"What's going on?" she asked a student leaning against his bike.

"Al Gore. You know, ENIAC."

Flying above the nearby intersection, the ENIAC banner, commemorating the giant machine that spawned the computing revolution, snapped in the breeze above Walnut Street. The crowd waited quietly for the vice president to exit the Moore Building, where he had switched on a portion of the original ENIAC.

As most people at Penn know by now, Vice President Gore came to campus Feb. 14 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of ENIAC, the world's first large-scale, general-purpose, all-electronic digital computer, which was built at the University's Moore School of Engineering and Science.

Mr. Gore served as honorary chairman of the ENIAC 50th anniversary, and his visit to Penn marked the high point in a year-long celebration of events that commemorate both the history of the computer and its continuing impact on education, science, business, communications, the arts and culture.

The vice president's 45-minute speech was peppered with wide-ranging references--from Fred Flintstone to inductive and deductive reasoning, to logarithmically processed bits of information and "distributed intelligence."

To drive home his key point--that federal funding of scientific research should be maintained rather than cut, as the Republican Congress has proposed--Mr. Gore frequently repeated the lyric, "You can't start a fire without a spark," from Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark."

The vice president used the line to illustrate the significance of ENIAC, which was developed with government funds to speed up artillery-firing calculations in the 1940s. He said, "ENIAC and the revolution it ignited ... changed our world.

"Government supplied the initial flicker," Mr. Gore said, "and individuals and companies have provided the creativity and innovation that kindled that spark into a blaze of progress and productivity that's the envy of the world."

The vice president said, "I very strongly disagree with congressional leadership" that would reduce research funding by one-third by the year 2002 while increasing funds for military research. "This crowd talks like George Jetson. But they support policies more appropriate for Fred Flintstone," he said, adding that he supports military research, but not at the expense of civilian research projects or student loans.

Federal research dollars should continue to provide the spark for technologies and businesses that will "create jobs, build businesses and lift lives."

In introducing Mr. Gore, Penn President Judith Rodin cited his leadership as "one of the first in Washington to recognize the role of the information revolution." Dr. Rodin presented him with the University of Pennsylvania Medal for Distinguished Achievement.

The vice president's speech demonstrated his familiarity and comfort with the technology of the information age. He noted that humans have "low bit rates but high resolution." In referring to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he mentioned three of its most successful results: e-mail, the Internet, and Mosaic software used to surf the World Wide Web. The government, he stressed, provided the seed money that led to these developments.

He said that he uses e-mail to communicate with his own children who are away at college. And he held up a musical Valentine card to demonstrate how far computing technology has progressed since ENIAC. The tiny microprocessor in the card, he pointed out, held about as much computing power as ENIAC had.

The vice president linked the invention of the computer in Philadelphia with the U.S. Constitution that was written across town over two centuries ago. "The Constitution created here in this city made the concept of representative democracy possible," he said, and now--since ENIAC--there has been "a quantum increase" in the ability of the average citizen to participate in self-government. Calling the Constitution "the most brilliant piece of software," he said that modern technology launched by ENIAC "will now empower our citizens in brand-new ways."

Mr. Gore's speech was not entirely high-tech and serious. As he and Dr. Rodin walked on stage, the Penn Band struck up Paul Simon's song, "You Can Call Me Al."

The smiling vice president waved to the band in the balcony, placed his palms together, bowed slightly and nodded a silent "thank you." Mr. Gore began his speech with some self-mocking humor. Referring to the recent frigid weather, he said, "People who don't know me better thought I was frozen stiff." He then stood immobile for several moments while the audience of about 1,500 Penn students, faculty, schoolchildren and honored guests chuckled.

He also told the audience that his wife, Tipper, had surprised him upon his arrival in Philadelphia that morning. Mrs. Gore, who was traveling on the West Coast, had arranged for a live Valentine, dressed in a red satin costume, to greet him at the airport.

After concluding his speech with a call to "keep the American fire of creativity blazing" by continuing to invest in research and innovation, Vice President Gore joined Dr. Rodin and Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell for a stroll across campus to the Moore Building to reboot a portion of ENIAC. On the way, they posed for a photo op in front of the Benjamin Franklin statue at College Hall.

Dignitaries, politicians and several "ENIAC pioneers" crammed a small room at the Moore Building for the switch-on. Upon instructions from Tim Rauenbusch (SEAS and Wharton '96), Mr. Gore pushed two white buttons: one lit the number "46" when the computer added the digits that marked the years of its creation, and another, "96," for the anniversary year.

Just before pushing the buttons, the vice president joked, "This is one small step for man ... no, no." But he again used the occasion to bridge Philadelphia, "the birthplace of representative democracy" with Penn where ENIAC "sparked the information age."

During the switch-on ceremony, which was simulcast to several on-campus locations, Dr. Rodin praised the vice president as "a visionary and a realist ... the kind of leader who charts a new horizon and the process that will get us there."

She also introduced Unisys CEO James Unruh, co-chair of the ENIAC anniversary celebration, and Mayor Rendell, who pointed out that the City of Philadelphia has joined the computer age with its own home page on the World Wide Web.

Congressman Robert Walker (R-Pa), chairman of the House Science Committee, told the group that he wanted to coin a new phrase, "Since ENIAC, there's no turning back." Science and technology, he pointed out, are empowering people and creating power in many places, not only in government and business.

The switch-on ceremony was an occasion to recognize some of those pioneers who participated in the development of ENIAC, such as Herman Goldstine, an Army technical liaison to the ENIAC project, and the widows of ENIAC creators John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert.

At 2:15 p.m. the vice president emerged from the Moore Building and waved to a waiting crowd that applauded from the other side of the street. With a nod to Secret Service agents, Mr. Gore strode across 33rd Street to greet the crowd, many of whom were engineering students. As he made his way to the corner of Walnut Street, the vice president shook hands as several people called out "Congratulations" and "Thanks for coming." Once he entered his limousine and the crowd dispersed, one student commented to her friend, "Cool. I wish I'd brought my camera."

A Penn employee, walking back to his office, told a co-worker, "I just met what's-his-name, Al Gore."

The 50th anniversary of ENIAC drew attention from the three major networks and local stations, which broadcast segments Wednesday evening. That morning, USA Today published a page-one story with photographs of the original ENIAC and Electrical Engineering Professor Jan Van der Spiegel holding a microprocessor to demonstrate that a tiny black dot now contains the same amount of computing power as ENIAC had.

Almost 100 members of the print and broadcast media covered the ENIAC events. All had to be credentialed in advance by the White House press office. Secret Service agents, with bomb-sniffing dogs, "swept" cameras and other equipment--including the band's instruments and cases--before the vice president's appearance.

In the week leading up to the anniversary, the University's Office of News and Public Affairs was besieged with ENIAC queries. A Johannesburg radio station wanted a live interview. The call was relayed to SEAS Dean Gregory Farrington.

Other calls came from the BBC, Der Speigel, a Dutch television station and several television stations in Canada. The Washington Post, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report and "Good Morning America" reported ENIAC's anniversary.

And the worldwide attention wasn't limited to the media. Netizens from around the globe also showed interest in the event.

Thanks to the MBONE (multicast backbone), anyone with Internet access, a Unix workstation and the appropriate software was able to watch the vice president's speech in real time.

"The MBONE is a virtual network that is superimposed on top of the Internet," explained Paul T. Keener, information systems specialist for the Department of Physics and Astronomy. "That is, it uses the Internet as its physical transport, but it uses its own routers and routing mechanism."

At any given time, 60 to 70 people watched Mr. Gore's speech via the MBONE. As some viewers logged off, others logged on. Approximately 100 Internauts saw part or all of the speech. These Internauts hailed from Sweden, Germany, England, Japan and across the United States.

Some members of the Penn community also used the MBONE to witness the event. MBONE networks were set up in 3401 Walnut St. and the David Rittenhouse Labs. A third MBONE network was connected in the Moore ENIAC Museum.

The ENIAC celebration was a smash, but that was a look back at what happened then. In Houston Hall's Bodek Lounge, Penn students, faculty and staff offered several hundred interested visitors a glimpse of what's happening now.

The Educational Technology Showcase featured 26 technology projects from 16 University schools and offices, plus one surprise--the brand-new Web site for the City of Philadelphia. There was something for everyone: gee-whiz digital animation from the Graduate School of Fine Arts; a restored, groundbreaking experiment in optical neurocomputing from the engineering school; self-paced course work and on-line references for School of Veterinary Medicine students; an integrated software package from Wharton Computing that answers the all-important question, "How do I get to my e-mail?"; as well as several others.

One of the most impressive projects involved some pretty heavy work: data mining. It functions much as it sounds: Computers pull chunks of information from enormous databases, process the pieces in "embarrassingly parallel" fashion, then combine the results. Particle physics experiments generate just such mountains of data, and Physics Professor Robert Hollebeek, working with counterparts at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Maryland, has assembled a virtual supercomputer to scale those mountains.

The "computer" is actually a scalable network of clusters of computers at each of the three sites, connected by ultrafast, high-capacity lines. Users at any of the three schools can draw on as many or as few of the connected computers as they need to perform experiments, research and data analysis. The National Scalable Cluster Project, as the network is called, draws on previous work in distributed systems and networked supercomputing at Penn, and went live last summer. It has already caused a sensation in the supercomputing world.

To top off Wednesday's festivities, a banquet was held in ENIAC's honor. A crowd of 1,100 people from the University, the city and the region came to the Marriott Hotel to wish the first computer a happy golden anniversary.

Through speeches and multimedia demonstrations, guests were shown the evolution of computers. A video demonstrated how the technology progressed over the years and included clips of the pioneers who made ENIAC possible.

One of the evening's highlights came after the first course. Amid a blast of lasers and colorful images, Loren E. Smith, chief marketing officer and senior vice president of the U.S. Postal Service, unveiled a new stamp commemorating computer technology.

For Penn, the stamp was a reward for a great deal of time and work. Several years ago, the University submitted a proposal for a stamp dedicated to the computer age. The proposal was sent to the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee. The committee, which is independent of the U.S. Postal Service, is deluged with stamp suggestions each year. The committee accepted Penn's idea, but the stamp's design went through several creative changes. Until its unveiling Wednesday night, its final appearance was a mystery.

The chosen design depicts a brain covered with small circuit boards and binary coding. The 32-cent stamp has not yet been printed but is expected to be available later this year.

While the Postal Service marked computing's past, Dr. Stuart Zweben, president of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), James Unruh, of Unisys Corp., and William Wulf, chairman of the Computer Sciences and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council spoke of computing's future. The evening ended with a spectacular light show.

Organizing sponsors included Penn, the ACM, the City of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, the Free Library of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau, Temple University, Unisys, and the U.S. Army.

While the vice president's appearance dominated the ENIAC anniversary, many other events have been held and will continue to run. The papers of ENIAC co-inventor John Mauchly went on display Wednesday at the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library; the exhibit will continue through March 25.

Celebrating a half-century of computing has not been confined to the technological, scientific scene. The computer's impact on art and culture is being acknowledged throughout the year, as computer-generated and computer-inspired works are featured on campus and across the city in connection with the ENIAC anniversary.

The Institute for Contemporary Art is featuring "Withershins," a prize-winning interactive installation by video artist Gary Hill. As visitors wander through an aluminum maze, spoken text is triggered and translated into sign language. On March 19, ICA will present lectures and demonstrations on "Computers and the Creative Mind." On the same day, Movement Theater International will feature movement and performances that use technology in their creation.

Art that employs the computer as both medium and studio is on display at Nexus Gallery, 137 N. Second St., through Feb. 24. Also in Olde City,