10 unsung heros of technology

When it comes to technology there's plenty of unsung heroes out there. We've rounded up the ten that made the most impact on our lives.

Jack Nilles

Nilles coined the term 'telecommunting' in the early 70s while working at the University of Southern California. He founded the management consulting firm, JALA International, in 1980 and left USC in 1989 to devote full time to JALA.

Telecommuting isn't rocket science, but Nilles is, in fact, a rocket scientist who designed space vehicles for the US Air Force and NASA.

Doug Engelbart

Engelbart is an early internet pioneer. In 1969, ARPANET's first transmission was between nodes at Leonard Kleinrock's lab at UCLA and Engelbart's lab at Stanford. A philosopher, scientist and inventor, he'll always be known as the father of the mouse, which he patented in 1970.

He never received any royalties, however. His patent expired in 1987, before the personal computer revolution. Today, at 83, he heads the Bootstrap Institute.

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NEXT PAGE: Gary Thuerk and John Cioffi

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3. The father of telecommuting and the inventor of the mouse
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