He built his first computer in a college dorm and it exploded when a classmate stepped on the power cord. A few years later, working nights after his day job at Hewlett-Packard, Steve Wozniak designed the machine that started the personal computer industry, before the company built to sell it even existed.

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Wozniak grew up in San Jose with an early obsession with electronics and math. He enrolled at the University of Colorado Boulder, but left after being expelled for hacking the school’s computer system. He returned to the Bay Area, attended De Anza College briefly, then transferred to UC Berkeley, where he built his first computer, and where he was better known on campus for elaborate pranks and gadgets than for his engineering talent. He took a leave from Berkeley and worked at several small electronics firms before landing a job designing calculators at Hewlett-Packard. It was there, in 1975, that he began designing his own microcomputer on the side.

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Building the Apple I and Apple II:

A year later came the Apple II, which paired Wozniak’s engineering with Jobs’ design sensibility and became the first personal computer to succeed commercially outside hobbyist circles — complete with a built-in keyboard and color display support.

Wozniak didn’t stop at the machine itself. He went on to design the 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and pieces of Apple’s early operating system and software, work that helped move personal computing from a niche pursuit into something ordinary households could use.

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Steve Wozniak’s legacy in personal computing

Wozniak officially left day-to-day work at Apple in 1985, the same year he and Jobs received the National Medal of Technology from President Reagan for sparking the birth of the personal computer industry. He went back to Berkeley in 1981 to finish the engineering degree he’d left unfinished, graduating in 1986. Since then, he’s founded several companies — including Wheels of Zeus and, decades later, Woz U, a technology education platform — and spent much of his time and money supporting hands-on tech education in schools.

He remains one of the most recognized engineers of the personal computer era: proof that the machine came first, and the company came after.

Quick facts about Steve Wozniak

• Designed the Apple I in 1975 while working at Hewlett-Packard
• Co-founded Apple Computer with Steve Jobs in 1976
• Designed the Apple II, the first commercially successful personal computer
• Holds four U.S. patents, including the 3.5-inch floppy disk drive
• Received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation (1985) and the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award (1979)
• Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2000)
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