Acton spent three years at the U.S.
National Bureau of Standards' Institute for Numerical Analysis at the
University of California at Los Angeles, where he worked on a machine called SWAC (Standards Western Automatic Computer), one of the first digital computers. While there, his group worked on military weapons, contributing to systems such as the
U-2 spy plane and the
Nike anti-aircraft missile. He also became an expert and teacher on the
IAS Machine, another of the first computers, which was located at the Institute for Advanced Study. During this time, Acton worked with other important figures in early computing, including Princeton Professor
John Tukey, who coined the terms "software" and "bit," and
Thomas Kurtz, who went on to co-invent the computer language
BASIC. Acton moved to the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1955. In 1963, he made the first of two extended visits to the
Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India, where he helped establish the school's early computing facilities and courses. He initially stayed for one year, and he returned in 1967 to teach and offer organizational advice. As computing evolved, Princeton's electrical engineering department added "computer science" to its name before the Department of Computer Science became its own department in 1985. Acton retired as professor of computer science in 1989. ==Books==