively for search engines.
OCR for page 125
JOZSEF HATVANY
1926-1987
BY FRANCIS W. BOULGER
D R.-ING. jOZSEF HATVANY, pioneer and outstanding leader
in the field of computer-integrated manufacturing systems,
cried after a long illness on July Il. 1987, in Budapest. For
the preceding seven years he had been senior scientific
adviser to the director of the Computer and Automation
Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Hatvany macle notable contributions to progress in
the field of sensors, computer programming, and machine
too! controls. By generous cooperation with specialists in
other countries, he greatly advanced international progress
in computer-integrate(1 manufacturing systems. He was a
leading force in the early implementation of such systems
in Hungary.
Born in Budapest on November IS, 1926, to a promi-
nent family with a long intellectual background, Dr. Hatvany
received a broad education, mainly in Britain between 1938
and 1947, ant! studied physics at Trinity College at Cambridge.
On his return to Hungary he taught philosophy at the University
of Budapest but was soon arrested by the Stalinist authori-
ties, and in the jail he founcled a group to work on a(lvanced
mechanical engineering. After his rehabilitation he joined
the academic groups that started to develop computer science
ant! technology in Hungary and to establish new relations
between computers and the mechanical engineering tradi-
125
OCR for page 126
126
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
tions of the country. His research and development work
in the 1960s was concerned with sensors and feed-back de-
vices for digital control, and with industrial applications of
systems for digital path-control of machine tools. Digital
interpolators for numerically controlled machine tools also
received attention. That early research by Dr. Hatvany and
his colleagues bridged the gap between the numerical control
(NC) of machines and the incremental or pulse technique
needed to implement systems. The group developed the
first successful continuous-path NC contouring unit in Eastern
Europe. That effort was followed by the development of
programming languages, and the graphic display software
and equipment needed for electronic NC program controls.
Although that development work was described by Hungarian-
language patents and periodicals, the details were not well
known in other countries. By 1958 Dr. Hatvany had patented
a system for operating a machine too] directly by a computer
(DNC) instead of by magnetic or punched tape. Subsequently,
and probably for the first time anywhere, the Hatvany team
successfully combined computer-aided design data, NC
programming, and DNC into a manufacturing system. The
group also installed four major computerized design and
manufacturing systems in Hungary.
From 1964 until his death, Dr. Hatvany was an active
staff member of the Computer and Automation Institute of
the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He was a head of a
Department and then of the Division of Mechanical Engi-
peering until 1981 when he became a technical adviser to
the director. They were probably the most satisfying and
rewarding years of his career.
The Hungarian Academy of Sciences named Dr. Hatvany
a Candidate of Sciences (Ph.D.) in 1968. The Hungarian
Society of Mechanical Engineers gave him its GoIcl Medal
for Development of Technology in ~ 977. The State Prize
for Science and Technology, the highest Hungarian honor
for engineers, was awarcled to Dr. Hatvany by the Council
of Ministers in 1978. He received the Gold Medals for
OCR for page 127
JOZSEF HATVANY
127
Outstanding Inventions from the Hungarian Academy of
Sciences in 1978, 1980, 1981, and 1982. The Computer
Automation Institute honored him with its Benedikt Prize
in 1983, and the following year he was designated a Titular
Professor by the Budapest Technical University.
An ardent worker on behalf of his country's technical
societies, Dr. Hatvany was active in the Hungarian Society
of Mechanical Engineers and served on its Automation
Committee from 1976 to 1983. He was chairman of the
Computer/Controls Group of the Hungarian Society for
Measurement and Automation from 1978 to 1980.
Dr. Hatvany was a talented native of a small country that
has produced an unusually large proportion of able engineers
and scientists. Like many other Hungarians, he became a
leader in the worldwide technical community. His quick
mind and eclectic education and experience stimulated unusual
insights for identifying and solving important problems.
His talent for friendship and his fluency in five languages
enhanced those skills. He made good use of those assets in
fostering international cooperation through technical organi-
zations and publications. Between ~971 and ~983 he worked
hard on committees that sponsored seven international
conferences on manufacturing. and he lectured at eleven
such meetings. Dr. Hatvany was a productive member of
the International Federation for Information Processing (IF1P)
and chaired the Committee on Discrete Manufacturing from
1973 to 1979 and the committees on Computer Applica-
tions and Computer-Aided Design for even longer periods
of time.
The contributions Dr. Hatvany made to manufacturing
engineering and to international cooperation in technical
matters were widely recognized. The Soviet Union presented
him with its Gold Medal for Advancing the National Economy
in 1973. The following year he spent as a research scholar
at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis in
Austria. In 1977 IFIP honored Dr. Hatvany with its Silver
Core Award. He spent 1981 as a visiting professor at the
O .
OCR for page 128
128
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Ecole Nationale de Electronique et Informatique in Toulouse
and in 1985 received an honorary doctorate from that uni-
versity. In 1984 Dr. Hatvany was elected to membership in
the International Institute for Production Engineering Re-
search (CIRP). Members of that small but influential organization
are chosen from educators and research workers in twenty-
· .
nine countries.
The National Academy of Engineering elected Dr. Hatvany
a foreign associate, the first from Hungary, in 1985. He
was probably best known to NAE members as the senior
author of the National Research Council's worldwide survey
on the status of computer-assisted manufacturing published
in 1981. He also contributed to the 1984 publication Computer
Integration of Engineering Design and Production A National
Opportunity issued by the National Academy Press.
Dr. Hatvany was a successful leader of research and de-
velopment teams and a dedicated member of many techni-
cal committees. Such activities undoubtedly accelerated
technical progress but it is difficult to trace specific contri-
butions to particular individuals. The case for Dr. Hatvany
will be easier to establish, however, because he had a talent
for friendship. He is remembered with admiration and
deep affection by his colleagues and acquaintances. More
than twenty-five engineers from eleven countries are preparing
articles for a fozsefHatvany Memorialissue of Computers in Industry
The authors will describe his contributions and the current
status of the fields he pioneered.
OCR for page 129
OCR for page 130
Representative terms from entire chapter:
automation institute
