Foundational Strategic Technologies and Systems

ARPA research played a central role in launching the “information revolution,” including developing or furthering much of the conceptual basis for ARPANET, a pioneering network for sharing digital resources among geographically separated computers. Its initial demonstration in 1969 led to the Internet, whose world-changing consequences unfold on a daily basis today. A seminal step in this sequence took place in 1968 when ARPA contracted BBN Technologies to build the first routers, which one year later enabled ARPANET to become operational.

As part of a ARPA-funded experiment to find better ways for computer users to interact with computers, Douglas Engelbart of SRI, who would later work on the DARPA-sponsored ARPANET project (the Internet’s precursor), invented the computer mouse The first mouse was carved out of wood and had just one button.