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.

In the 1960s and early 1970s ARPA funded Interdisciplinary Laboratories (IDLs) at a dozen universities, helping to create a catalytic new research field known as materials science and engineering.

ARPA research played a central role in launching the Information Revolution. The agency developed and furthered much of the conceptual basis for the ARPANET—prototypical communications network launched nearly half a century ago—and invented the digital protocols that gave birth to the Internet.

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.