The cell phone revolutionized how we communicate with each other, but its origins are extremely different from the device you use to talk, text and even surf the internet with on a daily basis. Its roots could be traced back to the early 1970s when the head of Motorola’s communications systems division, Martin Cooper was tasked with developing a device that would make the up and coming car phone obsolete technology. On April 3, 1973, Cooper made the very first handheld cell phone call while standing on Sixth Avenue outside the New York City Hilton in midtown Manhattan to engineer Joel Engel, head of AT&T’s rival project. In a conversation with Al Pisano, Dean of UC San Diego’s Jacobs School of Engineering, Cooper reflects on the past fifty years including what it took to develop the world’s first cellular telephone, the impact it’s had on the world and the future of smartphone technology. Series: "Computer Science Channel" [Science] [Show ID: 38819]