Final answer:
Ivan Sutherland designed Sketchpad, a groundbreaking device that allowed interaction with a graphical user interface using a light pen, around the time when technologies were shifting from electrical to computational.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ivan Sutherland designed Sketchpad, a device that allowed users to interact with a user interface (UI) with a light pen. Sketchpad is considered a pioneering graphical user interface and an early example of object-oriented programming.
It was one of the first programs to enable drawing and manipulating geometric figures on a computer screen directly, which was a significant breakthrough during the time when the computer industry was transitioning from electrical to computational technology.
Rath's work using cathode ray tubes (CRT), the predecessor of current liquid crystal displays (LCD), illustrates the type of technology that Sutherland's Sketchpad would have used in its time.