Dr. Paul Iversen, Associate Professor and Chair of the Classics Department, has won an award from the National Endowment for the Humanities to research the world’s oldest known computing device, the Antikythera Mechanism. This device, discovered in 1901 off the coast of a Greek island, was found to be an ancient time-keeping mechanism.

The Daily reports, “through the project, Iversen will examine the inscriptions on the Antikythera Mechanism and analyze its calendar. He hopes that a better understanding of these will shed light onto previously unknown aspects of the mechanism as well as ancient Greek history and religion.”

Read more about the history of this device and Dr. Iversen’s project here.