This thesis paper introduced Boole's work into electrical engineering (tying Boolean logic directly into digital circuit design & analysis. contrary to the prevailing ad-hoc design of the era), as per the parent link.
It represents one of the two or three veritable masterpieces Shannon left this world; the other(s) being his seminal works in Information Theory, and Cryptography (were it to be considered separately).
My apologies - important revision to the above comment:
This famous M.S. thesis was submitted by Shannon at MIT in August 1937, not at the University of Michigan as per the parent comment. Shannon had completed dual bachelor's degrees the previous year at UMich, before attending MIT. [1][2]
The article mentions Shannon having worked under Vannevar Bush, who founded Raytheon, invented the concept of hypertext, and drove forward the creation of the National Science Foundation, among many other things.
Here's a link to "A symbolic analysis of relay and switching circuits", Claude Shannon's M.S. 1937 thesis at UMich: http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/11173
This thesis paper introduced Boole's work into electrical engineering (tying Boolean logic directly into digital circuit design & analysis. contrary to the prevailing ad-hoc design of the era), as per the parent link.
It represents one of the two or three veritable masterpieces Shannon left this world; the other(s) being his seminal works in Information Theory, and Cryptography (were it to be considered separately).
Edit: thesis date 1936->1937 [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Symbolic_Analysis_of_Relay_a...