So I was digging around some time back, and noticed these lines in the *BSD "Computer" calendar file: 06/30 First advanced degree on computer related topic: to H. Karamanian, Temple Univ., Phila, 1948, for symbolic differentiation on the ENIAC Since I'm attending Temple, this caught my attention. However, a search for "H. Karamanian" didn't turn up anything, so I gave up. Recently, I tried again and found this: http://diamond.temple.edu/record=b1850797 In short, the name in calendar.computer is misspelled, and the date is wrong too! The correct year is 1953, at least according to that record. (I haven't looked at the actual thesis yet.) Whether this is indeed the "First advanced degree on computer related topic" is something I'm not sure about — a cursory search didn't turn up any others that predate this one, but I didn't search very far. --David R