ACUHO-I News Blog

We all know an untold number of fantastic, life-changing ideas are born in residence halls. Of course, we also know a dramatically smaller number of those ideas make it past the idea phase. (We also know that a good number of those ideas might end up requiring the involvement of local authorities, but that’s a topic for another story.)

A new book, though, has captured the locations where scientific ideas were born and then later flourished into world-renowned businesses, technologies, and products. The Geek Atlas: 128 Places Where Science & Technology Comes Alive shows readers where the world’s largest science museum is or where one can find a descendant of Newton’s apple tree among others. In true geek fashion, the book even includes site latitudes and longitudes for GPS devices.

But beyond that, as part of this techy-tour, the book includes the residence hall rooms of those who would later become common names in the IT world. Among the book’s lists are:

• Tech mecca No. 10: Room 2713, Dobie Hall, University of Texas — Austin, Texas
  This is where Michael Dell started his mail-order computer business in 1984.
  
• Tech mecca No. 11: Kirkland House, Harvard University — Cambridge, Massachusetts
  On the third-floor here, Mark Zuckerberg (along with classmates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes) dreamed up Facebook in 2004. A housing officer’s job hasn’t been the same since.
• Tech mecca No. 12: Lyman Residence Hall, Stanford University — Stanford, California
  In 1997 this hall actually housed the first Google server farm.

What famous events and/or students once called your residence halls home? Share in the comments section or tell us in an e-mail and maybe your hall will be featured in a future blog post.